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  • Cold Nuclear Fusion

    NB  Do not confuse Nuclear Fusion with Nuclear Fission

    Cold Nuclear Fusion

    Gale Encyclopedia of US History:

    Cold Nuclear Fusion
    Home > Library > History, Politics & Society > US History Encyclopedia

    Cold Nuclear Fusion, an intensely disputed and largely discredited method for generating thermo-nuclear fusion at room temperature conditions. In nuclear fusion hydrogen atoms merge to form one helium atom, releasing energy. In its conventional form, such as that occurring within stars and hydrogen bombs, nuclear fusion requires high pressure and temperature, which force the atoms together. Proponents of cold nuclear fusion maintain that certain catalysts can coax hydrogen atoms to fuse without extreme pressure or heat. One form of cold nuclear fusion, known as muon-catalyzed cold fusion and first suggested in the 1940s, is undisputed. The process, in which a subatomic particle known as a muon captures two hydrogen atoms and forces them to fuse, has been demonstrated in the laboratory but appears not to be feasible as an energy source. The controversial form of cold nuclear fusion was first heard of in March 1989, when two University of Utah chemists, Martin Fleisch-mann and B. Stanley Pons, reported that they had produced fusion in a test tube at room temperature by running an electrical current through heavy water, a type of water in which the hydrogen atoms are of the isotope deuterium. They claimed that the current drove the deuterium atoms into a palladium rod in the water, forcing the atoms to pack closely enough to fuse. This announcement raised a furor in the scientific community. After other researchers failed to obtain similar results with the technique, a consensus emerged that the Utah scientists had used a flawed apparatus and misinterpreted the data from the experiment. A small but vocal minority of researchers continued to pursue variations on the approach.

    Bibliography

    Huizenga, John R. Cold Fusion: The Scientific Fiasco of the Century. Rochester, N.Y.: University of Rochester Press, 1992.

    Mallove, Eugene F. Fire From Ice: Searching for the Truth behind the Cold Fusion Furor. New York: Wiley, 1991.

    —Vincent Kiernan/A. R.

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  • Nuclear Issues.

    News 8 new results for DANGER TO US NUCLEAR PLANTS
    How does Michigan’s Palisades nuclear plant rate? Among nation’s four worst
    Detroit Free Press
    The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said problems at the Palisades plant do not pose an immediate safety threat, but show that the facility has underlying issues that need to be corrected. / STAN GREGG/ASSOCIATED PRESS By Tina Lam The Palisades nuclear …
    See all stories on this topic »
    Exelon responds to group’s claim that water supply is in danger
    Braidwood Journal
    But officials with Exelon’s Braidwood Station Nuclear power plant said that while the dangers associated with nuclear power are not trivial, the report is missing the mark regarding overall safety issues for those who live near generating stations.
    See all stories on this topic »
    Iran trumpets nuclear advances, deepening standoff with West |
    Reuters
    In January it said it had successfully manufactured and tested its own fuel rods for use in nuclear power plants. Ahmadinejad said the “fourth generation” of centrifuge would be able to refine uranium three times as fast as previously.
    See all stories on this topic »
    Fukushima Nuclear Disaster: Plant Planned Tsunami Risk Assessment, But Too Late
    Huffington Post
    YURI KAGEYAMA 02/15/12 08:11 AM ET AP TOKYO — Four days before a tsunami devastated a Japanese nuclear plant, its operator promised a fuller assessment of the risk of such a disaster – but not for seven months. The disclosure in a three-page briefing …
    See all stories on this topic »
    Iran retaliates over international pressure with threat to stop selling oil to …
    Telegraph.co.uk
    While trying to use oil for diplomatic leverage, Iran also sent the West a defiant message over its nuclear ambitions. During his appearance at the Tehran Research Reactor, Mr Ahmadinejad told scientists that Iran needed four more plants of this kind …
    See all stories on this topic »
    Telegraph.co.uk
    Safe graveyard
    Deccan Herald
    This was in part because its nuclear programme was small; the waste produced by its nuclear reactors was limited. In the wake of the India-US nuclear agreement and the lifting of global restrictions on nuclear trade with India, this programme is …
    See all stories on this topic »
    Too late: 4 days before tsunami, Japan nuclear plant operator promised to …
    Washington Post
    TOKYO — Four days before a tsunami devastated a Japanese nuclear plant, its operator promised a fuller assessment of the risk of such a disaster — but not for seven months. The disclosure in a three-page briefing paper obtained by The Associated …
    See all stories on this topic »
    Hamaoka locals evasive on no-nuke future
    The Japan Times
    It has been about nine months since the operator of the Hamaoka nuclear plant succumbed to a government request to suspend operations, and it now awaits the time when it will be allowed to restart, while building a huge sea wall designed to reduce the …
    See all stories on this topic »
    The Japan Times

     

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  • Oil price daily news update

    Oil Price Daily News Update

    Blame to Spare on Tar Sands Debate

    Posted: 15 Feb 2012 01:47 PM PST

    Environmental groups in Maine have decided that tar sands oil from western Canada wasn’t their cup of tea even though the pipeline company behind the scenes said it really wasn’t there’s either, at least for now. As the Sierra Club was saying “no sir” to tar sands oil in Maine, one of the former GOP hopefuls, Rick Perry, was saying “yes sir” in The Wall Street Journal, describing the planned Keystone XL as an economic panacea not seen since the New Deal brought the U.S. economy out of the Great Depression in the 1930s. With tar sands pipelines…

    Read more…

    Shale Gas Revolution to Free Eastern Europe from Reliance Upon Russia?

    Posted: 15 Feb 2012 09:40 AM PST

    Major players including the United States, the EU, Russia, and China are vying for control and influence over scarce energy resources that will only become more valuable and in demand going forward. These powers will play a critical role in the global energy sector that will largely shape the political and economic context of this century. Holding the largest reserves of natural gas in the world, it appears Russia will continue to be the dominant energy supplier to much of Europe in the foreseeable future. Quite simply, the massive Soviet-era Druzhba…

    Read more…

    Lack of Power Lines Prevents New Offshore Wind Farms in Germany

    Posted: 15 Feb 2012 08:53 AM PST

    The German government plans to increase the share of its energy produced from renewable sources from the current level of 20 percent to 35 percent by 2020. A large portion of this increase will be delivered by offshore wind farms. However there is a problem. E.on, the German energy giant warned that progress to install power lines connecting offshore wind farms to the mainland power grid is far too slow and will result in delaying the countries green energy ambitions. E.on has been waiting 15 months for power lines to be constructed that will connect…

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    Dominican Republic Turns to Gazprom for Help on Energy Strategy

    Posted: 15 Feb 2012 08:51 AM PST

    Last week the Russian energy giant, Gazprom, sent a delegation to the Dominican Republic following an invitation to perform geological surveys and help in the development of electrical power projects. A group of deputies from the republic’s National Congress, including the chairman of the parliamentary energy commission, Pelegrin Seman, stated that their nation’s reliance upon foreign fuels is too high. They are forming legislation to help develop oil and gas reserves on the Haitian Shelf, to construct renewable energy projects, and…

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    South Africa Caught in Fallout from Increased Sanctions Against Iran

    Posted: 14 Feb 2012 04:01 PM PST

    The U.S. new sanctions initiative, strongly supported by Israel, to impose new sanctions against Iran, is designed to punish it for its purported covert nuclear weapons program by imposing new restrictions on Tehran. As a result, many of Iran’s oil customers are scrambling to avoid collateral damage to their economies. The sanctions’ potential fallout is now hitting South Africa, Africa’s biggest economy, which receives nearly 25 percent of its needs from Iran, roughly 98,000 barrels per day (bpd), or about 4 percent of Iran’s…

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    With Friends Like Moscow, Who Needs Venezuela’s Oil?

    Posted: 14 Feb 2012 03:58 PM PST

    Venezuela said it was ready to welcome a Russian energy company into the giant Orinoco oil belt, solidifying a relationship propped up by a multi-million investment from Moscow last year. Both sides announced recently they’d starting working through a Caracas-controlled joint venture in a 21,000-square-mile section of the vast oil reserve. When the Iranian president paid a visit to the region, House Republicans cried foul over the “tour of tyrants” though Russia’s relationship with Caracas barely makes headlines. While Moscow is certainly no Tehran,…

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    Fracking and Water: A New Way To Profit from the Industry’s Biggest Problem

    Posted: 14 Feb 2012 03:55 PM PST

    While oil and water don’t mix, for the fracking industry… the two go hand-in-hand. You see, while WATER is one of the oil industry’s biggest threats – it’s also one of investors’ biggest opportunities. Consider this:  Each horizontal well in North America that uses hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, uses 2-6 MILLION gallons of sweet fresh water. And the entire North American industry will use an estimated 72 BILLION gallons in 2012. The cost involved in handling that water could be in the billions of dollars within…

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    Why We Shouldn’t be Worrying About Peak Oil

    Posted: 14 Feb 2012 03:50 PM PST

    Everything you think you know about energy security and energy independence is wrong. All too often you hear that fossil fuels will soon reach their peak, that our consumption of oil causes global insecurity vis-a-vis rogue states and terrorist organizations, and that the United States would benefit tremendously from becoming completely energy independent. Under closer scrutiny, however, the alarmist scenarios, political correctness, and chic notions of sustainability that dominate today’s energy discourse simply do not stand up to actual…

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    Regenerative Agriculture: Feeding the Future

    Posted: 14 Feb 2012 03:46 PM PST

    It is an illusion to think we can continue to use as much energy as we do now. No one can entirely rule-out that some extravagant technology will be forthcoming, e.g. solar power or nuclear fusion on the full-scale of 500 EJ/year as we get through now, but the particular issue of matching liquid fuels derived currently almost entirely from petroleum appears insurmountable. The “solution” is probably the collective of individual solutions, and that means adopting a completely different paradigm of human philosophy and intention. The most pressing…

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    Searching for a Cost Effective Way to Deal with Air Pollution

    Posted: 14 Feb 2012 03:40 PM PST

    It costs $50 million per gigawatt to put 99% effective particulate air pollution control onto coal plants. China has about 650 GWe of coal power installed in 2011. It would probably be cheaper for China to do the particulate retrofits (say $30 million per GWe). Therefore $20 billion would enable a 99.5% reduction in particulates. The United States has 315 GWe of coal power installed in 2011. It would cost about $16 billion for electrostatic precipitators on all coal plants in the United States. There needs to be combination of mitigation devices…

    Read more…
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  • Council wants to retain control of windfarm proposal

    Windfarms are essential to the renewables sector.

    Council wants to retain control of windfarm proposal

    Updated February 16, 2012 08:11:09

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    Map: Bendigo 3550

    The Moyne Council in south-western Victoria, is embroiled in a debate with a neighbouring council over a windfarm proposal.

    The Southern Grampians Council has asked Planning Minister Matthew Guy to call in the application for a 223-turbine windfarm at Penshurst, north of Port Fairy.

    The windfarm straddles the two municipalities.

    Moyne Mayor Jim Doukas says his council wants to maintain planning control over the proposal.

    He says it would be one of the largest windfarms in the state and local government should have a major say.

    “If the minister decides to become the responsible (authority) and we don’t know whether he will or won’t because we haven’t made a decision yet, that takes a lot of power out of the hands of local government,” he said.

    “They’re the ones that make all the assessments, they’re the ones who make the decision.”

    Topics:environment, environmental-impact, environmental-management, environmental-policy, mining-environmental-issues, bendigo-3550, penshurst-3289, port-fairy-3284, hamilton-3300

    First posted February 15, 2012 14:42:29

    More stories from Victoria

  • Oakeshott’s call for wood-powered electricity means more logging

    This clearly displays how out of touch with the environment Oakeshott is.

    Neville

    15 February 2012, 2.23pm AEST

    Oakeshott’s call for wood-powered electricity means more logging

    We are poised at a pivotal moment for native forests, the wood products industry and climate change. Australia is moving away from a damaging native forestry industry – and a damaging conflict over its future – to a plantation industry with broad-based support. Rob Oakeshott’s push this week to promote…

    Author

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    Ym83nk6h-1329262961 There are dark days ahead for Australian forests if renewable energy plan gets the nod. jwbenwell/Flickr We are poised at a pivotal moment for native forests, the wood products industry and climate change. Australia is moving away from a damaging native forestry industry – and a damaging conflict over its future – to a plantation industry with broad-based support. Rob Oakeshott’s push this week to promote burning native-forest wood for electricity production could kick off more logging, and more conflict.
    Rob Oakeshott and Tony Windsor, together with all other members of the Multi-Party Climate Change Committee, agreed in July 2011 to exclude native forest wood from being subsidised as a renewable energy resource. This decision put in place a crucial backstop to see the end of Australia’s forest wars. But now Oakeshott has changed his position.
    The Multi-Party Climate Change Committee, chaired by PM Gillard and including the Greens and Independents Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott, agreed to amend the Renewable Energy Target regulations. Native forest biomass would no longer be regarded as “renewable” when burnt to generate electricity.
    Forestry policy making has rarely been so thorough: the exclusion included products, by-products, and waste associated with or produced from, clearing or harvesting of native forests, subject to appropriate transitional arrangements for existing accredited power stations. The Committee’s decision was an environmentally sensible policy correction for a forestry industry that is exiting native forest wood resourcing.
    Oakeshott’s change of heart betrays a misunderstanding of Australia’s forest industry. AAP The removal meant that native forest electricity producers could still produce electricity but they would not receive Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs). The government created the RECs market to achieve its Renewable Energy Target: wholesale electricity retailers and some generators must source at least 20% of their electricity from renewable sources backed by RECs.
    For native-forest-based energy projects, the RECs could constitute up to 50% of the project’s income.
    Having signed the multi-party agreement in July, in late October 2011 Rob Oakeshott had second thoughts. With the exposure draft of the Renewable Energy Target regulations in hand and what appears to be some local business lobbying, Oakeshott asked “local residents to have their say on new rules which ban the use of native forest waste as an accredited RET energy source.”
    A month later, Oakeshott appears to have turned from seeking comments to becoming a native forestry lobbyist. He said that “[b]usinesses with potential investment projects using wood waste for biomass energy should use this time [before moving his disallowance motion] to make detailed representations to the federal government and MPs who represent electorates with viable commercial forestry contracts and processing mills.”
    Oakeshott’s hope from this lobbying was that “all MPs seek best policy”. From his statement, “best policy” refers to the local abattoir wanting to use some local sawmill offcuts for power. There is nothing in the regulations stopping the abattoir from using the offcuts for power. What the regulations aim to do is prevent the revenue from the RECs market opening a new and very large market for native forest wood around Australia.
    Hardwood chip exports – Australia’s opportunity to end the conflict Judith Ajani/ABARES statistics

    Click to enlarge

    This is not a local or peripheral issue. It is nationally important. On Friday 10 February, Oakeshott wrote to Members of Parliament explaining his move to disallow the regulations. He stated that with all aspects of the Agreement having been introduced, he has honoured the Multi-Party Climate Change Committee Agreement and is now free to vote against the agreement as expressed in a bill or regulation.
    Oakeshott’s letter conveys no understanding of the Australian forestry industry situation and outlook. He states that sawn timber and paper (including woodchip exports) drives native forest logging, with energy being a sensible use of “waste”.
    Missing from his account is Australia’s plantation competition: sawn timber stopped driving Australia’s native forest logging in the 1980s and woodchip exports are no longer driving native forest logging. And so evaporates the “waste”. Opening native forest wood to the energy market will turn the economically and environmentally desirable trend decline in native forest logging into increasing logging levels.
    Australia’s plantation industry is about to completely displace native forest wood from the major commodity markets of sawn timber, paper and woodchip exports. Today, between 85 and 90% of Australia’s production of sawn timber and wood panels is plantation based.
    As the native forest sector lost these markets to the softwood plantation competition, it became more dependent on export markets for woodchips. Now, Australia’s hardwood plantations are displacing, with ferocious speed, native forest chip exports (see figure above). In the very near future we can expect very little commodity-based logging of Australia’s native forests, as long as governments resist engineering new commercial opportunities for native forest wood.
    As members of the House of Representatives decide whether to support Oakeshott’s disallowance motion they should reflect on 40 years of conflict over native forest woodchipping. If native forests are opened to burning for “renewable energy”, Australia’s forest wars will rage for many more decades.

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    December 22, 2011 Is using native forests for energy really carbon-neutral?

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  • Obama revives green agenda with push to end oil industry tax breaks

    Cynical of me, but an election is coming up!!!!

    Obama revives green agenda with push to end oil industry tax breaks

    President plans to spend big on green cars and biofuels as Steven Chu says US wants to lead in clean energy technology

    Lake Michigan

    The Environmental Protection Agency said it was flatlining the plan to restore some bays of the Great Lakes. Photograph: Jeffrey Phelps/AP

    Barack Obama knew a budget proposal to end $40bn in tax breaks for the oil and gas industry would get him into an election-year fight with Republicans over his energy agenda.

    It’s at least the fourth time the president has called for rolling back the subsidies.

    And, predictably, Republicans and the oil industry were spoiling for a fight. The main industry lobby, the American Petroleum Institute, attacked the proposal as “punitive and unfair”.

    Like Obama’s earlier proposals to cut subsidies to the fossil fuel industry, this one is highly unlikely to pass through Congress.

    What the revival of the proposal demonstrates, however, is that Obama, despite his earlier half-hearted support for action on climate change and other environmental measures, is willing to put up a fight now.

    He has just chosen to redefine the battle lines, using the budget to highlight clean energy while trimming support for environmental regulation.

    The energy budget proposes a 3.2% increase over the current year to $27.2bn in spending including a big bump in research funds, 21% or $2.3bn, for energy efficiency, advanced vehicles, and biofuels.

    In a conference call with reporters, the US energy secretary, Steven Chu, said the adminstration would be redirecting funds from some previous favourites such as electric car batteries – because the projects were now approaching commercial viability – to emerging areas such as offshore wind power.

    Some research funds were also being pulled from projects that did not work, Chu admitted. He said 35 projects “did not reach research milestones”. However, the overall strategy remained. “We want to lead in clean energy technology,” he said.

    The budget would also set aside $12m for research into risks associated with hydraulic fracturing, the controversial process used in the booming natural gas industry.

    However, there was no repeat of last year’s request of $36bn in loans for the nuclear industry – which Congress turned down.

    Even so, clean energy came out ahead. Not so for the Environmental Protection Agency, a favourite target of Republicans who argue environmental regulations are destroying jobs.

    The EPA sufered its third straight budget cut this year, down 1.2% on existing spending.

    The budget proposal barely mentions the agency’s work in reducing the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change.

    In her conference call with reporters, the head of the EPA, Lisa Jackson, admitted some of the administration’s most touted environmental projects – such as restoring some areas of the Great Lakes – had also been flatlined.

    “It was one of the most difficult choices we have had to make in this budget,” she said.