By Kurt Cobb, Resource Insights
The obsession with mining the Moon strikes me as the kind of fantasy that enters into civilizations when they are faced with huge, seemingly insurmountable problems—climate change and resource depletion come to mind—and they want magical solutions that allow them to forego having actually to face those problems.
By Kurt Cobb, Resource Insights
The case of molten salt reactors should make us wary of those promising quick, easy solutions to future energy needs and climate change.
By Ugo Bardi, The Seneca Effect
Despite the hype, nuclear energy of any kind may remain forever a marginal source of energy.
By Ugo Bardi, The Seneca Effect
That the nuclear industry was to fail was written on the wall of the reactors because of a series of factual circumstances, surely not because a bunch of long-haired Greens were protesting in the streets.
By Philippe Gauthier, Resilience.org
Countries which are heavily invested in nuclear energy remain higher CO2 emitters, on average, than countries which have invested at the same level in renewable energy. This is the main finding of a study recently published in the journal Nature Energy.
By Frank Kaminski, Mud City Press
Downwind manages the triple feat of being at once a rigorous piece of scholarship, a moving account of a dark and ongoing period in human history and an exquisitely accomplished first book.
By Don Fitz, Green Social Thought
The phrase “Precautionary Principle” is not even included in the index of Energy, much less discussed. Rhodes’ approach suggests a “Throw-caution-to-the-wind Principle.”
By Darrin Qualman, Darrin Qualman blog
At the most foundational level, however, there are just two sources of energy. Two sources provide more than 99 percent of the power for our civilization: solar and nuclear. Every other significant energy source is a form of one of these two. Most are forms of solar.
By Ugo Bardi, Michael Dittmar, Alice Friedemann, Cassandra's legacy
Declining uranium production will make it impossible to obtain a significant increase in electrical power from nuclear plants in the coming decades.
By Bart Hawkins Kreps, An Outside Chance
It’s not always simple to calculate how much area is occupied by an energy installation – especially if the effects of the facility are dispersed in space and in time. Can Power Density account for the afterlife of technologies?
By Kurt Cobb, Resource Insights
Energy transitions take time, a lot of time--far too much time to be shrunk down into a television special, a few talking points, or the next big energy idea. If, as Vaclav Smil contends, we are in for a long, slow slog on the path to a renewable energy economy, then the course with the least risk and probably the greatest return would be to reduce our energy use.
By Ugo Bardi, Resource Crisis
What are the lessons from the failed nuclear energy revolution?