Energy

More than 950 billion barrels of crude have been extracted since 1850
How much crude oils has been extracted around the world since 1850, the year the first commercial oil-wells were sunk in? Until now, experts calculated that number to be 944 billion barrels; new study suggests a figure that is 35 percent higher than that
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Radioactive spills in Scotland
U.K. Ministry of Defense reveals a series of serious radioactive leaks in 2004, 2007, and 2008 into the Firth of Clyde
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Aussie company receives $250 million to prove wave power concept
Investec Bank gives West Perth-based energy developer Carnegie Corporation $250 million to demonstrate the viability of its wave technology
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Russia to build new-generation nuclear icebreaker by 2015
Russia is locked in legal dispute with four other countries over rights to the mineral-rich areas in an under the North pole — areas which are slowly becoming accessible as a result of global warming; to make sure it gains ready access, Russia invests a new generation of nuclear ice breakers
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Space-based solar power coming to California
Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), California’s largest utility company, will purchase from Solaren 200 megawatts of electricity when Solaren’s system is in place, which is expected to be 2016
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Aussies inaugurate carbon capture institute
Australia is the world’s fourth largest producer of hard coal, and Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says that Australia has a national and shared global responsibility to establish the workability of carbon capture and storage technology at a commercial scale
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Eleven sites on final list for new U.K. nuclear power station sit
The government published the list of eleven sites which could be potential hosts to new nuclear power stations in the United Kingdom
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Luvata to supply oxygen-free copper to nuclear fusion project
Finnish company awarded a contract to provide 13,000 km oxygen-free copper (Cu-OFE) strand to the ITER project; the superconducting cables must withstand heat treatment of at least 100 hours at 650 degrees centigrade
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FLIR: stimulus makes company an even more attractive investment
FLIR’s thermal technology is used in both defense and energy conservation applications; the stimulus package-related large investments in energy efficiency and continued robust defense and homeland security budgets combine to make the company an attractive target for investors
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U.K. consortium to build nuclear fusion reactor
U.K. companies have formed a consortium to bid for construction of the main reactor vacuum vessel of the €5 billion (£4.6 billion) International Tokamak Experimental Reactor (ITER) nuclear fusion reactor
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Cold fusion is enjoying a rebirth
Researchers presented new evidence for the existence of this promising — and controversial — energy source’ papers discussed last week at the national meeting of the American Chemical Society
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Handling nuclear materials for less
During this century, nuclear plant decommissioning in the United Kingdom will likely produce thousands of waste packages that will be retrieved, conditioned, and stored for no less than £40 billion; BNS develops new way to reduce storage and handling costs of radioactive material
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BNS wins £13 million Dounreay decommissioning contract
Dounreay was the site of a brave, new idea — a fast breeder nuclear reactor which would convert an unusable form of uranium to plutonium which could be recycled and turned into new reactor fuel; it would, that is, breed its own fuel, offering the prospect of electricity in abundance; it has not worked out that way; now it is the site of a big decommissioning effort
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New reactor design solves waste, weapon proliferation problems
A new nuclear reactor design — called Traveling-Wave reactor — is noteworthy for three things: it comes from a privately funded research company, not the government; it would run on what is now waste, thus reducing dramatically the nuclear waste and weapon proliferation problems; and it could theoretically run for a couple of hundred years without refueling
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Obama's budget cuts off most funds for Yucca Mountain repository
The future of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository appears grim; Obama campaigned against the project, which is already more the 10 years behind schdule; new scientific evidence showing that water flows through Yucca Mountain much faster than initially believed raises the prospect that the nuclear waste would leach over time
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