Energy

DSRL in £13 million Dounreay decommissioning contract
Britain’s Dounreay fast reactor was proclaimed as “the system of the next century”; this was in the 1960s; the last 15 years have seen the site develop into a nuclear reactor decommissioning project
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Breakthrough: Radioactive waste may no longer be dangerous to store
Aussie researchers have created a material which has the potential to filter and safely lock away radioactive ions from waste water; nanofibers which are millionths of a millimeter in size could permanently lock away radioactive cations by displacing the existing sodium ions in the fiber
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New three-in-one detection device
Lawrence Livermore researchers develop a “universal point detection system” which can detect explosive, chemical, and biological agents all at the same time
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Nuclear fuel cycle echnology R&D, $15 million awarded
U.S. Department of Energy awards funding ranging in value from $200,000 to $2,000,000 to 34 organizations to do reasearch into spent fuel separations technology, advanced nuclear fuel development, fast burner reactors, and advanced transmutation systems, advanced fuel cycle systems analysis, advanced computing and simulation, safeguards, and advanced waste forms
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U.S. military launches war on global warming
The U.S. military wants to make a contribution toward reducing oil dependence and grann-house emmissions; the military has set a goal that 25 percent of its energy should come from renewable sources by 2025 and aims to create machines and methods to help Main Street America reach similar targets
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Using kites to generate electricity
The amount of power available from wind is related to the cube of its speed; blades at higher altitudes could thus generate up to five times the amount of electricity as at lower altitudes; why, then, not place blades at higher altitudes?
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Hitachi, GE to develop smaller nuclear reactors
There is a growing demand in countries such as Vietnam, Indonesia, and Thailand for midsize nuclear reactors; Hitachi and GE respond
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Two million hydrogen vehicles on roads by 2020
A transition to hydrogen vehicles could greatly reduce U.S. oil dependence and carbon dioxide emissions, says a new congressionally mandated report from the National Research Council, but making hydrogen vehicles competitive in the automotive market will not be easy
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New nuclear unit at Rolls-Royce
Rolls-Royce estimates worldwide civil nuclear power market could be worth £50 billion a year in fifteen years time; company wants a piece of the action
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Blackstone, Windland in North Sea wind farm project
U.S. investment group and German energy company forms partnership to construct one of the North Sea’s largest wind farms
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AMEC-led consortium to clean up Sellafield
Treating and cleaning nuclear waste is part and parcel of nuclear power generation; The U.K. government, a proponent of greater reliance on nuclear power, takes steps to deal with legacy waste problems
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Alternative fuels for the aviation industry
Rolls-Royce, British Airways collaborate on developing and testing alternative fuels for aviation; testing is expected to be complete by the end of March 2009, after which the results will be analyzed and reported
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Largest wind energy farm in France launched
EDF Energies Nouvelles to launch wind farm comprising 22 2.3 MW turbines supplied by German manufacturer Enercon; with a capacity to generate 50.6 MW, it will also be one of the largest in France
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New method for generating enzymes will make biofuels cheaper
If we are going to use biofuels as a meaningful alternative to fossil fuels, then enzymes which can break down plant material into usable source of fuel are required in industrial quantities and at a low cost; Aggies researchers offer new method of generating such enzymes
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German-Japanese collaboration on carbon dioxide recovery
Mitsubishi, E.ON to test a system which recovers carbon dioxide from flue-gas emissions at a coal-fired power plant in Germany
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