• Nuclear, coal-fired electrical plants vulnerable to climate change

    Thermoelectric plants, which use nuclear or fossil fuels to heat water into steam that turns a turbine, supply more than 90 percent of U.S. electricity and account for 40 percent of the U.S. freshwater usage; in Europe, these plants supply three-quarters of the electricity and account for about half of the freshwater use; warmer water and reduced river flows in the United States and Europe in recent years have led to reduced production, or temporary shutdown, of several thermoelectric power plants; a new study says this problem will only grow

  • Energy-dense biofuel from cellulose may well be economical

    Researchers developed a process for creating biofuels which holds the promise of being cost-effective for production scale, opening the door for moving beyond the laboratory setting

  • Depleted uranium could reduce world’s dependency on crude oil

    Scientists say that a simple 3-step chemical reaction is, in fact, a significant step forward in the search for viable alternatives to crude oil; the discovery means that a simple catalytic process for converting CO directly into more complex and value-added organic molecules may soon be in reach

  • Peak oil: is the end of readily available oil supplies in sight?

    What happens when a handful of the world’s largest oil fields — accounting for two-thirds of the world’s oil — run dry? What are the implications of such a prospect for food production, economic growth, and ultimately, global security? A new book explains the reality of peak oil and its far-reaching implications for the world’s future

  • Spaced-based solar power holds promise

    Solar power gathered in space could be set to provide the renewable energy of the future; researchers have already tested equipment in space that would provide a platform for solar panels to collect the energy and allow it to be transferred back to earth through microwaves or lasers

  • Grid adjustments cancel out some of wind power’s carbon savings

    Wind energy lowers carbon emissions, but adding turbines to the current grid system does not eliminate emissions proportionally, according to a new report; researchers tested how wind energy affects carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, and found that adjusting for wind power adds inefficiencies that cancel out some of the CO2 reduction

  • Entergy’s Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station gets new 20-year license

    The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) yesterday announced its decision to renew the operating license for Entergy’s Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth, Massachusetts; the approval means the NRC has concluded there is no safety or environmental issue that precludes renewal of the plant’s license to operate for an additional twenty years

  • Sandia Labs technology used to clean up Fukushima after disaster

    A Sandia Lab-developed technology — crystalline silico-titanate, or CST — is a molecular sieve that can separate highly volatile elements from radioactive wastewater; the technology has been used to remove radioactive material from more than forty-three million gallons of contaminated wastewater at Japan’s damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant

  • California coastal planners protect infrastructure from climate change

    California’s coastal planners and resource managers say there is a need to prepare for changes along the coast that might result from rising sea levels and other impacts, such as more floods, loss of beach access, coastal erosion, and potential damage to transportation infrastructure, including highways, roads, and ports

  • Groundwater depletion in Texas, California threatens US food security

    The U.S. food supply may be vulnerable to rapid groundwater depletion from irrigated agriculture; for example, from 2006 to 2009, farmers in the south of California’s Central Valley depleted enough groundwater to fill the U.S. largest man-made reservoir, Lake Mead near Las Vegas — a level of groundwater depletion that is unsustainable at current recharge rates

  • Removing CO2 from the flues of coal-fired power plants

    The current method of removing the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) from the flues of coal-fired power plants uses so much energy that no one bothers to use it; scientists have developed an entirely new catalyst for separating out and capturing CO2, one that mimics a naturally occurring catalyst operating in our lungs

  • Producing renewable hydrogen

    Hydrogen is regarded as the cleanest and greenest of all fuels; a California company combines its polymer coating with a small-scale solar device to form a self-contained particle that separates hydrogen from water using only the power of the Sun

  • New geological insights to aid oil extraction, water recovery

    By understanding the variety of pore sizes and spatial patterns in strata, geologists can help achieve more production from underground oil reservoirs and water aquifers; better understanding also means more efficient use of potential underground carbon storage sites, and better evaluations of the possible movement of radionuclides in nuclear waste depositories to determine how well the waste will be isolated

  • Probability of nuclear reactor core meltdown higher than expected

    Currently, there are 440 nuclear reactors in operation, and sixty more are planned; new research finds that reactor accidents involving a core meltdown, as were the Chernobyl and Fukushima, may occur once every ten to twenty years — some 200 times more often than estimated in the past; the authors of the study note that they did not take into account potential contributing factors to accidents such as the age and type of reactors, or whether reactors are located in regions of enhanced risks such as earthquakes

  • Explaining uneven rise in sea levels

    If there is a global warming trend, one of its consequences would a rise in sea levels, which will require massive mitigation efforts to protect coastal infrastructure; rather than a uniform rise in sea level, however, the records show sea levels rising in some areas and dropping in others; Harvard researchers offer an explanation for this phenomenon