Coldfusion

Decades ago it was announced that cold fusion had been achieved. As it turned out, the process used in the lab could not be duplicated. If it does work, great. We would want to expand its use worldwide. But there is a serious environmental problem it would create. Smashing hydrogen atoms together creates helium. How will we dispose of all that helium safely? We can’t just release it into the atmosphere where it would become a climate change environmental pollutant. The potential negative consequences have to be considered. Another example of a salvation science that could save us is desalination. That could solve our potable water problems. But it creates a super salty brine byproduct that would harm the marine environment if dumped back into the ocean. Source link

Decades ago it was announced that cold fusion had been achieved. As it turned out, the process used in the lab could not be duplicated. If it does work, great. We would want to expand its use worldwide. But there is a serious environmental problem it would create. Smashing hydrogen atoms together creates helium. How will we dispose of all that helium safely? We can’t just release it into the atmosphere where it would become a climate change environmental pollutant. The potential negative consequences have to be considered. Another example of a salvation science that could save us is desalination. That could solve our potable water problems. But it creates a super salty brine byproduct that would harm the marine environment if dumped back into the ocean. Source link

Merry Christmas from The Eagle family to yours. We hope everyone is staying safe and warm on this holiday and is surrounded by the love of family and good friends. As we close out another year, we can’t say enough how grateful we are to live and work right here in Bryan-College Station. We can think of no place we’d rather be. Simply put, this is a marvelous community, full of active, dedicated, caring people. We take care of our families and, when necessary, we take care of our friends and neighbors in their time of need. It doesn’t matter if it is weather damage, fire destruction or medical calamity, we don’t let those affected walk alone. Whether it be donating money to a special fund to providing clothing and other necessities after a disaster to sending food… Source link

Amongst our Indian scientists who continuously endeavour on placing Bharat in the forefront of using atomic energy for peace time employment and defence time deployment, Dr.P K Iyengar (Padmanabhan Krishnagopala Iyengar) occupies a pride of place. His remembernce day falls on 21st December. Born in 1931 in Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu, Dr. PK Iyengar joined the Department of Atomic Energy in his 21st year as a young research scientist. In his career spanning nearly 60 years, he excelled not just in pure research but also in its large scale usage. In the sixties he turned to the design of India’s first plutonium fast-reactor, PURNIMA, and commissioned it in 1972. In 1974 he conducted the Peaceful Nuclear Explosion code named “Smiling Budhdha” at Pokharan. For these successful… Source link

A government laboratory, after decades of tireless effort and many a disappointment, announces that it has achieved the holy grail of green energy—nuclear fusion ignition! And the response has been . . . a damp squib. A reporter at the Guardian sniffed that what happened at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory was a “milestone event but not a major one.” Yes, he agrees, “nuclear fusion would have a beneficial impact on our planet by liberating vast amounts of energy without generating high levels of carbon emissions and would be an undoubted boost in the battle against climate change.” So why not cheer? Apparently because failures and hoaxers have claimed breakthroughs in the past that didn’t pan out. Sir John Cockcroft claimed in 1958 that he had achieved success with… Source link

(Image source: iStock) It may prove to be as historic as the harnessing of fire, invention of the wheel, or the channeling of electricity. It will certainly rank on a par with the first release of nuclear energy in an experimental Chicago reactor or its first test as an atomic weapon near Los Alamos, New Mexico. It is the first successful experiment to extract power from what scientists often describe as “cold fusion.” It may take a decade or more to convert their successful experiment into commercially available power, but what it offers is an inexhaustible, readily available source of clean energy that eliminates pollution, greenhouse gases, or radioactive waste from the current generation of nuclear reactors. In short, it has the means to be as powerful and transformative than… Source link

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Podcast by CAPITOL WEEKLY STAFF posted 12.19.2022 CAPITOL WEEKLY PODCAST: Proposition 30, the ambitious plan to combat wildfires and fund EV infrastructure throughout the state by taxing California’s wealthiest citizens failed at the ballot box in November. Early polls found broad support for the measure, but a strong opposition campaign led by Gov. Newsom and the CTA turned the tide and ultimately derailed the measure. We spoke with Bill Magavern, Policy Director of the Coalition for Clean Air, and an author of Prop. 30, about efforts to combat pollution and climate change in the wake of Proposition 30’s defeat. Show Notes: :26 Prop. 30 – what happened? 4:18 “What really cost us the initiative… Source link

Workers in protective gear gather for their duties in Beijing, November 2022. Photo: AP/Andy Wong Last week’s item on dismal attendances at signing sessions, even by famous authors, reminds me of one woman who attracted enormous crowds. It was at the Merry Hill shopping centre, Dudley, in 1999 and the (then) most famous woman in the world was signing her autobiography at the rate of 500 an hour. “She says she’s getting wrist-ache,” said one lady in the queue. “Makes a change from housemaid’s knee,” sniggered another. No media interviews were allowed so I adopted a cunning plan, disguising myself as a member of the public to speak with a woman who brought down the most powerful man in the world. Her book may not have been the greatest political memoir ever written but on that… Source link

What is the fastest-moving object on Earth? Certainly not the traffic on the A34 north of Oxford, but the answer lies not far away. In a small chamber in an anonymous building on an industrial estate outside the city there is a machine that regularly fires small aluminium pellets, about the size of a postage stamp, at speeds of 20km per second (45,000mph). It is the headquarters and laboratory of First Light Fusion, one of a number of companies and organisations that are trying to harness commercial power from nuclear fusion – potentially a far cleaner and safer form of generating nuclear power than our existing nuclear fission power stations.    There is little of the feel of a nuclear power station as Nick Hawker, CEO and co-founder of First Light Fusion, shows me around the… Source link