Energy future: time to be ambitious
Source: The Engineer, 3/18/2011
The middle of a nuclear crisis is the wrong time to comment on how it could have been averted. We don’t know any more than anyone else about the safety systems or maintenance schedules at the Fukushima Daichi complex; we can’t draw conclusions about the appalling aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami that stuck the plant last week; and trying to apportion blame is in extremely bad taste while plant operators and emergency services are risking their lives trying to bring the plant under control.
One thing that we can do, however, is to try to look at how technologists might respond to the aftermath of the Fukushima incident. It’s highly unlikely that this will herald the end of commercial nuclear power, but it’s inevitable that it will affect some of the ways in which plants are operated.
The problems with the cooling ponds at Fukushima could lead to new research into ways to store spent fuel. It’s clear that spent fuel represents a hazard, and new ways of handling and storing it are needed.
Many people believe that thorium represents a better option for nuclear fuel than uranium —
