β Scribed by A.T. Kuhn
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
What is it that most us would wish for from the research laboratories around the world? A cure for cancer? The synthesis of a convincing meat substitute from soya? Or perhaps a Fifth Generation computer! A moment's reflection will remind us that however desirable such breakthroughs might be, without a continuing supply of energy, in the right form, in the right place and at the right price, civilisation as we know it today would collapse and the very tiny fraction of the human race to survive would revert to a medieval existence. The supreme importance of energy conversion and power sources as intrinsic requirements of an advanced civilisation call for no further justification, and mastery of Energy Technology demands the highest of all research priorities.
. Today, the world is not short of energy, though millions of people in the Less Developed Countries cannot afford even enough to cook a modest meal, and indigenous sources such as dung and brushwood are failing to meet the demands of an exploding population. In the West, the energy situation is confused and fluid. Most of our requirements are met from oil or natural gas sources. How much longer will they last? Estimates vary from 20 to 50 years or more. One single development, namely, the means of increasing the extracted fraction from its present 30!% or so to significantly higher levels, could transform such estimates, and research to this end is being actively pursued. Coal reserves will last far longer at present rates of consumption. Yet, increasingly, there is alarm over the despoliation of European forests, due to "acid-rain" resulting from coal burning. In many parts of Germany, over 30% of forests are stated to be irreparably damaged. Nor is the damage limited to the trees themselves, and changes, possibly irreversible, in soil composition resulting from acid-leaching are widely reported in Scandinavia. The only solution to this may lie either in abandonment of coal as a fuel, or costly conversion of existing power stations by addition of stack-scrubbing devices or adoption of fluidised combustion with limestone injection. The U.K. cost alone is estimated at $4 X lo9 capital costs, with proportionately high running costs.
No such hazards are posed by nuclear power. In spite of this, its future is extremely clouded. At Zwentendorf, near Vienna, a virtually-completed nuclear station lies idle and unfinished, condemned to this state by a majority vote in an Austrian national referendum. Now there is talk of converting it to fossil fuel operation and most certainly it is not envisaged that it will ever function as was originally intended. Yet the Austrians are (rightly) more conscious than most of the dangers of acid rain. In the U.S.A. too, there are idle nuclear power stations, though in this case due to disastrous accidents
π SIMILAR VOLUMES
The fuel cell, which William Robert Grove conceived of in 1839, has engendered high hopes over the last two decades. Conventional technologies have served power production needs well over the course of the 20th century, but those with vision have begun to anticipate a time when a new generation of t