Primary Energy: Present Status and Future Perspectives

✍ Scribed by K. O. Thielheim (auth.), Professor Dr. Klaus O. Thielheim (eds.)

• Publisher: Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
• Year: 1982
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 380
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

The enormous public interest of specialists as well as of engaged and concerned citizens in the energy problem can be understood in view of the fact that the future of national and world-wide economy depends on the availability of sufficient primary energy. The questions arising are: which forms of primary energy exist principally? by what means and at what cost can they be brought to useful application? and what is their possible role in the present and future energy scenario? Another reason which may not be so obvious, but which eventually may prove to be of great importance as far as public acceptance of energy technologies is con­ cerned, lies in the fact that the existing conscious or subconscious fears arising from confrontation with scientific and technological progress - to which even for the educated layman intellectual access is diffi­ cult - have been sublimated onto the energy problem and especially onto the problem of nuclear energy. Un­ like other developments, the emergence of nuclear ener­ gy has brought to our notice the ambivalence of ad­ vancing science and technology, which may either be used peacefully or misused militarily. Nuclear energy can help to overcome the increasing hunger for energy in the world, but it can also lead to the extinction of human life from the surface of this plant. More and more, mankind is confronted with chances and risks of new discoveries.

✦ Table of Contents

Front Matter....Pages I-VIII
The Physical Concept of Energy....Pages 1-19
Resources and Reserves of Fossil and Nuclear Fuels....Pages 20-31
Synthetic Fuels....Pages 32-46
The Carbon Dioxide Problem....Pages 47-65
Electricity and Heat from Thermal Nuclear Reactors....Pages 66-91
High-temperature Reactors....Pages 92-105
Technology of Fast Breeder Reactors....Pages 106-128
Fast Breeder Reactors in France in 1979....Pages 129-146
Nuclear Fuel Cycle....Pages 147-166
Deposition of Radioactive Waste....Pages 167-181
Nuclear Fusion with Magnetic Containment....Pages 182-192
Laser-Driven Nuclear Fusion....Pages 193-218
Hydroelectricity....Pages 219-251
Solar Power Plants....Pages 252-273
Electricity from the Sun — Photovoltaics....Pages 274-293
Exploitation of Wind Energy by Wind Power Plants....Pages 294-318
Tidal Power Stations....Pages 319-334
Geothermal Energy....Pages 335-345
Demands and Resources of Energy in the Present and Future....Pages 346-358
Energy Strategies....Pages 359-368
Back Matter....Pages 369-371

✦ Subjects

Geotechnical Engineering & Applied Earth Sciences; Waste Management/Waste Technology; Waste Water Technology / Water Pollution Control / Water Management / Aquatic Pollution; Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution; S