Page 49 - Phonebox Magazine January 2007

Energy use and Carbon emissions are Of our times, and of But nuclear science has a wonder yet in
generating an immense amount of heated argument in nearly every page we read. We are ever being told to do this or to do that, to avoid one thing and to evade the next, so of course we just keep on taking the tablets. I’m about to put in my two pennyworth aren’t I, to make matters worse for you all I’m serious about these things, serious about harnessing available energy from wind and water movement, about renewable sources and about non carbon energy generation.
I do have a lot of sympathy with the objection to the immense height proposed for local wind farming, and I do not believe these proposals would be thrust before us without the great subsidies offered by government. But I do not see those machines as ugly, indeed I will go so far as to say in some places they are quite elegant. Off-shore they are a much finer sight than any oil rig might ever be and they sit fine in flat sparsely populated regions inland. If we are worried about the appearance of our countryside then surely the subsidies being offered might be better directed to burying those hideous power lines which carry so much of the national electricity grid. One sees no pylons in London so why must they stare at us ?
Will someone please tell me what’s new about bio-fuel. Before Herr Benz and Herr Daimler presented us with the motor car our every traffic was drawn by horse or ox. What was
earlier days
by Geoff Bacchus
the fodder of these noble creatures if it was not already bio-fuel. The horse and the ox had better taste than we nowadays exercise, they were happy with clover fields but we must stare at mile upon mile of ugly stinking rape.
To my mind the most reasonable course has to be further development of nuclear options. The greens et al will of course start shouting about Chernobyl. Now that plant was built to a standard which had already been far surpassed in The Western world, and that disaster was made worse by the bone headed refusal of the soviets to acknowledge their responsibilities with a proper urgency. There is no such thing as ‘perfectly safe’ in any field of human endeavour and that includes oil and coal resourcing; those older technologies are not obliged to notify their every problem so we are not told what they cost in life, limb, disablement or life quality. Nuclear power, with all its cost and by products does not pollute our atmosphere. Furthermore there is a far greater prize awaiting us. We presently release a great deal of energy by the process of nuclear fission which ‘smashes’ heavy atoms and leaves us with problems of radiation and radioactive waste.
development. The research and technology will be enormously expensive at first cost, the prize will be almost beyond imagination. An international treaty was agreed and signed on 21st of November pledging £7billion to build the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor; this is intended to release energy from Nuclear Fusion, a process with no radiation risk attached, nor radioactive waste and by-product. Essentially the idea comes down to crushing two Hydrogen atoms together to form one Helium atom. A brilliantly written piece in The Daily Telegraph summed up the prospect in language which we can all relate. From a bath full of water and a little lithium (about as much of this as drives to- day’s lap-top) is expected to yield sufficient energy to cover the needs of a UK citizen for 30 years which figure includes energy for transport. Scientific advance has more to offer by way of certainties than we may ever claim from hazard of wind, tide or such as rape. I’m finding this a delightful prospect because I’ve spent thirty years knowing the concept existed and wondering was anything really going forward, now at last, at long, long last. Yippee.
My nutty friend Frank and his pal Oleg are asking me to move over while they tell us of the next instalment in Olney’s Viking origins. Before I surrender you to their ministrations I
continued on page 50
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Phonebox Magazine 49