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Guest Post by Bill Sacks and Greg Meyerson. Bill is a physicist and a radiologist, and wrote Lessons about nuclear energy from the Japanese quake and tsunami about a month into the Fukushima crisis. Greg is an English professor with specialization in critical theory. Both are based in the U.S. For further details about the authors, see the […]
Filed under: Clim Ch Q&A, Emissions, Future, Nuclear, Policy, Renewables | 65 Comments »
Guest Post by Ben Heard. Ben is Director of Adelaide-based advisory firm ThinkClimate Consulting, a Masters graduate of Monash University in Corporate Environmental Sustainability, and a member of the TIA Environmental and Sustainability Action Committee. After several years with major consulting firms, Ben founded ThinkClimate and has since assisted a range of government, private and not-for profit organisations to measure, manage […]
Filed under: Hot News, Nuclear, Policy | 54 Comments »
Last week, the influential weekly news and international affairs publication, The Economist, ran an essay on the future of nuclear energy – The dream that failed: Nuclear power will not go away, but its role may never be more than marginal. As you might have guessed from the title, it was decidedly cool towards nuclear’s future prospects. […]
Filed under: Emissions, Nuclear, Policy | 69 Comments »
Before I write a scientific paper, I always try to identify: (1) my main message [MM], in 25 words or less, and (2) my target audience [TA]. Doing this helps focus the ‘story’ of the manuscript on a key point. Papers that try to present multiple messages are typically confusing and/or too long for busy […]
Filed under: Clim Ch Q&A, Nuclear, Policy, Renewables | 44 Comments »
Guest post by Dr Mark Diesendorf, Institute of Environmental Studies, UNSW. Click here for a printable 6-page PDF version of this response. ——————- This is a personal response to Lang’s (2012) article critiquing the peer-reviewed paper Elliston, Diesendorf and MacGill (2011) ‘Simulations of scenarios with 100% renewable electricity in the Australian National Electricity Market’, referred […]
Filed under: Emissions, Policy, Renewables | 67 Comments »
Guest post by Dr Ted Trainer, University of NSW (http://ssis.arts.unsw.edu.au/tsw/). Wood, A, T. Ellis, D. Mulloworth, and H. Morrow (2012) No Easy Choices: Which Way to Australia’s Energy Future. Technology Analysis. Grattan Institute, Melbourne. This report is a valuable addition to the literature on the prospects for renewable energy in Australia, providing some recent data on key […]
Filed under: Emissions, Policy, Renewables | 68 Comments »
Download the printable 33-page PDF (includes two appendices, on scenario assumptions and transmission cost estimates) HERE. For an Excel workbook that includes all calculations (and can be used for sensitivity analysis), click HERE. By Peter Lang. Peter is a retired geologist and engineer with 40 years experience on a wide range of energy projects throughout […]
Filed under: Emissions, Policy, Renewables | 153 Comments »
Guest Post by Elaine Hirsch. Elaine is kind of a jack-of-all-interests, from education to technology to public policy, so she is currently working as a writer for various education-related sites. Currently, she writes for an online school resource. Black Swan Theory, as explained by Nassim Nicholas Taleb in his 2007/2010 book, The Black Swan, describes an […]
Filed under: Nuclear, Policy | 30 Comments »
Ben Heard of DecarboniseSA asked if I’d like to reproduce his recent post, to give it exposure to the BNC audience. Given that I’m still in Spain and will be for a while, I’m happy to oblige. I think it’s an excellent piece — as I’ve come to expect from Ben — and I hope […]
Filed under: Nuclear, Policy | 28 Comments »
I have published a new paper in the peer-reviewed journal Energy Policy with the title “Could nuclear fission energy,etc., solve the greenhouse problem? The affirmative case” (currently online first, DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2011.11.041 — it will appear in the print version, with volume/page details, later this year). If you would like a PDF copy of the article, email me […]
Filed under: Hot News, Nuclear, Policy | 54 Comments »
The Christmas to New Year period is traditionally ‘hibernation mode’ for blogs, when page views and comment counts plummet (my hits have dropped about 70% compared to early December!). I suppose this is a time when people find better things to do than sit in front of a computer screen (family time, good food, beach/snow […]
Filed under: Hot News, Nuclear, Policy, Renewables | 34 Comments »
As many BNC readers already know, I was invited to write an opinion essay for ABC Environment and The Drum: Unleashed on the Fukushima situation as we approach the end of 2011. On the latter site, the essay was entitled “Fukushima, nuclear and the rational approach to energy” and drew >300 comments (many rather heated) […]
Filed under: Nuclear, Policy | 87 Comments »
——————— Guest post by John Morgan. John runs R&D programmes at a Sydney startup company. He has a PhD in physical chemistry, and research experience in chemical engineering in the US and at CSIRO. He is a regular commenter on BNC. Energy minister Martin Ferguson has today released the Draft Energy White Paper 2011 (The Australian, ABC). The […]
Filed under: Nuclear, Policy, Renewables | 82 Comments »
Today I was in Melbourne, joining a panel of five who are the chapter authors of a new policy monograph called “Australia’s Nuclear Options“. This event was to formally launch the 61-page report, which was commissioned and published by CEDA (Committee for Economic Development of Australia), edited by CEDA Chief Economist Nathan Taylor (who also […]
Filed under: Emissions, Nuclear, Policy | 88 Comments »
I have a new paper out in the peer-reviewed journal Biological Conservation that will be of interest to BNC readers. It is called “Strange bedfellows? Techno-fixes to solve the big conservation issues in southern Asia“, by Barry W. Brook & Corey J.A. Bradshaw. Here are some details: Abstract The conservation challenges facing mega-biodiverse South and Southeast […]
Filed under: Future, Hot News, Impacts, Policy | 9 Comments »
Guest Post by Peter Lang. Peter is a retired geologist and engineer with 40 years experience on a wide range of energy projects throughout the world, including managing energy R&D and providing policy advice for government and opposition. His experience includes: coal, oil, gas, hydro, geothermal, nuclear power plants, nuclear waste disposal, and a wide range of energy […]
Filed under: Emissions, Nuclear, Policy, Renewables | 262 Comments »
In early September 2011, I attended the Brisbane Writer’s Festival and participated in a number of events. One was an excellent discussion with Ian Lowe, my co-author on the book “Why vs Why: Nuclear Power“, which unfortunately wasn’t recorded, but was a terrific exchange. The other was a joint session I did with Prof Bryan […]
Filed under: Hot News, Policy | 8 Comments »
Guest Post by Martin Nicholson. Martin studied mathematics, engineering and electrical sciences at Cambridge University in the UK and graduated with a Masters degree in 1974. He has spent most of his working life as business owner and chief executive of a number of information technology companies in Australia. He has a strong interest in business […]
Filed under: Emissions, Nuclear, Policy | 109 Comments »
In response to Steve Kirsch’s open letter recently posted here, BNC reader Gary Kahanak initiated the creation of an online petition to the White House calling for restarting the IFR program. He collaborated with Steve Kirsch, Tom Blees, Suzanne Hobbs and Tom Wigley to do this. The petition is now live. This is in response […]
Filed under: Nuclear, Policy | 48 Comments »
Steve Kirsch of SCGI is like the Energizer Bunny — he never runs out of energy in trying to get something meaningful done on the carbon emission mitigation problem. Below is his open letter to the U.S. President’s energy and climate policy staffer. His aim: to get Chuck Till an invitation to the White House! […]
Filed under: IFR FaD, Nuclear, Policy | 79 Comments »
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