 As reported earlier on BNC, Dr James Hansen is currently in Australia (I had the pleasure of taking him out to dinner yesterday evening). Tonight he’ll be speaking on climate change and energy solutions at a public event at the Adelaide Convention Centre. There is still time to reserve a ticket and come along — please go here to book.
It’s also good to see a couple of news stories appearing in today’s media, which are worth reading (James Hansen keen on next-generation nuclear power and ‘Father of global warming’ to speak in Adelaide), as well as an opinion editorial published in The Australian, which Jim wrote whilst here in Adelaide (I reproduce it below). This Op Ed has direct bearing on what he’ll be talking about tonight at the event “After Copenhagen: Looking for real solutions“, and relates to material published earlier on BNC on the fee-and-dividend alternative to a cap-and-trade. Its message also ties strongly to a general thrust of this climate-energy blog, i.e., ensuring that nuclear power is available and able to compete fairly with other non-fossil-fuel technologies, on a ‘level playing field’, so as to maximise our chances of achieving effective emissions ... read more >>
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A new shade of green is gradually sweeping across China’s export manufacturing industry, one that took a while to take root. Companies are riding the environment-friendly wave.
Pressure from the national government and tightening regulations in overseas markets are compelling a growing number of suppliers to modify their business strategies and incorporate ecologically safe processes. The transition is neither extreme nor desperate, but the impact could be widespread as many midsize and small companies are also taking “green” initiatives. Due to the sheer number of these suppliers, they account for a large portion of the pollution and wasteful practices in the country. Irrespective of size, companies are introducing long-term strategies anchored on recycling, waste reduction and sustainable energy adoption. Recycling is the most common practice among factories, one that is carried out internally or through third parties. This, however, goes beyond reusing offcuts and scrap materials. Highly polluting industries such as leather tanning have always been required to invest in wastewater cleaning systems, but very few actually do. Now, many are investing large sums in ... read more >>
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 When you think 'green jobs,' do you conjure images of green hard hats, caulk guns, and tool belts? Well it might be time to start thinking about 'green' lab beakers, 'green' drafting tables and 'green' brief cases as well, because the careers needed to secure competitive clean energy industries will also run the gamut from cutting-edge researchers and high-tech engineers to innovative designers and fearless entrepreneurs, according to Dr. Henry Kelly, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary at the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency. Dr. Kelly spoke to an audience of Stanford University students Monday about the steps necessary to educate "the Energy Generation," warning that it will take a generation of the nation's best and brightest, working in dozens of diverse fields, to truly build a clean and prosperous American economy: So what is a green job? Well green jobs are architects and engineers that build buildings, design buildings that operate at extremely low energy use. They are people that design, manufacture, and install devices in buildings ranging from high-tech windows to lighting to sensors and controls and electronics. It means ... read more >>
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It will produce Lead-212 for anti-cancer treatments  AREVA Med LLC, a subsidiary of the AREVA group, announced March 10 the future construction of a facility on its Bessines site in France (Limousin region) which will produce medical-grade Lead-212* for anticancer treatments.
Relying on its experience in radiochemistry and nuclear engineering, AREVA has developed innovative processes to extract rare isotopes derived from its industrial activities.
AREVA CEO Anne Lauvergeon said, “This project illustrates AREVA’s capacity for innovation. We are delighted to contribute to the development of innovative medical solutions that derive from our core business activities.”
In nuclear medicine, the development of new treatments is dictated by isotope availability. With this new facility scheduled to open in 2013, rare Lead-212 will become more widely available and allow for the creation of new targeted therapies for patients.
Over the past several years, AREVA Med LLC and its partners have demonstrated the benefits of Lead-212 for use in innovative alpha radio-immunotherapy to combat cancer.
In 2009, AREVA was awarded a distinction by the Global ...
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 Wind industry leaders push Congress for a strong RES. (Photo: © Mesquite53 | Dreamstime.com) Wind energy industry descends on Capitol Hill to push for passage of a national renewable energy standard as the best way to ‘buy American’ in the long run. More than one hundred wind energy representatives are traveling to Washington D.C. this week for a special lobbying effort to push for a national renewable energy standard. Industry representatives will hold over 70 meetings with lawmakers on Wednesday, March 10 in an event called, “Wind Power on Capitol Hill”, to urge passage of a national renewable energy standard that will give the wind energy industry the kind of stable policy foundation for long-term industry growth. The renewable energy standard has become the preferred policy mechanism in the U.S. for spurring commercial-scale wind energy development, with states like California and Colorado leading the way. Yet while most states in have some sort of renewable energy standard on the books, the lack of a national standard means that a handful of states are way behind the curve, having developed little if any renewable energy projects. “We need to drive demand ... read more >>
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The radio program "Are we alone?" from the SETI Institute does a regular series on skepticism in science. This week's show looks at climate change skepticism and features a terrific interview with Steve Schneider, as well as some thoughts from Naomi Oreskes. Former Apollo astronaut Phil Chapman offers his reasons for being a "skeptic", including the rather crazy unscientific claim that the rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide may be natural... ... read more >>
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photo: Todd Woody In The New York Times on Wednesday, I write about California regulators’ preliminary decision to reject requests by two big utilities to install grid-connected fuel cells: While Google, Wal-Mart and other corporations have embraced fuel cells, California regulators have turned down requests from the state’s two biggest utilities to install the technology. In a preliminary decision, an administrative law judge with the California Public Utilities Commission found unwarranted an application from Pacific Gas and Electric and Southern California to spend more than $43 million to install fuel cells that would generate six megawatts of electricity. The technology transforms hydrogen, natural gas or other fuels into electricity through an electrochemical process, emitting fewer or no pollutants, depending on the type of fuel used. “It is unreasonable to spend three times the price paid to renewable generation for the proposed Fuel Cell Projects, which are nonrenewable and fueled by natural gas,”... read more >>
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My fellow efficiency advocates and I have spent countless hours over the last year negotiating with manufacturers of every appliance and piece of equipment imaginable, trying to reach agreements on what the next energy standards will look like. These standards set the minimum level of efficiency that every product covered must meet to be sold and are generally set by the Department of Energy. Sometimes, advocates and industry can reach an agreement before DOE gets involved, using creative solutions that may outside the scope of a DOE rulemaking, and on products that DOE does not yet cover. Negotiations on these products go back and forth and get into the most obscure technical details. Where do we set the bar? What products won’t make the cut? What is the time frame? How do we deal with this or that niche product? These questions are just the beginning. In many cases, the sides are just too far apart – but sometimes we can actually make a deal. And against the backdrop of a revitalized DOE, we have crossed the finish line on a host of products that are included in S. 3059, the National Energy Efficiency Enhancement Act of ... read more >>
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photo: IBM In The New York Times on Tuesday, I wrote about how scientists at IBM and Stanford University have developed a new process for making plastic that could have major environmental implications: Researchers at I.B.M. and Stanford University said Tuesday that they have discovered a new way to make plastics that can be continuously recycled or developed for novel uses in health care and microelectronics. In a paper published in Macromolecules, a journal of the American Chemical Society, the California researchers describe how they substituted organic catalysts for the metal oxide or metal hydroxide catalysts most often used to make the polymers that form plastics. Chandrasekhar Narayan, who leads I.B.M.’s science and technology team at its Almaden Research Center in San Jose, Calif., said the presence of metal catalysts in plastics means that they often can only be recycled once before ending up in a landfill. “When you try to take a product and recycle it, the metal in the polymer continues to degrade the polymer so it gets increasingly less strong,” said Mr. Narayan. “If you use organic reactants, you can make certain types of new polymers that are quite ... read more >>
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According to the US Department of Energy, “…coal is the nation’s major fuel for electric power”. While we all know efforts are being made to change that statistic, the fact remains that coal will play a large role in how the country fulfills it near-term power needs. So, if this is a fact that we cannot deny, then we must ask ourselves are efforts being made to reduce the negative environmental impacts of coal? Whether it be pollution into the air, water or the solid waste, how can we reduce the environmental footprint left behind by coal? There are many potential solutions yet to be realized, and each of the possible solutions deserves to be reviewed and considered. A solution that I believe has the potential to significantly reduce the amount of coal ash we must store in landfills or ponds, is being profiled on the Discovery Channel on March 11th (and can be viewed afterward on YouTube). PMI Ash Technologies (www.pmiash.com), one of the first companies to commercialize an environmental solution for fly ash, is a company that (in full disclosure) I am proud to be a part of. With all the negative discussion about fly ash – especially in the last year – it is great ... read more >>
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