Free Republic

Scientists have been chasing the dream of harnessing the reactions that power the Sun since the dawn of the atomic era. Interest, and investment, in the carbon-free energy source is heating up. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ For the better part of a century now, astronomers and physicists have known that a process called thermonuclear fusion has kept the Sun and the stars shining for millions or even billions of years. And ever since that discovery, they’ve dreamed of bringing that energy source down to Earth and using it to power the modern world. It’s a dream that’s only become more compelling today, in...

Datacenters use a lot of power and despite our best efforts, a big chunk of that still comes from burning fossil fuels. But what if instead of relying on local utilities for power, these facilities generated their own – maybe using a relatively itty-bitty nuclear reactor?In a recent report, Omdia analysts Alan Howard and Vladimir Galabov made the case that using small modular reactors (SMRs) to power large datacenters might not be as crazy as it sounds.As the name suggests, SMRs are essentially just miniaturized reactors. Instead of a massive facility producing gigawatts or more of power, SMRs are designed...

DeLorean Motor Company CEO Stephen Wynne recently told KPRC in Houston that the iconic car made famous by the 1985 classic sci-fi film "Back to the Future" will go back into production for the first time in more than three decades. About 300 replica 1982 DeLoreans will be produced under a manufacturing bill approved by the federal government. "It's fantastic," Wynne told the TV station. "It's a game-changer for us. We've been wanting this to happen. ... It means we're back as a car company again." Since the company moved to Humble, Texas, in 1987, it has been refurbishing dozens...

A U.S. company says it is getting closer to putting prototype electric cars on the road that will be powered by the heavy-metal thorium (Steam Electric 250MW)... with prototype in two years....never needs refueled.

Cold Fusion, the act of producing a nuclear reaction at room temperature, has long been relegated to science fiction after researchers were unable to recreate the experiment that first "discovered" the phenomenon. But a Japanese scientist was supposedly able to start a cold fusion reaction earlier this week, which—if the results are real—could revolutionize the way we gather energy. Yoshiaki Arata, a highly respected physicist in Japan, demonstrated a low-energy nuclear reaction at Osaka University on Thursday. In front of a live audience, including reporters from six major newspapers and two TV studios, Arata and a co-professor Yue-Chang Zhang, produced...

Researchers find a way to make liquid fuels from waste cheaply and without the pollution produced by earlier methods. A new system for converting trash into ethanol and methanol could help reduce the amount of waste piling up in landfills while displacing a large fraction of the fossil fuels used to power vehicles in the United States. The technology, developed originally by researchers at MIT and at Batelle Pacific Northwest National Labs (PNNL), in Richland, WA, doesn't incinerate refuse, so it doesn't produce the pollutants that have historically plagued efforts to convert waste into energy. Instead, the technology vaporizes organic...

JACKSON - Three Rivers Solid Waste Authority wants to turn trash into gas for the everyday automobile. The people who run the 285-acre landfill next to Savannah River Site have invested $400,000 on a machine that separates plastic and paper from other wastes, leaving behind a "processed engineered fuel" that has been used to replace coal. Now they want to take the cycle a step further by turning the mounds of processed garbage into liquid ethanol for automobiles. Three Rivers General Manager Colin Covington estimates that half of the 250,000 tons of trash that roll into the dump each year...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Purdue University is investigating complaints about a scientist who claimed to have achieved "cold fusion" using sound waves to make bubbles in a test tube, the university said on Wednesday. Nuclear engineer Rusi Taleyarkhan's work has been controversial since he published a study in 2002 claiming to have achieved the Holy Grail of energy production -- nuclear fusion at room temperature. Nuclear fusion is the process that powers the sun. If scientists can duplicate the results and harness the technology, tabletop fusion has the potential to provide an almost limitless source of cheap energy. Many labs are...

New Technology Turns Garbage Into Gold IMAGINE... Imagine a machine that can turn almost anything into oil. Imagine that it uses natural processes like heat and pressure, and produces no pollution. Imagine that waste from landfills, refuse from poultry factories, sludge from city sewage, or even infectious medical waste, are used to make the oil. Everybody says it sounds too good to be true. But now we have the science -- and two factories -- to prove it. "This is a solution to three of the biggest problems facing mankind," Brian Appel, CEO of Changing World Technologies, Inc., told Discover...

An Israeli pilot, who is also an aeronautics engineer, has developed an aircraft called the X-Hawk that is able to land in places currently impossible for both helicopters and airplanes. The Hebrew daily Yediot Aharonot reported that Dr. Raffi Yoeli established his Urban Aerodynamics company with the express purpose of creating his conceived aircraft. His invention, the X-Hawk, can take off and land vertically, but, unlike a helicopter, the X-Hawk does not have external propellers – which constitute the chief obstacle to close-proximity landing and hovering. The X-Hawk incorporates the propellers into the body of the aircraft. Another feature of...

May 16, 2003 Turning turkey into oil Process gleans fuel from waste By BILL BERGSTROM Associated Press Writer Brian Appel, chairman and chief executive officer of Changing World Technologies, holds up a glass vial containing oil produced from turkey products in the company's Philadelphia plant. The CWT plant uses the first commercially successful application of thermal processing to convert organic waste like tires, plastics, raw sewage, plant and animal waste into clean fuel. AP Photo/MARK STEHLE PHILADELPHIA -- The versatile turkey has been chopped, pressed and processed into foods as diverse as burgers and bacon. Now a Long Island entrepreneur...