Nuclear cars: They're not science fiction anymore

Jim Motavalli:


In the nuke-crazed 1950s, Ford wanted to put mini reactors in cars. That didn't fly, but now we're hearing of radioactive thorium lasers that could power a car 300,000 miles without recharging. But what if two of them have an accident?

Thu, Sep 01 2011 at 4:00 PM EST

Are you ready for a laser-powered nuclear car? No, it’s not science fiction, but a modern concept that GE’s “Txchnologist” blog calls a “thoroughly plausible idea.” Actually, writer Steven Ashley (who also blogs for Scientific American) qualifies that further down by saying it has “a kernel of plausibility.” General Motors apparently thinks so, too, because it showed off a similar Cadillac-based prototype in 2009.



The idea of nuke cars is not actually new: Circa 1957, Ford built a 3/8th-sized scale model of an exotic looking vehicle (huge fins) called the Nucleon (at right) that was supposed to go 5,000 miles on a radioactive “charge.” Uranium fission heated a steam generator, and the steam drove turbines -- a nuclear power plant on wheels. The reactor was in the trunk, so storage space wasn’t too great. What would have happened if two of these buggies had collided? The accident scene would need to be quarantined for 10,000 years.



According to Ford, “The model featured a power capsule suspended between twin booms at the rear. The capsule, which would contain a radioactive core for motive power, would be easily interchangeable at the driver’s option, according to performance needs and the distance to be traveled.”



It’s not surprising that the Nucleon never made it to a full-sized prototype, but such was the nuclear optimism of the “too cheap to meter” 1950s. The new car is completely different, but after Fukushima it’s still going to make a lot of people nervous.



The invention of Charles Stevens of the Massachusetts-based R&D company Laser Power Systems, the system is far short of the Nucleon’s full-fledged nuclear reactor. The key is thorium, which is radioactive but not on the same scale as uranium (though it can sub for it in reactors). In the proposed car, “an accelerator-driven thorium-based laser” is used not to send a beam of energy but to generate concentrated heat.



Stevens says his thorium car would be “emissions free” and never need recharging. A gram of thorium has the same energy content as 7,500 gallons of gas, and eight grams could power a car for 300,000 miles. I’m still wondering what happens when two of these cars come together.



Cadillac’s car has styling right out of Star Trek and is called the World Thorium Fuel Concept. It doesn’t have any actual onboard thorium, but it theoretically could.



Stevens doesn’t have a working model, either, because according to Txchnologist it’s having some difficulties integrating the laser with the turbine and generator. And, my guess, he’d also have just a few minor challenges GETTING THE CAR LICENSED. Sorry for the screaming there.



It would be great if you could create a nuclear car safely, but there are a million reasons it will never work. Look at that crazy 8.8-megawatt Russian reactor on wheels at left -- I'd be calmer driving a nitroglycerin truck through a minefield. But hope springs eternal. According to ABC News in 2010, scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory “have created a long-sought molecule known as uranium nitride” that is designed to remove hydrogen atoms from carbon atoms and “extract more energy from fossil fuels, making cars more fuel-efficient, and could also lead to cheaper drugs.” A few glitches there, too -- uranium nitride has to become a catalyst, and that’s not scientifically possible now.



Finally, I hear that scientists at the DOE’s Idaho National Laboratory announced last week that they'd put together a suitcase-sized 40-kilowatt nuke that “could power up to eight normal-sized homes,” and also generate electricity for manned missions to Mars. According to MSNBC, “The team plans to build a physical demonstration unit for the plant and test out its capabilities next year.”



Forgive me for playing the devil’s advocate here, but aren’t suitcase nukes a huge terrorist threat? Just asking. By the way, I have a hazy memory of visiting that same Idaho National Lab some years ago and seeing the huge carcass of what was described as an experimental nuclear car from the 1950s. Maybe I dreamed that.

How elephants could solve the biofuel problem

By Cahal Milmo, Chief Reporter

Tuesday, 30 August 2011

When it comes to weaning the world's motorists off their addiction to fossil fuel, few would have bet on finding part of the solution in the pungent depths of elephant droppings and a Swiss compost heap.


A biochemical cocktail based on enzymes and micro-organisms found in elephant faeces and in rotting vegetable matter has the potential to revolutionise biofuel production by making it possible to mass-produce eco-friendly gasoline for the first time without relying on food crops, say the scientists.

A Dutch technology giant, DSM, has signed deals to introduce its new fermenting technique in test plants across Europe and the US, meaning ethanol, which currently makes up 4 per cent of all petrol in Britain, derived from crop waste and wood chips, could be available at the pump by 2015.

Research shows the new technology, along with other second generation or "2G" biofuels, could produce up to 90 billion litres of bio-ethanol in Europe by 2020 and displace more than 60 per cent of conventional petrol use as well as reducing reliance on crops such as maize, which has been blamed for fuelling the global food crisis.

But scientists warn there is a lack of political will across Europe to provide the support and subsidy for large-scale production. Environmentalists also question whether the hundreds of millions of tonnes of "bio-mass" required can be produced without encroaching on land used for food production.

But researchers believe that after decades of false dawns for the biofuels industry as it seeks to produce products which can compete on grounds of price and energy content with fossil fuels, they are on the cusp of a commercially viable method of production that converts vegetable matter previously considered to be unusable waste into ethanol, which must form 10 per cent of all road transport fuel by 2020 in Europe.

Inspiration for one half of the technique, which is being tested in demonstration-scale refineries due to come on line in 2014, came from analysis of mechanisms in the intestines of elephants which allow them to digest not only "ordinary" sugars such as glucose, but other sugars which normally remain locked up in the cellulose structure of plant cells. American researchers have also found bacteria in the droppings of bamboo-chomping pandas which could be similarly effective in biofuel production.

When the elephant enzymes were combined with another enzyme found in an analysis of a compost heap in Switzerland, tests showed the resulting cocktail could convert 90 per cent of bio-mass, such as maize stalks or wheat straw, into ethanol – about double the rate until now.

One analysis calculated that widespread take-up of 2G biofuel could reduce greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles by more than 40 per cent by 2020. Volkert Claassen, DSM's head of strategy in biotechnology, said: "From the technology point of view, we are very confident that this will work. But we are at the point where we need to take this to a very different level ... If you want to make these kinds of tremendous changes in the world, then you need the right political environment."

Barclays launches £100m renewables fund for farmers

Bank's business arm to help UK farmers finance renewable energy projects following a massive surge in interest

Reuters
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 30 August 2011 11.55 BST

More than one-third of UK farmers want to install renewable energy projects on their land, most of them within the next year, and hope to generate average returns of £25,000 pounds a year, Barclays bank says.


The bank's business arm on Tuesday launched a £100m fund to help farmers finance renewable energy projects, including solar panels, windfarms, hydro plants and organic waste power, as a growing number of agricultural businesses seek to benefit from government support tariffs.


"We want to signal very clearly to the market that we consider this to be a big future industry, a big opportunity for agricultural businesses and also a big opportunity for the renewables," said Barclays business product and marketing director, Travers Clarke-Walker, whose team will be managing the fund.


"This is a quickly emerging industry."


A Barclays survey of 300 agricultural customers also showed four out of five farmers recognise renewable energy can save costs and 60% see it as a source of additional income.


The use of renewable energy on farmland has been brought to public attention in Britain by Michael Eavis, farmer and founder of the Glastonbury music festival, who installed more than 1,000 solar panels on his land.


The cost of installing renewable energy projects can be recovered after around 10 years, Clarke-Walker said.


The UK government slashed state support for large-scale solar plants earlier this month as it was concerned a few huge commercial projects would scoop up money intended for household and community projects.


Nevertheless, Clarke-Walker expects around 80-90% of projects will be solar and windfarms as they are cheapest to build and their costs are forecast to drop by up to 50% in the next three to five years as demand rises and technology improves.


Britain aims to generate 15% of energy from renewable sources by 2020, compared with 7.4% reached in 2010.


The fund's loan budget is unlimited and the first £100m could support more than 100 projects as the average cost varies between £250,000-£700,000, Clarke-Walker said.


Suffolk-based farmer Mike Porter, who plants crops such as wheat and oil seed rape, received a £130,000 loan from Barclays to install solar panels on a grain store last month and is expected to make £20,000 per year by exporting power to the National Grid.