ENERGY (exerpt):
Look for a wave of new, small nuclear reactors to enter service in a decade. A merging of interests.electric utilities' need to replace old coal-fired production units and steel manufacturers' desire to supply the new market.is giving nukes new life. Lehigh Heavy Forge of Pa. will supply vessels for Babcock & Wilcox nuclear reactors. They'll be the first such structures from a U.S. steelmaker in 30 years. The units, now under development at N.C.-based Babcock & Wilcox and NuScale of Ore., can be preassembled and delivered via rail or ship. They generate only a fraction of the output of traditional plants, but the cost per unit of output compares favorably. Plus their small size means they are easier to site near existing transmission lines. TECHNOLOGY: Uncle Sam is pulling out all the stops to advance battery technology. A new partnership between the Dept. of Energy's network of national labs, university researchers and private firms will spend up to $120 million over five years to mastermind batteries of the future. The goal: Cut costs and boost energy storage. Call it the moon landing of battery research. The country's top chemists will rethink fundamental battery design, with engineers turning the resulting insights into real-world prototypes and venture capitalists deciding how to commercialize them. The focus will be on promising but untried chemical ingredients, such as magnesium and yttrium. Both potentially have far higher energy storage capacity than lithium. Many industries stand to benefit.autos, renewable power, electronics, etc. The high cost and limited staying power of today's batteries are the twin barriers to affordable electric vehicles. And to compete with coal and natural gas, solar and wind power need efficient storage of electricity that's produced ahead of need. Though pricey, backup batteries for solar power systems will gain favor in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, which forced many rooftop solar panels off-line to protect workers from shocks as they fixed damaged power lines. Most folks with solar systems ended up in the dark just when they most needed backup power. Emergency batteries can make a rooftop system truly independent of the electric grid during outages. Solar-panel-generated electricity that's stored in the batteries can power lights and other equipment during extended blackouts. * * * * Personal Thoughts: Predictably, I've yet to see the slightest hint of any kind of "CF/LENR" discussion within this subscription service. Apparently, any kind of private discussion concerning "CF/LENR" R&D, if there has been any, has not yet risen to a point where the editors feel it warrants being brought up to their subscriber base. It's been my experience that this subscription service tends to be very conservative when it comes to subjects like ENERGY. They cater primarily to the business world. Nevertheless, in my experience the subscription service does have a good track record in sniffing out a lot of political innuendo that eventually spills out into the public domain. sometimes months or even years in advance. Subscribe to the news service to get more interesting & timely data. Regards, Steven Vincent Johnson www.OrionWorks.com www.zazzle.com/orionworks
