Exclusive environmental investigations and films on energy, low carbon and alternative renewable technologies, climate change and the environmental impact of energy
Decommissioning has a ring of finality to it. But don't be fooled. A nuclear reactor will be standing for another 150 years before it is finally razed to the ground
5000 years ago the English Channel didn't exist - so where are we going to bury our nuclear waste that will be safe for up to one million years...or more?
Stop worrying about major accidents such as Chernobyl, nuclear reactors legally emit radioactive particles that are causing clusters to erupt around the country.
Think nuclear power and you probably think of small amounts of highly radioactive material, safely encased in vast concrete bunkers, generating an endless supply of clean electricity. Yes it's expensive and clearly there is a problem with nuclear waste, but if it is the answer to climate change then why not?
Think nuclear power and you probably thing of small amounts of highly radioactive material, safely encased in vast concrete bunkers, generating an endless and constant supply of clean electricity. Yes it's expensive and clearly there is a problem with nuclear waste, but if it is the answer to climate change then why not?
Our lives are now so dependent on oil that it is impossible to conceive of a world without it. Before long, however, we will have no choice. The sooner we start planning for that reality, and changing the way we live, the better our chance of survival.
In 1956, at a meeting of the American Petroleum Institute in San Antonio, US geophysicist, M King Hubbert predicted that US oil production – which until then had been constantly increasing – would peak in the early 1970s, and then start to fall.
Unlike large dams, now widely acknowledged to be unsustainable and ineffective, micro-hydro involves the use of small mills and dams to provide clean energy and an alternative source of income for rural communities.
The community of Machynlleth has gone beyond just investing in someone else’s wind turbine. They’ve clubbed together and planned, built and paid for one of their own.
Do wind turbines provide an affordable means of harnessing a limitless source of clean power, or are they inefficient blots on the landscape that devastate birdlife and are more likely to exacerbate than reduce CO2 emissions?
Some 245 Indian villages are in the middle of being destroyed by a $7 billion dam project that will consume more energy than it provides and has even been condemned by its World Bank sponsors.
Costing over $1 billion, the Karahnjukar hydroelectric dam in Iceland is a hugely controversial project. Mark Lynas journeyed to the blasting face, hoping to work out for himself whether this industrial elephant is green or brilliant-white.
War on Iraq is about a lot more than boosting oil companies’ profits. It’s the latest battle in the ongoing war over who gets to control the earth’s remaining energy reserves. By Lutz C Kleveman.