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Is Nuclear Energy Profitable – Round Two

In October last year I wrote Is Nuclear Energy Profitable? and how it is profitable until things go wrong. And then it is spectacularly not profitable. And that assumes a project comes in on budget in the first place. Now, as reported by Charles Arthur citing an article in the Financial Times, industry sources estimate the cost of building Sizewell …

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Close The Door

Before we started Lost Heat, before we thought of making a website or canvassing shopkeepers, there was another website and initiative about which we knew nothing. It was only on 28 November this year that I noticed a sign on the door of a shop in the middle of Cambridge. That led me to their website at Close The Door. …

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Alternatives To Nuclear Energy

The big changes is that batteries are getting cheaper and cheaper, as a solar panels. And not only cheaper but better and simpler. Batteries are not just environmentally better than burning fossil fuels, they are a better technology. There are several practical alternatives to nuclear power, each with unique benefits and limitations. Here are some leading options: Each of these …

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Carl Sagan Testifying Before Congress In 1985

Carl Sagan: If you ask what determines the Earth’s climate, clearly the main thing that determines it is sunlight. Sunlight is what heats the Earth. Not all the light that arrives at the Earth from the sun goes to heating the Earth. Some of it is reflected back. It’s just the part that is absorbed. And what happens is there’s …

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Is Nuclear Energy Profitable

There are costs associated with enterprises that may or may not be brought into the calculation of benefit versus cost. So what about nuclear energy? Is it profitable if the costs of decommissioning are brought into the equation? Regarding the most modern proven design of nuclear power plants, what is the cost of construction, including sourcing the fissionable materials, the …

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Is Agricultre Profitable

What about linear agriculture that depends up chemical fertilizers bought in? Those chemicals then run off and enter the water table. Who pays to clean up the water at the sewage works and water treatment plants? Circular agriculture uses animal and plant waste from the farm to make organic fertiliser. Very little escapes the loop except for agricultural products. Circular …

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Electric Norway

The population of Norway is 5.457 million with an area of 385,207 square kilometres (148,729 sq mi). The population of Great Britain is 66.97 million with an area of 209,331 km2 (80,823 sq mi). From these figures, the population density of Britain is twenty-four times that of Norway. And when we look at the main urban centres, London has a …

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Truth and How

How not to mix things up in a world full of casual brushes with the truth – uncaring as to what is real and what is not. In principle it has always been the same for at least some. Now, however, we have reached critical mass. Each uncaring and unthinking person has access to weapons of war. A tweet ricochets off …

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Storing Energy

Fossil fuels store energy. Assuming you have extracted enough, you can meet your needs and produce energy on demand by burning them. Solar is different, The fuel store is the sun, but when it’s cloudy the source dries up until the sun shines again. Wind is different. When the wind drops the source dried up. That has been the problem …

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China’s Energy Output

Coal accounted for 53% of power generation in May 2024 (source). That sounds bad and it is. But the bigger picture is that solar energy is rising fast. And despite the increased energy demand year on year, the estimate is that China reached peak emissions in 2023.