Thorium as a potential nuclear reactor

Thorium, a pure white silvery metal is being developed in China as a safe nuclear reactor. The Thorium fuel cycle has a perfect overheating safety feature; “If it begins to overheat, a little plug melts and the salts drain into a pan. There is no need for computers, or the sort of electrical pumps that were crippled by the tsunami. The reactor saves itself,” says ex Nasa scientist Kirk Sorensen from Teledyne Brown.

Where do good idea's come from?

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Brilliant short animation showing how ideas are formed, watch to see where technology innovation comes from. "Chance favours the connected mind."

Ferrari 599 EV Hybrid

Ferrari 599, the ultimate supercar engine, goes electric:

Porsche Boxter full EV prototype

Porsche have two hybrid vechicles, including a 918 Spyder but today they announced the prototype Boxter EV:

Not for retail sale, a 'rolling labotory' it will be interesting to see what the other supercar manufacturers come up with.

The Great Energy Challenge

National Geographic are running a special series of articles titled The Great Energy Challenge. The site has a huge range of news, web apps and video so you can explore the issues, encouraging you to alter personal behaviour to effect global change.

One very interesting article is Going "All The Way" With Renewable Energy which posits the true issue is (lack of) political will:

"Worldwide production of the rare earth mineral neodymium would have to quintuple to supply the millions of wind turbines needed to power a 100 percent renewable future, two researchers say. They view political will as a bigger stumbling block than any materials bottleneck."

Energy bridge

Been a little slow on the blog, too busy enjoying Kahurangi National Park in New Zealand. Time to catch up, lets start with this innovative design for a bridge at Solarpark South from Calabria, Italy. Sculptured Wind Turbines complement a solar cell road, creating an ecosystem for growing plants and produce.

Personal Energy Generation

CES, the Consumer Electronics Show is on now in Las Vegas. One of the many interesting new technologies on display is PEG, the Personal Energy Generator from nPower. This device contains a battery and works by stashing it in your bag as you walk around. It converts kinetic energy into an electrical charge that the battery stores.

About 15 minutes of walking creates 1 minute of charge for a high powered device such as an iPhone. If this can be shrunk you can see these popping up as extremely useful devices in our increasingly gadgetized world.