Nuclear Energy and the Hydrogen Economy

In today's Knoxville News Sentinel, H. Lee Martin makes the connection between the hydrogen economy and nuclear energy:

There has been a lot of press about the "hydrogen economy" - referring to the use of hydrogen to power our mobile society. But there is one key element not often mentioned - how do you get the hydrogen?

The primary way to obtain hydrogen is to use electricity to separate water into its component elements - the electricity for this must come from somewhere. Typical generating fuel sources for electricity are coal, natural gas, oil or nuclear. Coal fouls the environment. Burning oil or natural gas actually worsens the economic and environmental equation of making the hydrogen.

That brings us to nuclear - and national will. The only realistic alternative for the next 40 years and beyond is nuclear power. Even the politicians are beginning to realize this fact.

Read the rest right now.

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Technorati tags: Nuclear Energy, Environment, Energy, Politics, Technology, Economics

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NEI Nuclear Notes

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