The Oil Drum: Australia/New Zealand | The Bullroarer

13 comments on The Bullroarer - Thursday 3 July 2008

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Boof on July 3, 2008 - 9:41am

I'll try and read these links tomorrow but just a quick comment now; as usual Lovins leaves out the bits that don't help his argument. All these micro this and thats have been completely dwarfed by increasing coal use in China in the last few years. Maybe he should go back to telling us hydrogen will be the big new energy source.

Also geothermal in NZ and Asian 'ring of fire' countries is volcanic, not granite fractured with dynamite. The rock is already water permeable and has a high heat flux, not a temporarily elevated temperature due to insulation by overlying rock.

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Cretaceous on July 4, 2008 - 9:14pm

Boof,

Just for the record, the granite fractures at Innamincka are natural. Geodynamics have achieved pressure connectivity between their wells without any artficial cracking being required. The actual geological processes that formed the resource are fascinating and give one a real sense of the passage of deep time in our ancient continent...
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/science/ockham/stories/s1440622.htm

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Big Gav on July 4, 2008 - 11:22pm

That is an informative interview - thanks for posting the link.

I like his closing remarks :-)

Incidentally, British Nuclear Fuels provide a classic example of nuclear non-costing. The cleanup of their operations will cost UK taxpayers $US50-billion, and will be borne by an ad hoc Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. Needless to say the original idea of cheap, if not green, nuclear-generated electricity in the UK is now a sad joke.

Of British Nuclear Fuels’ environmental scandals, the latest is probably the juiciest: since August last year, highly radioactive nuclear fuel dissolved in nitric acid has leaked, creating an Olympic-size swimming pool of toxic liquid and containing enough plutonium to make 20 nuclear weapons.

In the short span of a few years Central Australia has flipped from being in the sights of British Nuclear Fuels to becoming a potential generator of baseload electricity for future generations of Australians.

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