Nuclear's Next Wave
The long-term future of safe, reliable, and ample nuclear power
may involve a transition from fission to fusion. Its promise is
an effectively limitless fuel supply with orders of magnitude less
inventory of radioactive material, drastically reducing the risk
of a nuclear accident. At one of only two nuclear engineering departments
in the west, Peterson and his team are off with a running start
with an approach called "inertial fusion," compressing fuel to extraordinarily
high densities and igniting it.
Engineering the Energy Market
To upgrade California's energy marketplace with more efficient
trading paradigms, CITRIS researchers are looking to Wall Street
for ideas.
World's Smallest Internal
Combustion Engine
UC
Berkeley photo |
The power source for tomorrow's laptop computers and cellular
phones may have more in common with car engines than conventional
batteries. Mechanical engineers at UC Berkeley's Combustion Processes
Laboratories have built the world's smallest rotary
internal combustion engine. Not much larger than a stack of
pennies, the steel mini-engine can keep a bicycle headlight
lit for two hours on just a shotglass full of liquid hydrocarbon
fuel like butane or propane.
A Power Plant in Every Home
If renewable energy is finally ready for primetime, as many scientists
believe, why are we still so dependent on natural gas?
|
Peg Skorpinski photo |
Brainy
Buildings Conserve Energy
In the midst of this energy crisis, how do you know if you're
wasting power? Try asking your house. Instrumenting buildings
with a network of tiny and inexpensive electronic sensors could
save the state as much as $7 to $8 billion a year in energy costs
while keeping consumers' utility bills in check.
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