Science & Technology

Article Link: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-51711019

Discussion posted by: David McNamara

In the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, government restrictions on the number of petrol cars sold each year mean she would have to enter a lottery or auction to be able to buy a petrol vehicle. “There is a possibility you may never get it. With the electric vehicle green licence, you don’t have to wait in line,” she says. Shenzhen has become the showpiece capital for the Chinese electric dream. In 2017 it became the first city in the world to introduce a fleet of electric buses. A year later, the government rolled out a plan to replace city taxis with electric cars. “In Shenzhen, in almost every residential building there are two charging units. One out of 10 cars on the street are Teslas,” she says. “In China if the policy leads in one direction, technology and money goes in that direction too,” she says.

Article Link: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200309-are-small-nuclear-power-plants-safe-and-efficient

Discussion posted by: David McNamara

Huge computer screens line a dark, windowless control room in Corvallis, Oregon, where engineers at the company Nuscale Power hope to define the next wave of nuclear energy. Glowing icons fill the screens, representing the power output of 12 miniature nuclear reactors. Together, these small modular reactors would generate about the same amount of power as one of the conventional nuclear plants that currently dot the United States – producing enough electricity to power 540,000 homes. On the glowing screens, a palm tree indicates which of the dozen units is on “island mode”, allowing a single reactor to run disconnected from the grid in case of an emergency.