• Science

    Nuking Stowaways

    By Posted on 7.11.2008 5 Comments

    Transoceanic freighters haul 80 percent of the world’s commercial goods. But those boats inadvertently carry destructive cargo as well. An empty ship can suck up more than 10 million gallons of water to stay balanced as it crosses the open ocean. Upon its arrival into another port, the crew pumps the ballast water and any small animals or plants living in that water—sometimes thousands of organisms per gallon—into foreign harbors, where they invade and damage local ecosystems.

    7.13.2008 at 08:46am - Comment by cajun_usmarine

    $40,000 to clean the water of a ship one time. Not including the money spent putting this equipment in... Before the media picked up on the subject and started talking about the damage done, what was the purpose of these companies to spend that money? It's probably not that it didn't exist, just no reason for them to pay that kind of money to install and use it. As well as not giving us the inspiration to talk about it at all.

  • Science

    Powering Cars With Toxic Waste

    By Posted on 7.1.2008 5 Comments

    With global warming grabbing headlines, carbon-free nuclear power is gaining popularity—and with it, concerns over what to do with the spent uranium fuel. The largest long-term burial project, Yucca Mountain, has stalled, and even though uranium’s first trip through a reactor extracts only 5 percent of its energy, power plants in the U.S. don’t reprocess fuel. This is mainly because the most common form of uranium, an ion called uranyl, is extremely difficult to extract from the spent fuel rods. But a new Pac-Man-like molecule could change that.

    7.2.2008 at 07:31am - Comment by cajun_usmarine

    Electric plug in cars that arn't on the market yet?



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