A scheduled drilling effort to construct a test borehole in the deep shale formations of North Dakota is one of the first moves in the U.S. Dept. of Energy’s formal effort to develop new nuclear storage options for low-level radioactive waste fuel from nuclear powerplants, now often housed on-site in temporary facilities, such as cooling ponds and aboveground concrete casks.
One year after the devastating March 11 tsunami and earthquake caused a nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station in Japan, regulators in the U.S. are working to ensure the country's fleet of nuclear reactors are safe and strong enough to withstand a natural or man-made disaster of similar force.
Global energy demand will grow by 39% by 2030, driven almost entirely by the increased use of energy in all forms in China, India, the Middle East and other areas of the developing world, according the latest Energy Outlook, released on Jan. 18 by the London-based oil giant BP.
