Part Three: Promising Technology

Mr. Gates continued… “There are a few places on the planet that can produce tidal energy but that wont ever be gigantic. Geothermal, because of the formations and the amount of heat that comes through, is also going to be pretty minor. So what you’re left with is: Can you make fossil fuels carbon-free? That”s important to pursue but very hard to achieve.

America’s Power, a coal-industry PR group, has these ads that talk about clean coal. But there are a number of steps required to do that, and they really aren’t being done. For instance: the government has got to take responsibility for the long-term waste. They messed up on nuclear waste at Yucca Mt. and the long term waste from clean coal would be a billion times larger. The issue of where to put the waste is the hardest because of the consensus that’s required.

The nuclear approach I am involved in is called a ‘traveling-wave reactor, which uses waste uranium for fuel. There’s a lot of things that have to go right for that dream to come true- many decades of building demo plants, proving the economics are right. If it does, you could have cheaper fuel with zero CO2 emissions.” To be continued…