The NGNP Alliance recently published a thought provoking blog
titled Energy Vs. Electricity and Why We Care that clearly
explains the basis for their interest in using high temperature
gas cooled reactors. That group of far-sighted organizations was
formed in recognition that the energy market is far larger than
just producing electricity. They believe that higher temperature
reactors offer a good path for enabling fission energy to serve
needs in other segments of the energy market, bringing its
energy density and emission free nature to applications like
industrial process heat and enhanced resource recovery. If we
moved our electricity production to 100% carbon free sources,
like nuclear, hydro, and renewables, we would reduce the use of
carbon fuels by only 25%. Basically cutting most coal
consumption and reducing natural gas by 30%. But we would still
be left huge amounts of petroleum and natural gas being used for
industrial and transportation purposes. The NGNP Alliance is
looking at a new kind of reac