"Many environmentalists believe that wind and solar power can be
scaled to meet the rising demand [of billions emerging from
poverty], especially if coupled with aggressive efforts to cut
waste," reports Justin Gillis. "But a lot of energy analysts
have crunched the numbers and concluded that today’s renewables,
important as they are, cannot get us even halfway there." Gillis
discusses the most promising innovations in nuclear power, which
many technologists see as the most viable option for providing a
reliable source of electricity without carbon emissions. These
include "a practicable type of nuclear fusion", "a fission
reactor that could run on today’s nuclear waste", and "a safer
reactor based on an abundant element called thorium." "Beyond
the question of whether they will work," he adds, "these
ambitious schemes pose a larger issue: How much faith should we,
as a society, put in the idea of a big technological fix to save
the world from climate change?" And as is appropriate for a
nuclear-related news