Sir
You provide an admirable summary of electricity generation without fossil fuels in your News Feature 'Electricity without carbon' (Nature 454, 816–823; 2008). I would add to the section on nuclear fission the six concepts being studied by the US Department of Energy in its programme for considering the next generation of nuclear technologies.
One of these recommends using heavy-metal coolants, which avoids some of the disadvantages associated with water-cooled systems. Heavy-metal coolants are inherently safer and produce a much smaller fraction of waste for disposal (see, for example, E. P. Loewen Am. Sci. 92, 522–531; 2004).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Contributions may be sent to correspondence@nature.com.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Hirsch, D. Energy: time to consider heavy-metal nuclear coolants?. Nature 455, 461 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/455461b
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/455461b
