Research and development into new nuclear energy systems is, to a large extent, driven by –

· The resources depletion and anticipated price escalation of hydrocarbon fuels
· Major environmental problems associated with the control and containment of the exhaust gases and waste effluents associated with chemical combustion in hydrocarbon fuel cycles and possible economic penalties resulting from the Kyoto protocol.
· The escalating energy demands of the world’s developing nations due to population growth and ever increasing urbanisation and industrialisation.
· The increasing need for base load fuels in many energy intensive manufacturing industries dependent on electricity or process heat. Amongst these industries are, for example, the production of aluminium, magnesium and titanium – three key metals of the twenty-first century. Of equal or even greater importance within the one hundred years perspective will be the production of fresh, potable or irrigation quality water from the oceans and polluted rivers and water resources of the planet by energy intensive processes.

Informed scientific and technical opinion world-wide is in agreement over the necessity for present and emerging nuclear energy systems to complement and to some extent replace obsolescent hydrocarbon plant over the next fifty years. Over this time scale base load energy requirements will have to be supplied from high energy density fuels. Uranium, thorium and plutonium fall into this category and provide fuel cycles with a sustainability of thousands of years. In the second half of this century it is possible that deuterium and tritium fuelled fusion devices will be introduced in a fully engineered form to supply base load energy. Low energy density or discontinuous renewable energy systems will, undoubtedly, supply an increasing contribution to global energy need over the next fifty years. Over this time scale the popular appeal of sun, wind, wave, tide, biomass and geo-thermal technologies will, no doubt, be subjected to intensive technical and economic evaluation. Likewise, the safety and cost structure of emerging nuclear systems will undergo rigorous examination and assessment.

It is just possible that the second half of the twenty-first century will see a global energy scenario made up largely of emerging nuclear energy systems, together with a selection of “dilute discontinuous nuclear derivatives” such as solar energy and wind energy.
 
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