• Take a tour of San Francisco’s Market Street in 1905 with this film of streetcars and busy foot traffic. (Jalopnik)
• Is it possible to safely store nuclear waste for a million years? One geoscientist thinks so, but it’ll take a ten-thousand year trial to find out. (BldgBlog)
• Africa’s infrastructure situation is, in a word, dire. A new study warns the continent must double its current annual investment to have any chance at catching up with the developed world. (Ghana Business News)
• Using its signature unscientific method, Zagat ranks the world’s airlines. Bet you can’t guess who has the best economy service! (InTransit)
• At the end of 2009, the cost of solar power will be down 50% over the year–before subsidies, that is, which means equipment costs have nosedived. (SustainableBusiness)
• Circular subway lines have psychological appeal, but they’re way less efficient than linear ones. As such, London is breaking the chain on its infamous Loop. (HumanTransit)
Happy Thanksgiving from the Infrastructurist! The Dig will return on Friday.
November 25th, 2009 at 2:52 pm
FYI, the Africa Infrastructure article - the link to the Ghana Business News redirects to a different article.
The website associated with the Africa Infrastructure report (from which the report can be downloaded) is http://www.infrastructureafrica.org/.
November 25th, 2009 at 3:15 pm
Thanks Joshua, for the tip and the report. The link is correct now.
November 25th, 2009 at 9:56 pm
I think it’s time to give up on nuclear. It’s just too many obstacles, too much crap to put up with, most shocking of all: Wind energy is cheaper now. Yep. Whether getting the manufacturing down to a tee, or moving everything to China, wind development has finally leapfrogged nuclear. At this pace in renewables, it wouldn’t surprise me if solar surpasses it next within 5 years (less than the decade it takes to push a new plant through congress + actually build it).
Every state has to have a windy or sunny place. Not many have uranium reserves, or useless streams of water to locate cooling plants in, or a place to store/recycle the rods. We can finally put to rest those leaky old plants meant for 40 years, being used for 60 years, that are giving them all that bad rep. Then there wouldn’t be much controversy giving them money for R&D so they can refresh themselves and see if they have a place in the future, I just can’t believe we’ll get anywhere with them in the present.
December 1st, 2009 at 7:53 pm
Wind energy cannot provide base load power. Solar cannot provide base load power. Even if we heavily deploy renewables (and we should), we still need something to replace all those gigawatt-range coal fired power plants which run at max 24/7. Renewable energy plants are, basically, reducing the number of nuclear plants we’re eventually going to need.