This is Jess Williamson and you are watching ZapRoot.
Nuclear, turns out it's actually only two syllables and after eight years of mispronunciation, it still sounds pretty terrifying. Yeah, you have heard of Chernobyl, 3 Mile Island etcetera. But in case you have been living in a cave, we are having a bit of an energy crisis and if consumption keeps going up or not we are going to need a cleaner option. Although Xbox are not going to power themselves, it may not be as cheap as coal, but some say it actually might be cleaner and safer for the environment.
According to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, coal actually releases 100 times more radioactive material into air than nuclear reactors do. But the Union of Concerned Scientists says safety as the primary concern. They even have an interactive map where you can track some things like reported groundwater leaks and year long outages due to safety violations at nuclear power plant in the US and there is the problem.
Nuclear sounds great, but it's actually doing it right that's the hard part. So Los Alamos, the good old folks that blowed up Hiroshima have some ideas. They have designed power plant that are smaller than a garden chase can power 20,000 homes and are made to be installed locally, meaning around the corner from you. Given their past performance with nuclear power and weapon, the US government has licensed this technology to Hyperion and New Mexico Company has already started taking orders and plans to start mass production by 2013. It will cost about 25 million. The company seeks to generate electricity for $0.10 per watt.
Since they are factory-sealed, contain no weapons-grade material, encased in concrete and buried underground, they probably won't be a target for thief or terrorist. Oh, wait now that nuclear is back to two syllables maybe we can go back to pronouncing it terrorist. So there you have it, safe, local nuclear they swear. So does anybody want to be the first to try it out? Raise your hands, anybody, anybody? Not.
Congratulations to Amy. Last week's blog post winners about things she learned in college, like what. Well, if you think you can beat that, there is a blog post winner on our community site each week, so come in and get in the game. There is a link in our site, sponsored by buygreen.com.
If you want to keep your place in the lightest sustainable, stop by checking out the blog of Lisa Foo and Su Sim who make all kinds of crazy sculptures out of old water bottles. Check out Parvez Michel Taj who does prints of his art on bamboo, cork and reclaim sorghum straw. It is the only large company that produces its pieces with entirely sustainable material. All are made with solvent free inks and put together with nontoxic adhesive. You can check him out at parvezmichel.com.
Or how about this cool cover and pillow case set that looks like cardboard, you know it gives that little real hobo kind of feel. Not surprisingly, profits going to help homeless people in the Netherlands. Check out the sculpture by Jean Shin called "Sound Wave" waves that is well exactly what it says it is. And you wondered what to do with this cassette tapes in your closets. Well, here you go, turn the cassettes themselves into a closet and checkout this coffee table made from old magazines.
Now don't you feel lazy and if you feel like you are not having fun with your furniture, maybe it should be made from all toys. Greg Len has some great options for you and check out these CFLs that are guaranteed to not fit in your lamp and if you want to keep track of all that fabulous art, try these journals made from Sugarcane folks. Now, you can't look the pages. Thanks watching and remember you can always look the pages at zaproot.com.
This week on WEPC TV.
Male Speaker: Is it possible to start a business like mugs tape with just a PC and motivation?
Male Speaker: I think it definitely is, if you think you have an idea there is really no excuse.
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