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The initial results of the government's consultation on the future of nuclear power are in, and broadly supportive of the government's position - to revive the moribund nuclear industry because it's now "green".
The consultation asked more than 1,000 people around the country to answer the following question:
"In the context of tackling climate change and ensuring energy security, do you agree or disagree that it would be in the public interest to give energy companies the option of investing in new nuclear power stations?"
Quote:
Overall, the 45 per cent of the UK professed itself to either agree or strongly agree with this statement. Regionally, this ranged from 39 per cent in London to 62 per cent in Exeter. Dissenters managed to grab 37 per cent of the national vote, with 16 per cent neither agreeing nor disagreeing. A further two per cent were simply unable to make up their minds.
Incidentally, whilst we're on the topic of green nukes, Russia has announced its newest weapon - a vaccuum bomb which has the power of a nuclear bomb, without environmental effects.
It creates an immense shockwave and temperatures so great that all living things instantly evaporate.
"Russia's main TV channels carried reports on the test"
Quote:
The Russian air force has tested a giant fuel-air bomb which the military says is the biggest non-nuclear explosive device in the world.
Russian TV showed a Tupolev bomber dropping the bomb over a test range, a powerful explosion and a four-storey building reduced to rubble.
Claims it is bigger than the Moab, a US device of similar destructive power, seem plausible, analysts say.
Such bombs are mainly designed to destroy underground targets.
Quote:
Robert Hewson, editor of Jane's Air-launched Weapons, believes that the Russian claims are plausible given the country's track record in developing, and using, fuel-air devices.
"I think the likelihood is that this is the world's biggest non-nuclear bomb," he told the BBC News website.
"You can argue about the numbers and how you scale this but the Russians have a long and proven history of developing weapons in the thermobaric class."
Here is some footage from a Russian news channel - the videos are pretty good. The bright orange bomb is the American MOAD (Massive Ordnance Air Blast, aka Mother Of All Bombs). The MOAD weighs 8tonnes, and is equivalent to 11 tonnes of TNT, with a blast radius of 150m. The Russian bomb is 7 tonnes, and is equivalent to 44 tonnes of TNT, with a blast radius of 300m.
And actually, it's not really a poor man's nuke (well, not for Russia or the USA, anyway) - Russia is very capable of producing nukes (and have far more than the US, more than they will ever need).
Excluding cost, one major advantage that fuel air bombs enjoy is the fact that their use is unrestricted.
Tests with the public were conducted with the MOAB - most that viewed its explosion incorrectly identified it as a small nuclear blast. Both the USA and Russia have recognised the psychological effect of the fuel air bomb - the US forces in Iraq initially considered the use of the MOAB as a shock-and-awe weapon.
Many military analysts have suggested that the Russian version (nicknamed the Father Of All Bombs) was intended for use in the Chechen conflict - unlike nuclear weapons, the use of fuel air bombs is currently not restricted.
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