Energy alternatives

Due to sharp rise in oil proces after the 1973 Arab-Israeli War, world attention has been focussed on the energy problem. At present the energy problem is limited to the cost and reliability of supply, even though there are enough supplies to go round. However, in the future the problem will be of availability, because in spite of the full exploitation of currently available conventional energy sources, the supply will fall short of demand which will always be increasing. Hence, there is need to develop alternate energy sources, including fast breeder reactors, fusion reactors and MHD. Economic and technical aspects of these energy are discussed. (M.G.B.)