Energy Program annual report, 1991

The Energy Program emphasizes applied R ampersand D for energy technologies that will be important to the US in the next fifty years and which may be important long after that. Historically, we have focused on coal gasification; the development of alternative liquid fuels from oil shale, coal, and natural gas; transportation uses of electric power from refuelable batteries; geothermal energy; and support of nuclear energy through the development of new technologies for the disposal of high-level nuclear waste. Our current program addresses three objectives of the National Energy Strategy: (1) To enhance energy security by ensuring stable costs, increasing energy supplies, and developing alternatives to Middle East oil. (2) To improve environmental quality by implementing energy technologies that effect better air and water quality, improve land use, and protect global environmental systems. (3) To encourage economic growth through technologies that reduce the costs of energy production, storage, transport, transmission, and distribution; promote efficiency by reducing costs and end-user services; and strengthen resiliency and flexibility of energy systems. We have just begun a major program to commercialize the technology to extract oil from the large US reserves (greater than 700 billion barrels) of oil shale. Perhaps the single greatest barrier to the public acceptance of nuclear power is the perceived lack of a technical solution to the permanent disposal of wastes. We have developed new concepts that are aimed at improving the likelihood of technical assurance of long-term containment