Links: Top-level Nuclear Power page Power Generation - What are the alternatives?   Nuclear Q&A - Answers to common questions: What about radiation? What about waste? Why couldn't Chernobyl happen in the U.S.? Alternative Energy Sources - what about Solar? Wind? Fuel Cells? Electric Cars - The personal transportation of the future. Reduce Impact - Are you concerned about the inherent dangers in any power generation technology? Try consuming less! The Evils of Coal - If you want to get steamin' mad about a power generation technology, try coal. Coal Power kills more people each year than Nuclear power ever has, worldwide, including Chernobyl.

Electric Cars   Electric cars are most definitely not pollution-free. They don't pollute during use, true, but they are responsible for the pollution and environmental impact created during generation of the power used to charge them. Furthermore, there are many energy losses during the conversions of energy into various forms until its final use in the electric car. Finally, there is environmental impact involved in manufacture and disposal of the batteries. Electric cars do have (at least) three wonderful attributes, however: Because they don't pollute during use, they get the pollution out of the worst possible place: densely populated urban areas. Electric cars are independent of the technique used to create the power. An electric motor is far simpler than any type of internal combustion engine. No cylinders, no carborator, no rods, no heads, no pistons, no starter, no spark plug, no radiator/cooler, no muffler... The metric of choice in analyzing electric cars is impact-per-distance. And, here we have good news: Even if we stupidly generated all our electric power via coal, an electric car would still be responsible for less net pollution than a gasoline car. Visit GM's electric car. The Tango commuter car .NREL Hybrid Electric Vehicle Program - information about vehicles and components, research developments, and auto manufacturers. If you have questions, comments, praise, or criticism for these pages, I'd love to hear it. Send mail here.