Catalogo Experimenta 06

mical and reach with certainty at least thirty years of life. The
second solution passes through nuclear power stations of the
new type, with self fertilising reactors cooled by liquid sodium.
Japan is today the only country oriented in this direction.
In conclusion, all the roads that take us to hydrogen are uphill.
But we must face them, if we want to reach downhill.
THE ENERGY PANORAMA
To out the discussion on hydrogen in the right perspective,
it is opportune to outline the world panorama of the energy
resources extracting some figures from the “Data Book 2006”
of the Petroleum Union. 37.6 per cent of energy which makes
the world function comes from petroleum, 23.5 from natural
gas (methane), and 26.6 from coal. Altogether, 88 per cent
of energy is derived from fossil sources, that is to say limited
and therefore destined to become exhausted: we are burning
petroleum, coal and gas at a rate of one million times
more briefly that these resources took to form themselves in
the geologic eras. Nuclear contributes with 6 per cent, but
also uranium is destined to become exhausted. The really renewable
sources – hydroelectricity, geothermal, wind energy
and solar – for now are marginal. Altogether they represent
only 6.2 per cent of energy devoured by the spaceship Terra.
In 2005 consumption was more than 10.3 billion tep (tons
of equivalent petroleum). That is to say, on average, more
than a ton and a half per year per inhabitant: but it must
be remembered that an American consumes the energy of
two Europeans, ten Chinese, fifteen Indians, and a hundred
Ethiopians. This is data that we should remember that exists
- or should exist – even an ethic of equal distribution of the
energy resources.
Piero Bianucci (president Experimenta’s Scientific Committee):
Writer and scientific journalist of “La Stampa”
INDEX SCIENTIFIC STUDIES
129