Judy Spence,

I've seen a few your posts around now. It seems you have decided that nuclear is a limitless source of energy and we can put to all sorts of uses, such as driving our cars using hydrogen and desalination. If used to produce all our electricity needs the world has an estimated 40 years worth of Uranium, using existing mining techniques. That is not by any measure "limitless".

Its possible we will figure how to commercially extract Uranium from other sources like seawater in the future, and its possible breeder reactors may one day become workable. But then is possible carbon sequestration might be made to work, its possible solar will become more cost effective and its possible we will find a good way to store energy thus making heavy use of renewables feasible.

Who knows what the future holds, eh? The one thing I can say with some confidence is that hydrogen cars won't be part of it. Hydrogen dammed difficult to store. In fluid form it requires huge amounts of energy to compress and literally forces itself through the pores of metal containers so you loose 3% of it a day. In metal hydrate form it has 1/3 to 1/4 the energy of density petrol (meaning you need containers 3..4 times the size and weight) and hydrates can explode when exposed to moist air. The only way to use hydrogen efficiently enough to make it practical convert it to electricity using a fuel cell. The only working fuel cells we have today use a platinum catalyst, but there isn't enough platinum on the planet to make fuel cells for the cars we have on the road now.

In the next 3 or so electoral terms Judy we are going need some very level heads to guide us through Peak Oil. You are going to be feed all sorts of crap from companies trying to take advantage of the sense of panic it will create. Find some engineers or academics you can rely on to give you frank and fearless advice, and listen to them.

Hi Sophie,
Great project and very good questions for your survey.
1. yes
2. 3 vehicles
3. my everyday car is a 1981 Mazda 323 and I have 2 trucks which are used for my business.
4. yes
5.The mazda is very frugal and I don't do much driving in it anyway, so it uses about $30 or so a week. One of the trucks is petrol and used for local deliveries, averaging about 1000km a week at around 13l/100km. the other is diesel and has a crane on. It uses about $200-$400/week, depending on work load.
6. Heaps! Not sure exactly, but I'd guestimate about a 40-50% increase in fuel costs over the past 6 months.
7. No, as it's mainly determined by need, not discretion.
8. I can't do much in that regard.
9.I think so
10.no
11. I expect that fossil fuels will become untenably expensive for personal transport.
12. We have started work on building a producer-gas gasifier with a view to possibly running the small truck on it, as well as a generator to provide power for the business.

rstuart,
Another thing about hydrogen cars, because of the gas leakage you
can't park them in enclosed or underground car parks.
The gas would accumulate up amongst the fluorescent lights, hmmm

thanks to everyone who has been filling out the questionnaire, its a great help !