There is only one credible pathway to decarbonise heating and cooling: heat pumps.

So temporary subsidies are needed to overcome the inertia in the market and bring down cost for those who are not ‘middle class’

Heat pumps are not in the slightest bit exotic technology, it’s just many gas boiler installers haven’t had enough heat pump customers for it to become muscle memory…

🚨Post-doc in geochemistry @plymuni.bsky.social, looking at minerals and microbes in groundwater heat pump systems, if that's your thing - take a look: hrservices.plymouth.ac.uk/tlive_webrec...

🚨Post-doc in geochemistry @plymuni.bsky.social, looking at minerals and microbes in groundwater heat pump systems, if that's your thing - take a look: hrservices.plymouth.ac.uk/tlive_webrec...

China could be the world’s biggest public funder of science within two years Forecast by science-policy researchers raises questions about where the epicentre of global research will shift to in the coming decade.

We already see this.
I'm party of an international team of water scientists giving lectures on freshwater to Chinese university students. The first class has 1,500 students and they expect 10,000 to take the course. 10,000!
Just on #water issues.

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

I don’t disagree with your claim about financial cost. I do however think it is a price worth paying to sustain a nuclear trained workforce, capable of delivering complex projects such as this. The significant low carbon base-load is a nice bonus, as an addition to renewables

HPC is the first new nuclear in the UK in a generation, lessons learned during construction should mean the same design at Sizewell will be cheaper…

Many miniature national flags on a desk with 3-D letters spelling SEI on windowsill behind

Strong flag game over at the Sustainable Earth Institute today @plymouthuni

Tools for assessing microbial risks of groundwater heating, CASE project with The Environment Agency | Aries Dr Simon Gregory, Decarbonisation and Resource Management, British Geological Survey Dr Matt Bailey-Ross, School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Science, University of Plymouth Dr Mike Spence…

PhD studentship - microbes and aquifer energy systems, located at the fantastic @bgs.ac.uk aries-dtp.ac.uk/studentships...

Deadline extended to 20 Jan

A shame to see confidence eroding, perhaps no surprise given shortage of willing communities and options for siting

I think the biggest challenge we have in the UK is our cultural landscape, it is very difficult to have a grown up conversation without sensationalist intervention

Public consent can mean a range of things, I’m sure the Swiss ‘geology first’ implementer would argue public consent was very much part of their siting process

Climeworks’ capture fails to cover its own emissions The carbon capture company Climeworks only captures a fraction of the CO2 it promises its machines can capture. The company is failing to carbon offset the emissions resulting from its operations – wh...

Oooof. Those direct air capture machines built by Climeworks in Iceland, to pull carbon dioxide out of the air? Turns out ... they have generated more CO2 than they have captured.

Pretty sure it’s in all biosolids applied to land. Not even tested for here in UK… yet applied liberally to arable land near us. This also happens to be chalk downland, the regions main public water supply aquifer lies beneath

Absolutely, great to see such a diverse range of talks and insights into the many new projects being developed

@clairebaileyross.bsky.social

I’ve been wanting to investigate this, but acquiring samples legitimately is the main hurdle. I hear that the UK water industry (UKWIR) is starting to confront this issue, but we still know far to little

A statement from Cllr Craig Leyland, Leader of East Lindsey District Council - East Lindsey District Council A statement in relation to Nuclear Waste Services Ground Disposal Facility

Setback for UK nuclear waste Geological Disposal Programme as East Lindsey indicate they will withdraw from the siting process. www.e-lindsey.gov.uk/article/2798...

Billions risked on 'unproven' green tech, MPs warn The Public Accounts Committee warns the government of gambling public money on carbon capture.

As @doctorvive.bsky.social points out in her book, the CCS industry is a remarkable shape shifter.

It is simultaneously both:

An incipient invention in need of major state support & subsidies; &

A tried & tested technology that can be relied on to deliver net-zero

So while its correct that some wastes from our existing stockpiles can be processed for use in new reactors, this does not solve our complex and substantial legacy waste problem. Ultimately we need to press ahead with our geological disposal facility

Further to this, SMRs require a higher enriched fuel than conventional reactors - due to the need to sustain fission in smaller cores - which leads to hotter wastes. These wastes then need longer to cool at surface before disposal, with associated societal risks

Reprocessing spent nuclear fuel for reuse generates additional volumes waste, through direct contamination and activation. We have a lot of experience of this in the UK with Magnox and THORP at Sellafield

Whilst SMRs and nuclear new build generally seems a good idea to me, it is not correct to suggest that SMRs solve our nuclear waste problem…

Lecturer in Rock Engineering & Geotechnics (Education and Research) at University of Exeter Apply for the Lecturer in Rock Engineering & Geotechnics (Education and Research) role on jobs.ac.uk, the top job board for academic positions in higher education. View details and apply now.

🚨Job alert 🚨

We're looking for a Lecturer in Rock Engineering and Geotechnics @uniofexeternews.bsky.social on our beautiful Penryn Campus, Cornwall.

www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DKK672/l...

Be part of our vibrant research and teaching community at the Camborne School of Mines.

Please share :)

🧪⚒️🌏

For the avoidance of any doubt, deadlines on a Monday are not inclusive. Deadlines on the first Monday back after a school holiday... really?

Two scientists in blue cotton overalls crouching by pipework and scientific instruments, two locals, one on a quad bike in background

Pipes and valves like you’d find under your sink on the ground, small grey box with wire

Granite dam with water cascading. Branches with no leaves in foreground

Microplastics seem to get everywhere… out with @britgeosurvey.bsky.social on Dartmoor today, seeing whether they’re in groundwater and upland catchments

The UK is out on a limb here!

A poster listing the PhD opportunities available in the Geochemistry Group of the School of Ocean and Earth Science, University of Southampton. Geochemistry at Southampton comprises over 30 researchers and postgraduate students who apply state-of-the-art geochemical analysis and modelling to scientific questions of major societal, economic and environmental importance. With over £5M investment in new facilities over the past 5 years, the Geochemistry Group is one of the best equipped centres of its type in the world, allowing us to offer PhD projects that span a wide range of low and high temperature geochemistry research. Go to this link to find out more: https://noc.ac.uk/education/gsnocs/how-apply. There are also four images: a banner with a volcano, two photos of the laboratory, a diver sampling coral and a geologists in the field

We have 9 PhD projects in the general area of Geochemistry on offer this year via our DTP in a range of subjects (see flyer) from exploring rainfall in a past warmer world to studying the eruptive behaviour of a young stratovolcano. Please share with interested parties 🧪⚒️🌊🪸🐙