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"The owner of a defunct uranium mine leaking pollution along a creek that flows into a Denver Water reservoir has launched a cleanup as ordered, state officials confirmed Thursday. Cotter Corp. installed a system that can pump and treat up to 50 gallons per minute of contaminated water from inside its Schwartzenwalder Mine, west of Denver in Jefferson County. Water tests in 2007 recorded uranium levels in mine water exceeding the human health standard by 1,000 times. Elevated levels in Ralston Creek also were recorded. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment ordered the action. State natural-resources officials also are monitoring the mine, which produced uranium for weapons and nuclear power plants."

Mining for helium-3 on the moon is being considered as another alternate fuel source.

Geothermal energy has a lot of potential worldwide. As it is not dependent on many factors, geothermal energy could be the cleanest power source of near future. Two scientists from University of Oviedo, Spain, have concluded that geothermal energy could be provided by mine shafts.

Conventional geothermal power taps hot water rising naturally to the surface from shallow beds of volcanic rock. By contrast, hot rock, or engineered geothermal systems, depend on heating water by circulating it through rock as far down as 5 kilometres,

"Abandoned mines can be used as geothermal energy source Scientists have reviewed the potential for worldwide development of geothermal energy systems in old, unused mines. The technology is proven in many sites and could therefore help increase the share of renewable energy sources in the energy mix, offering sustainability and job creation, which may make mining operations more appealing to investors, communities and policymakers. (more...) Download article (PDF)"

The bid to produce green power on a commercial scale using heat mined from subterranean rocks - or "hot rocks" - has suffered a major setback, with the breach of a four-kilometre-deep well on Friday in the Cooper Basin in South Australia.

South Africa's power crisis today forced the world's three largest gold mining companies to shut down their operations as the government called the rolling blackouts across the country a "national emergency" and threatened to ration electricity.

"The weaknesses of federal regulatory agencies have been exposed by recent high-profile accidents. Guest columnist Tom Carpenter fears the Department of Energy will reduce its oversight of cleanup at the nation's nuclear waste sites. By Tom Carpenter Special to The Times PREV of NEXT Related Millions of gallons of oil gush continue to rush unabated from BP's mile-deep well in the Gulf of Mexico, and 11 workers are dead from the massive explosion that caused the biggest oil spill in decades. Weeks before this event, the news was dominated by the preventable explosion that killed 29 West Virginia coal miners. In both cases, the not-so surprising news was that the mine and the oil rig had abysmal records of safety violations before the explosions yet were still allowed to operate by the captive regulatory agencies. Where is the government accountability? It is the government's job to assure that ultra-hazardous industries operate safely and responsibly. Is nuclear next? The Department of Energy sits on the nation's biggest nuclear nightmare. Its inventories of highly radioactive and toxic wastes defy comprehension. Washingtonians are familiar with the DOE's No. 1 accomplishment, the Hanford nuclear site, which holds the lion's share of the nation's radioactive detritus. Suffice it to say that the escape of even a small fraction of such material into the environment would constitute a Chernobyl-sized catastrophe."

"In the wake of the BP Gulf oil disaster, the natural gas explosion in Texas this month and the coal mine diaster earlier this year. It seems like public consciousness is finally shifting. While being green and supporting renewable energy was a good public relations move for the last few years, it now seems like a practical one as well to prevent disasters like these from occurring again. It seems like the mood is ripe for the transition to renewables and other sustainable energy technologies to begin in earnest. I had the chance to sit down with Dr. Amory Lovins, chief scientist and co-founder of the Rocky Mountain Institute, to talk about how the transition to renewables will make the U.S. energy system more secure and stable and where the country currently stands in that process."

According to a study from Clarion University, Pennsylvania, USA each step in the current US process of building and running a nuclear plant, from mining the uranium ores to disposing of the wastes, contributes to greenhouse gas emissions. Indeed, the article states that for nuclear power to be a feasible alternative energy source the entire process would need to be more efficient. This study gives a view on nuclear power which includes long standing ideals. The paper seems to offer an intermediate review on issues around the subject of nuclear, in the wider energy debate.

Technology Review has an article on new fuel cells that don't require platinum - A Catalyst for Cheaper Fuel Cells. A new catalyst based on iron works as well as platinum-based catalysts for accelerating the chemical reactions inside hydrogen fuel cells. The finding could help make fuel cells for electric cars cheaper and more practical. Fuel cell researchers have been looking for cheaper, more abundant alternatives to platinum, which costs between $1,000 and $2,000 an ounce and is mined almost exclusively in just two countries: South Africa and Russia. One promising catalyst that uses far less expensive materials--iron, nitrogen, and carbon--has long been known to promote the necessary reactions, but at rates that are far too slow to be practical.