The Birmingham Brief - intelligent thought on policy issues.
- Description
- Many years ago a British politician, on learning that he was about to be appointed Minister for Transport, exclaimed: 'Some enemy hath done this!' It is not hard to see why he might have said this. The transport portfolio is often brimming over with some extremely difficult issues; and the HS2 (High Speed Rail 2) proposal is certainly no exception.
- Date:
- Thursday 31st January 2013
- Categories:
- Engineering and Physical Sciences, Research, Social Sciences
- Description
- The recently reported Coalition cabinet dialogues on future energy policy, ahead of the long awaited Energy bill due to be published in November, have highlighted the many choices that need to be made if the UK is to enjoy affordable and resilient energy systems.
- Date:
- Wednesday 24th October 2012
- Categories:
- Engineering and Physical Sciences
- Description
- The tragic events at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant constitute the worst nuclear disaster in more than two decades. Whilst the human cost is of paramount importance and rightly dominates the headlines there will also be significant implications for the future of the world wide nuclear industry, which suffered a 20 year decline after the partial core meltdown at Three Mile Island and the disaster at Chernobyl. Both events reinforced the negative public perception toward nuclear power that had emerged over the course of the 1970s.
- Date:
- Friday 18th March 2011
- Categories:
- Engineering and Physical Sciences, Life and Environmental Sciences, Research
- Description
- The recent terror plot to transport printers containing the explosive pentaerythritol tetranitrate, or PETN, from Yemen to Chicago synagogues has once again focused attention on the need to detect explosives reliably and in real-time. PETN is the same explosive that the so-called 'shoe-bomber' tried to set off on an American Airlines jet to Miami in 2001.
- Date:
- Thursday 11th November 2010
- Categories:
- Engineering and Physical Sciences, Research, Social Sciences