T&A: Bill Gates has formed a partnership with Toshiba in a bid to research, develop and produce compact nuclear reactors called a travelling-wave reactor, this according to reports from various sources, including Forbes, FoxNews and Reuters.

With Gates funding a company called TerraPower, the firm will work with Toshiba to it provides a cheaper, safer and alternative solution to clean energy as opposed to typical fission nuclear reactors. While the news has gotten many energy experts and journalists excited, according to some sources, the process will take between 5-10 years before we’ll even be able to see a working commercialized unit. Let’s hope the prototype comes out sooner then.

Meanwhile, here’s Gates talking up clean energy for the planet during his speech at TED in February earlier this year.

Kawasaki from the air

T&A: Nikkei’s Tech-On published a feature story on Japan’s Kawasaki city and how, through anti-pollution technologies, the city has managed to see Mt. Fuji through clearer skies from a once heavily polluted, dark sky industrial city in the 1960s and 1970s.

In the city’s recently ended International ECO-Tech Fair 2009 (17-18 February 2009), several anti-pollution measures and technologies were unveiled, including a bicycle that uses pedalling energy and a filter to convert muddy water into drinkable water, and an electric car that can go up to 370km per hour (2015 is the targeted go-commercial year).

It is quite apparent that many Asian cities, including those HWM is based in, are now looking at how Kawasaki did it and taking lessons learned from the fair to bring home and study.

We’ve polled our various regional editors based in the various industrialized cities in this region to find out if there are any new recycling and anti-pollution technologies introduced that could help keep our skies cleaner. (Editor opinions: 3)

Terence Ang, Supervising Editor, HWM

Terence (HWM SG): According to the National Environment Agency in Singapore, PM2.5, or fine particulate matter finer than 2.5 microns in size, is a growing concern when it comes to monitoring the ambient air quality in the city (it is also linked to higher incidences of respiratory and heart diseases). The US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) set the PM2.5 standard at a level of 15 (ug/m3), of which Singapore was far behind at an average level of 19 (ug/m3) in 2003. (more…)