Sooner or later the World MUST concentrate on atomic energy. The sensible
French already have 90% of their energy requirements provided by atomic
power stations. The remainder by hydro-electric and tidal power. The
Japanese, having no natural biological energy resources, are also quietly
well on their way. Iranians, oil producers themselves, are busy building
there own atomic power stations in anticipation of a World oil shortage,
but
their efforts are sabotaged by multi-national legal and political warfare
about who gets the development, investment and construction contracts.

What about renewable sources providing all of it, and sensibly conserving
energy with energy efficient appliances, homes, transport etc so that less
of it is required in the first place? Nuclear fission of current fuels
(Uranium) is in any case only a postponement of the problem since eventually
Uranium supplies will be burnt up just the same as fossil fuels.

The real costs of the nuclear alternatives have never been properly
considered, since nuclear programs have always been subsidised by
governments interested in the defence (or offence) applications of the
technology and byproducts. Once the full lifecycle cost of the power
stations is taken into account they become rather uneconomic in comparison
to other forms of energy such as renewable sources. The latter would have
become much much cheaper long ago had they received the same degree of
subsidised research and development as nuclear.

When the World is mainly on atomic energy, electronic circuit designers
can
feel free to enjoy themselves and exercise their unrestrained
imaginations.

At the moment my imagination concentrates itself on the unimaginably tiny
and simple frequency counter with tiny current consumption. Forget nuclear,
this thing could even run off solar power recharged batteries ;-)

So please, indulge my fancy for an even lower current frequency counter
containing just 2 IC's,, and tell me if there's a way!

73 Hans G0UPL
http://www.HansSummers.com