:00:00. > :00:22.homes. Now it is time for Reporters.
:00:23. > :00:30.Welcome to this Reporters special on the future of fuel. I am in Beijing.
:00:31. > :00:34.We have come to China, the world's largest energy user, to look at the
:00:35. > :00:38.challenges that lie ahead. To explore some of the possible
:00:39. > :00:42.solutions for meeting the surge in demand for energy both here and
:00:43. > :00:50.around the world. In this programme, China, the
:00:51. > :00:56.world's largest polluter is trying to go green. Becoming the leader in
:00:57. > :01:04.wind power. It used to take two base to make one turbine. Now we can make
:01:05. > :01:06.two in a day. In America, the new technique in fracking leads to a
:01:07. > :01:11.boom in shale gas, transforming the market.
:01:12. > :01:18.And we meet the scientist researching an idea borrowed from
:01:19. > :01:21.nature. Investigating an alternative nuclear
:01:22. > :01:28.fuel. Safer than uranium and more abundant. I am standing on top of
:01:29. > :01:34.the reactor itself. Now there is where the thorium has been tested.
:01:35. > :01:40.And the future of fusion. The world's most ambitious project to
:01:41. > :01:44.recreate the power of the sun. We are going to be taking a pair of
:01:45. > :01:52.atoms and then forcing or fusing them together. That will release
:01:53. > :01:56.even more energy. China uses more energy than any
:01:57. > :02:01.other country in the world. At that also means it is a major source of
:02:02. > :02:06.pollution. The quality of the air is a real concern for people here. Many
:02:07. > :02:12.check online every day to get the latest pollution data. The Chinese
:02:13. > :02:17.government is investing $300 billion trying to clear up. I have been
:02:18. > :02:19.investigating the scale of the problem and what can be done about
:02:20. > :02:24.it. There are good days in China. Look
:02:25. > :02:31.at one of the many bad ones. The editor is a toxic grey. The smog
:02:32. > :02:38.choking this treats content products linked to asthma and heart trouble.
:02:39. > :02:43.It may be taking five years of the average lifespan. So to venture
:02:44. > :02:48.outside in the Chinese winter, these twin girls do not just eat coats.
:02:49. > :02:58.Their mother wants them to wear facemasks. Like many, she is scared
:02:59. > :03:05.of the area they have to breathe. TRANSLATION: There are so many
:03:06. > :03:09.people and cars here, affecting the children's health. She is even
:03:10. > :03:16.thinking of moving away. You cannot actually see some of the most
:03:17. > :03:20.damaging pollution. It involves particles that are microscopically
:03:21. > :03:28.small. Let us use virtual reality to visualise them. They are less than
:03:29. > :03:36.2.5 mu. Across. You could fit 400 in a single millimetre. By comparison,
:03:37. > :03:40.a grain of sand is 20 times larger. This matters, because the particles
:03:41. > :03:45.are small enough not just to get into the lungs, but also into the
:03:46. > :03:53.bloodstream. This kind of pollution is measured by the cubic metre of
:03:54. > :03:58.air. That is visualise that right here. The World Health Organisation
:03:59. > :04:03.sets a maximum limit of 25 of these particles in this space. And says we
:04:04. > :04:08.should not breathe more than over a 24-hour period. But a of 200 is
:04:09. > :04:17.routinely reached in many Chinese cities. It wants to -- wants peaked
:04:18. > :04:25.at 800. So what are the authorities doing? They are closing down the
:04:26. > :04:31.power plants that use call. Next, they are trying to limit road
:04:32. > :04:37.traffic. Officials say they are confident they can clean up.
:04:38. > :04:42.TRANSLATION: Many cities in the world had air problems in the past.
:04:43. > :04:47.London was nicknamed smog city. At the air is much better now. We have
:04:48. > :04:54.already moved fast to combat the problem. But some organisations are
:04:55. > :04:58.taking matters into their own hands. The International School of Beijing
:04:59. > :05:07.has sealed off part of its playground. Inside this vast,
:05:08. > :05:11.inflatable dome, the children are breathing filtered air. It is
:05:12. > :05:17.reassuring for the parents. It is one of the first questions that
:05:18. > :05:21.respective families will ask during the admissions process during the
:05:22. > :05:30.tour of the facility. What is the air quality inside? People actually
:05:31. > :05:35.ask? Yes. The very worst smog forces the entire city to close down. Rapid
:05:36. > :05:39.growth has an ugly downside. The government is banking on green
:05:40. > :05:42.technology for the future. Pollution will be a reality here for years to
:05:43. > :05:51.come. What of the power behind China's
:05:52. > :05:55.boom has come from coal. But it is also a major source of pollution and
:05:56. > :06:00.releases the gas is responsible for global warming. One of the responses
:06:01. > :06:04.has been a massive push for renewable energy. We have been out
:06:05. > :06:09.to the far west to see some of the country's largest wind farms. Out in
:06:10. > :06:13.the frozen deserts. Everything about China is on a
:06:14. > :06:19.massive scale. When they decide to go for wind energy, you end up with
:06:20. > :06:23.windfarms on a truly epic scale. I am in the far west of the country.
:06:24. > :06:26.Because it is winter the Desert is frozen. They are installing
:06:27. > :06:33.thousands of these things every year. It is part of the push for
:06:34. > :06:39.renewable energy the world has ever seen. It is not much went today. The
:06:40. > :06:45.blades are hardly toning. That makes it ideal conditions for installing
:06:46. > :06:51.more of these. The wind has picked up, but there are still planning to
:06:52. > :06:54.go ahead and install this next one. This played a suspended just above
:06:55. > :07:00.the ground has been connected to the hub. A crane is ready to hoist the
:07:01. > :07:05.whole thing right up to the top of that power. What is remarkable is
:07:06. > :07:10.how they have accelerated the process. A few years ago it took
:07:11. > :07:17.them two days to install one, now they can do one in a single day. Our
:07:18. > :07:22.timelapse camera has captured the process in action. High-speed,
:07:23. > :07:28.increasingly efficient, happening more and more across China. Let us
:07:29. > :07:37.take a look behind the scenes. This is an assembly plant. It is hard to
:07:38. > :07:42.get your head around these. But picture the massive blades attached
:07:43. > :07:45.to them and the whole thing mounted on top of those powers we have
:07:46. > :07:49.seen. The investment in wind in China is so massive that these
:07:50. > :07:55.companies are driving down prices and coming up with their own
:07:56. > :07:59.innovations. It is a globally important force. There's also a
:08:00. > :08:08.great sense of pride about this technology. One of the guys who
:08:09. > :08:11.works here, even to his bride on their wedding day, went out to pose
:08:12. > :08:20.for pick is. Here they are, the happy couple. Not many countries
:08:21. > :08:23.would see a scene like this. Modern China, with its gleaming
:08:24. > :08:28.skyscrapers, has an insatiable appetite for a energy. That is why
:08:29. > :08:33.there is interest in a new way of getting hold of oil and gas. That
:08:34. > :08:39.technique is fracking. The process of breaking up Shale Rock to release
:08:40. > :08:44.fossil fuels. It was pioneered in America. There, the Shale gas boom
:08:45. > :08:51.has led to read dramatic fall in prices. I have been to a new
:08:52. > :09:00.frontier in the south of Texas. A glimpse of the underworld, a view
:09:01. > :09:07.of the geology beneath our feet. This is the latest way to discover
:09:08. > :09:13.Shale, a type of rock that is transforming the future of fuel. It
:09:14. > :09:18.has changed the face of the energy picture in the US. In 2007 we were
:09:19. > :09:21.looking at importing gas. But because of the Shale gas revolution,
:09:22. > :09:30.in 2013 we are looking at exporting gas. Southern Texas is one Shale gas
:09:31. > :09:36.frontier. America now produces more gas than Russia. The key is
:09:37. > :09:40.fracking. Breaking up the Shale. Tracking has been around for years.
:09:41. > :09:50.But new techniques keep making it easier to get a hold of the gas that
:09:51. > :09:57.flies -- lies underground. They turn the drill horizontally and run it to
:09:58. > :10:00.break through the layer. The aim is to get tiny fissures in the rock.
:10:01. > :10:08.Some are less than one millimetre across. Inside them are tiny
:10:09. > :10:12.molecules of gas. Water and chemicals are pumped in at high
:10:13. > :10:20.pressure. This is to widen those fishes. -- fisheries. Tiny grains
:10:21. > :10:27.are added to the mix. There are designed to hold the cracks open.
:10:28. > :10:32.This release is the gas. It is then flushed through the drill pipe and
:10:33. > :10:38.back up. New research is enhancing how this process happens all the
:10:39. > :10:45.time. This means there is a Shale gas boom under way. A mass of
:10:46. > :10:52.machinery. One risk of fracking is tremors. They are very rare. Another
:10:53. > :10:58.risk is polluting the water. If the work is not done carefully in open
:10:59. > :11:07.country there are few objections. But it is controversial close to
:11:08. > :11:11.home. We now have this oilfield. This man had fracking rate on his
:11:12. > :11:16.doorstep. Just beside his house in California. The company involved
:11:17. > :11:21.would not comment. Fracking was for oil, not gas, but the process was
:11:22. > :11:25.the same. It was a major inconvenience because of the
:11:26. > :11:33.activity around the clock. As well as the smell, the dust, the amount
:11:34. > :11:37.of trucks, the noise. But fracking is worth billions. This tunnel in
:11:38. > :11:44.Louisiana, built to import gas, is now being converted to exploit.
:11:45. > :11:47.American Shale gas will be sent from here to Britain, Spain and other
:11:48. > :11:55.countries. Potentially huge business. So fracking operations are
:11:56. > :12:01.speeding up, with more than 1 million in America so far. There is
:12:02. > :12:09.a lot of opposition. But with huge demand, a gold rush is on. With
:12:10. > :12:13.plans making energy and they can make it efficiently. Why can't we
:12:14. > :12:18.copied? That is what some scientists are trying to achieve with a form of
:12:19. > :12:22.artificial photosynthesis. That is the prose is where these combined
:12:23. > :12:29.carbon dioxide, sunlight and water to create a kind of fuel. Alistair
:12:30. > :12:35.was shown research in California that is about green power. Some of
:12:36. > :12:40.the world's biggest trees tower above Northern California. Thousand
:12:41. > :12:45.-year-old redwoods reach these lofty heights simply by typing the
:12:46. > :12:49.incredible power of the sun. Imagine if we humans could do that. If we
:12:50. > :12:53.could survive without burning fossil fuels, the remains of trees and
:12:54. > :12:58.plants from millions of years ago that worries about global warming
:12:59. > :13:01.would be over. That is where artificial third -- photosynthesis
:13:02. > :13:03.comes in. Man-made believes they could generate all the energy
:13:04. > :13:10.required and the technology is closer than you may think. Bubbles.
:13:11. > :13:16.Bowles in a bottle. By their and water, generating a gas which could
:13:17. > :13:19.be burned as fuel. What we demonstrating here is the splitting
:13:20. > :13:24.of water, the hydrogen and oxygen using sunlight. What I could
:13:25. > :13:29.undersell beef, turning air and water into the sugars that fuel the
:13:30. > :13:35.growth while taking out the time when -- carbon dioxide which warms
:13:36. > :13:37.the planet. With the -- this technology working competitively
:13:38. > :13:40.against fossil fuels we could reduce the rate at which the carbon dioxide
:13:41. > :13:46.levels in the atmosphere are increasing and stop the separation
:13:47. > :13:50.of climate change that we are now seeing. It would be world changing
:13:51. > :13:55.and in every meaning of that word. This lad is one of the US
:13:56. > :13:59.government's five energy innovation hubs. Confining chemists, biologist,
:14:00. > :14:06.physicists and engineers to develop solar panels which can create fuel
:14:07. > :14:10.rather than electricity. They have cutting-edge tools, to build new
:14:11. > :14:15.materials, molecule by molecule. Nanotechnology is making artificial
:14:16. > :14:19.plans possible. What is different about us is we are trying to take
:14:20. > :14:24.all of this beautiful science and put together to build a working
:14:25. > :14:28.prototype and a working prototype would be a foundation for a
:14:29. > :14:31.technology end technology would then be a foundation for an industry that
:14:32. > :14:37.would supply these fuels for us. This is really baby steps at the
:14:38. > :14:41.very beginning of the journey. Scientists across the world are
:14:42. > :14:43.chasing the technology but this US lab are planning to have a
:14:44. > :14:50.practical, working prototype within the year. And in a lifetime, to be
:14:51. > :14:56.generating hydrocarbon fuels like methanol ten times more efficient
:14:57. > :15:04.leaves NHL. It is a fuel of the future that could be truly world
:15:05. > :15:08.changing. One important energy choice by China is to go for nuclear
:15:09. > :15:12.power and they are building dozens of new reactors. They will be
:15:13. > :15:16.fuelled by uranium. The problem is, it is pretty expensive and leaves a
:15:17. > :15:20.legacy of radioactive waste. Scientists are searching an
:15:21. > :15:25.alternative nuclear fuel. It is called thorium. The adventures are
:15:26. > :15:29.is that it is abundant, leaves little waste and its byproducts
:15:30. > :15:39.cannot be used to make a nuclear bomb. There is a story test centre
:15:40. > :15:43.in Norway. -- thorium. The gentle hills of southern Norway, forged 600
:15:44. > :15:50.million years ago from the fire and ash of a super volcano. It left a
:15:51. > :15:55.hidden bounty for mankind. That is the opening to the mine. Sentries at
:15:56. > :16:00.iron have been hewn from this rock that a man with a geiger counter
:16:01. > :16:03.shows that the walls inside our field with a radioactive element.
:16:04. > :16:09.Thorium, high levels of thorium in this rock. If it is radioactive,
:16:10. > :16:17.could thorium be used as a nuclear fuel instead of its volatile cousin,
:16:18. > :16:22.uranium. Scientists are trying to find out. Tests are ongoing under
:16:23. > :16:26.this hill. There is a nuclear reactor in the belly of the Mt. It
:16:27. > :16:32.is likely on that movie. A private firm is being held by the British
:16:33. > :16:37.Government to trial thorium here. I am standing on top of the reactor
:16:38. > :16:41.itself. If I looked down the whole I can see the top of the reactor down
:16:42. > :16:47.below me. It is turned off and now for maintenance I say. Down there is
:16:48. > :16:52.where the thorium has been tested and the firm says that so far the
:16:53. > :16:56.experiments are going well. Similar tests are being carried out in
:16:57. > :17:02.India, China and Japan. Several nations assess the potential of
:17:03. > :17:05.thorium. There is a lot of thorium in the world, well distributed all
:17:06. > :17:09.over the world. In operations in the reactor, it there are chemical and
:17:10. > :17:15.physical properties that make it really superior than uranium as
:17:16. > :17:21.well. On the wayside we do not generate a new long-lived waste.
:17:22. > :17:26.There is a potential safety benefit, too. When this an army hit
:17:27. > :17:30.the uranium fuelled Fukushima plant two years ago, the reaction spun out
:17:31. > :17:34.of control. Scientists in Norway said it would not have happened with
:17:35. > :17:38.thorium. Critics say developing thorium will be expensive and will
:17:39. > :17:46.not produce clean energy for their gates. The abundance of thorium is
:17:47. > :17:51.political. The technology is into the future by decades. They should
:17:52. > :17:57.focus on developing new technology, offshore technology which has huge
:17:58. > :18:01.potential to develop. Politicians depend on nuclear technologies, they
:18:02. > :18:10.think that thorium bears further inspection. This next one is a long
:18:11. > :18:14.way off. China and other leading countries are spending a lot of
:18:15. > :18:18.money on fusion, for decades fusion has offered the dream of almost
:18:19. > :18:22.limitless power. It is the process that goes on inside the sun, atoms
:18:23. > :18:28.reinforced together to release energy. China is a partner in the
:18:29. > :18:32.most ambitious attempt so far to try to make this work. It is under
:18:33. > :18:38.construction in the south of France and I was given special access. At
:18:39. > :18:44.one of the world's largest construction sites, a dream for
:18:45. > :18:50.future energy is taking place. This is a project called it and it is
:18:51. > :18:56.trying something it shortly, building a machine that copies --
:18:57. > :19:02.that produces energy by copying the process that happens in the sun. It
:19:03. > :19:05.is the process known as fusion. Fusion promises a live energy for
:19:06. > :19:09.the planet. When we make it work, we will demonstrate it from a
:19:10. > :19:14.scientific and technology point of view that fusion energy can produce
:19:15. > :19:21.large-scale power. The vision is for a new kind of reactor which in
:19:22. > :19:24.theory is easy to fuel and leaves little greenhouse gas. Because of
:19:25. > :19:28.the potential, it is backed by Europe, America, China and India,
:19:29. > :19:32.Russia and Japan and South Korea. More than half of the world's
:19:33. > :19:38.population sharing the cost of ?13 billion. To explain how this is
:19:39. > :19:42.going to work, let's use virtual reality. In a normal nuclear
:19:43. > :19:53.reactor, you take an atom and split it. This releases energy. It is the
:19:54. > :19:56.process known as fission. What they do is the opposite. They want to
:19:57. > :20:02.take pairs of atoms and forcing or fusing them together and this will
:20:03. > :20:06.release more energy. It is what is known as fusion and it is the
:20:07. > :20:11.process that goes on inside the sun. Now, there is only one way to
:20:12. > :20:18.contain this. They will create an enormous magnetic field. It will sit
:20:19. > :20:24.here like a giant ring and inside that, the fusion, all of the atoms
:20:25. > :20:29.being forced together will take place right in the middle. If this
:20:30. > :20:34.works, it will be a major step to showing that fusion can be a viable
:20:35. > :20:41.source of power. There is a very long way to go. Here is one they
:20:42. > :20:48.built earlier. A par that plant known as jet in Oxfordshire. It is
:20:49. > :20:52.pioneering the research. I was shown around the tangle of pipes and
:20:53. > :20:57.cables that swirl around the reactor. Everything about this
:20:58. > :21:02.technology is challenging. This is the strange sight of the process in
:21:03. > :21:07.action. They have got fusion to work but not on a scale that yet makes
:21:08. > :21:12.any kind of financial sense. We have word that it is scientifically
:21:13. > :21:16.feasible to generate energy from fusion, what we have not yet learnt
:21:17. > :21:21.is whether we can do that at a commercial rate that you want to pay
:21:22. > :21:25.for your electricity. Fusion energy was first promise in the 1950s and
:21:26. > :21:34.it is still decades away. This is where we will see the power of the
:21:35. > :21:40.sun when it can be repeated on her. -- on earth. That is all from the
:21:41. > :21:43.special edition of reporters, looking at the future of fuel. From
:21:44. > :22:02.me in the Chinese capital, Beijing, goodbye.
:22:03. > :22:12.Yesterday was a lovely, sunny winter 's day. We are paying the price of a
:22:13. > :22:17.widespread frost. It will be a cold start today. We will see some cloud
:22:18. > :22:20.and eventually some rain coming in from the West. You can see clearly
:22:21. > :22:21.on the satellite picture. It is looming large. The satellite
:22:22. > :22:22.picture. It is looming large.