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Overview
Energy issues have been at the center of the national security
debate for some time, and the current situation in the Persian
Gulf underscores the strategic importance of sound energy policy.
Activities or developments—geopolitical, environmental, technological,
or regulatory—that materially change the energy security
equation are, naturally, of great interest to the Department
of Defense (DOD). The announcement by President George Bush
in his State of the Union address that he intends to accelerate
research and development (R&D) for hydrogen-powered vehicles
toward the objective of total U.S. energy independence has great
potential impact on DOD. This paper examines a number of technical
issues connected with energy independence through hydrogen
and how they might affect DOD. We conclude that the move
to a hydrogen economy will be a massive undertaking, requiring
large investments and decades to accomplish. We will show that,
with few exceptions, pure hydrogen is not a viable fuel for DOD
missions, primarily because of the DOD requirement for compact, high-volumetric energy density power sources. As a result, to
meet its unique needs, DOD likely will have to increase its dependence
on nuclear power and support R&D that investigates ways
to use hydrogen to synthesize hydrocarbon fuels in an environmentally
compliant fashion. Several suggestions and recommendations
will be made in this regard.
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