[Gllug] [OT] Technobabble

[Nix]

On Sun, 20 Nov 2005, Rich Walker stipulated:
> Nix <nix at esperi.org.uk> writes:
>> That's the nice thing about dropping waste in a marine subduction
>> trench. Even if it does go critical (it's unlikely that two would land
>> so close to each other given currents on the way down), who cares?
> 
> Isn't that what we sort-of did with the chemical weapons that We Didn't Develop?
> Somewhere at the bottom of the Irish Sea, waiting for the right time...

The Irish Sea is *way* too shallow for this trick. 11km down, now,
that's safer.

> Anyway, are you reading a David Brin novel at the moment? one of the
> Uplift ones has this (dropping in marine subduction trench) as a
> standard disposal algorithm...

Read them years ago. It is the standard means of cleaning up when you
leave, in the Uplift universe. Books 4 and 5 make it into a fairly large
plot point. But, in the real world, it's an obvious way of ditching
stuff that you really *don't* want to come back.

(It's a shame Brin's writing has such an off-putting hectoring tone; he
has great ideas.)

>>>    I have a few handouts from exhibitors at political party conferences,
>>> including CEGB, BNFL, and Nyrex. The staff were enthusiastic, and felt that
>>> it was safe to have some waste storage under a few feet of water. Probably
>>> true if you can build containment pools which do not leak.
>>
>> ... or crack over hundred-year spans, ooops.
> 
> Or be abused by someone with a Big Idea.

> Or get lost.

Lost? How on earth do you *lose* a cooling pond?!

> Or - *how* many f'ups do we know about from the Nuclear Industry so far?

It's run by humans. Enough said. Thankfully there are designs out there
which are safe in the presence of fuckups...

-- 
`Y'know, London's nice at this time of year. If you like your cities
 freezing cold and full of surly gits.' --- David Damerell

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