[Gllug] [OT] Technobabble

[John Hearns]

On Sat, 2005-11-19 at 12:49 +0000, Chris Bell wrote:
> On Thu 17 Nov, Nix wrote:
> > 
> >
> > 
> > - Nuclear fission: a nasty, but comparatively small-scale, waste
> > disposal problem; fairly nasty fuel, very nasty waste products,
> > decommissioning very hard because the reactor housing is rendered
> > radioactive by neutron bombardment. Many varieties also have severe side
> > effects on failure and a large capital cost, but not all; some modern
> > nuclear reactor designs are ridiculously safe (as in, break the reactor
> > chamber open and fly a jet aircraft into it and there is *still* no
> > radiation hazard) but few have been built because of the bad rep nuclear
> > power got in the gung-ho days of the 50s to 70s when (much) less safe
> > designs were used. 

There was a very good program on Radio 4 a few weeks ago, featuring some
of the engineers in the British nuclear programme, and Wedgewood Benn if
I'm not wrong.

Our AGR programme was scuppered by the Government. Instead of having a
'cookie cutter' design which we could stamp out and sell all over the
world, each AGR site in the UK was assigned to a different conglomerate
of construction companies. Same basic design, but each of them turned
out slightly different. We never did create an export market in them, or
exploit economies of scale. Our AGR was an inherently safer design, and
could not have suffered a Chernobyl type accident (AFAIK there is no
possibility of a positivee feedback loop if a steam void is created in
the water).
To cap it all, the Thatcher government insisted on the UK installing one
Westinghouse pattern Pressurized Water Reactor at Sizewell, which
effectively sounded the dath knell for the British nuclear industry.

But for anyone decrying the British nuclear industry, just think that
those AGR reactors have been sitting there generating the power that YOU
use to make your coffee and toat this morning, especially if you live in
Scotland.

Me, I went through a long, long period of doubting nuclear power, but
now that I see what dreadful things are happening with the environment 
I am steadily coming back to being in favour. 

Also I don't think that anyone has mentioned fusion - having recently
visited Culham the programme is alive and well, and people genuinely
believe that it will work.



<tongue in cheek>
Me, I'm putting my faith in muon catalysed fusion
http://msl.kek.jp/muonscience/muonscience3/index_en.html
and accelerator transmutation of nuclear waste
http://afci.lanl.gov/atw/
High energy physics has got to be useful for SOMETHING.
<\tongue in cheek>



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