[Gllug] [OT] Technobabble

Chris Bell chrisbell at overview.demon.co.uk
Sat Nov 19 12:49:57 UTC 2005


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. Chernobyl-style events are quite difficult in any
> case unless you're a bloody idiot (as the Chernobyl Unit 4 people were;
> the decision of the people at TMI-2 to vent radioactive products
> directly to the atmosphere was also something that nobody would do today
> because they'd be crucified if they did).

   Agreed that stupid things were done at Chernobyl, but the operators were
no more than ignorant mechanics with an instruction sheet.
   See also suspicions that our own MAFF (or should it have been NAFF?) have
also gone out their way to ignore suggestions about the consequences of
pollution, possibly partly originating from Chernobyl:

Mark Purdey's Organophosphate and BSE Page

http://www.purdeyenvironment.com/

and Mark Purdey - Seeking the truth through Science

http://www.markpurdey.com/index.html



> 
> All power generation methods suck, but I'd like the lights to stay on
> for the long term, and the only thing which can do that is nuclear
> power.  (Orbital solar power could do it too, but has insane capital
> costs even with self-reproducing construction machinery, and we still
> have to figure out how to get the power down to earth without roasting
> passing birds.)
> 
   Another suggestion was to use mirrors in desert areas to focus the
radiation from the sun on to a conventional steam turbine plant and then run
cables back to where the power is needed. This has similar problems to
running oil and gas pipelines plus those relevant to the scrap value of many
miles of cable.

-- 
Chris Bell

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