[geeks] Global warming, was Mr Bill?

[der Mouse]

>> (For example, if the spent fuel from all existing nuclear plants
>> were distributed evenly throughout the ecosphere, how would the
>> resulting radiation level compare to the existing background
>> radiation?)
> if it could be distributed evenly, probably not much.  but can you
> imagine it actually happening politically, let alone technically?

Politically?  Maybe, if the alternative is weaning Western society from
its addiction to short-term-cheap energy.

Technically?  Sure; it's really not that different from the
radioactives in a coal-fired power plant's exhaust.  Heat stuff to
plasma-torch levels and even heavy elements will stay airborne for
plenty long enough to disperse worldwide.

And, of course, there's also the option of actually using that energy,
as various people have pointed out.  Again, it would take political
will that isn't there today, but it's not all _that_ hard to imagine it
arising, when the alternative is a crash of the energy glut supporting
then's society.

>> (how does an X% rise in the worldwide cancer rate compare to Y
>> degrees of worldwide warming from geenhouse gases?).
> there's one difference: global warming is inherently much more
> democratic, something we all will share the burden of.  cancer is
> something only the afflicted minority would face, and it's a nasty
> price to make them pay for the rest of us.

True.  That sort of difference is why different people will use
different conversion factors when comparing such costs.  And that
tradeoff is only an example anyway; there are many, many costs involved
with each alternative....

> another: given the half-lives involved, the effects from high-level
> waste would persist for millions, if not tens or even hundreds of
> millions of years.  global warming would not, and the geological
> record shows that the planet has survived it before.

The planet has survived lots of radioactivity before, too.  And I'm not
convinced it would be "lots", either; I suspect - admittedly without
any real evidence - that power-plant "exhaust" radioactives would be
barely (if at all) detectible against the existing background radiation
level if disporsed worldwide.

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