[rescue] Energy

[Patrick Giagnocavo]

On Tue, May 07, 2002 at 11:21:09PM -0400, Joshua D Boyd wrote:
> On Tue, May 07, 2002 at 08:34:08PM -0400, Brian Hechinger wrote:
> 
> > that would be nice, but power is expesive enough around here, but at least it
> > comes from the nuclear plant down the road so no fossil fuels are being used
> > up for my stuff (i'm one of those fools who thinks nuclear power is safe)
> 
> I like the Indian (native american, not people from country in middle east)
> philosophy of making desicions with the 7th generation in mind.

Too bad the arrogant nincompoops of FDR's time didn't do this.  Three
generations later and I have paid money into Social Security - I have
greater faith that Elvis is alive and programming VAX assembler than
that I will ever receive a dime from it.
 
> What that has to do with this is that while nuclear seems great now, what
> will the growing piles of waste do in a hundred years?  I don't think nuclear
> should be abandoned because it still seems to have great potential, if only
> we could figure out what to do with the waste other than leave it to the 
> grand kids.

The entire waste produced by the entire USA for the next 1000 years
would easily fit in a 15 square mile landfill.  And nuclear waste is
of course a very small fraction of that.

BTW "nuclear waste" that is handled in cement lined drums
etc. includes the gloves that are used to handle the sealed tubes or
the ceramic coated U238 pellets that go inside the reactor - even if
they do not give off any discernible radiation the gloves are waste.
If it touched or possibly touched radioactive stuff, it is considered
nuclear waste.  99% of the nuclear waste that goes to the special
sites is not itself radioactive.

> I have confidence that something will be found, but I don't want to let the
> waste pile get too large until the answer is found.

Christopher Lloyd will show up with a "Mr. Fusion" ... no really I am
not worried about this stuff.  There was a guy who came up with a
plasma oven that fit in a 40ft trailer - it burned at some insanely
high temperature and could be used to burn up toxic waste.  Something
similar to handle nuclear stuff would be possible with today's
technology.

./patrick