[NSRCA-discussion] Fw: Interesting Wind Farms

[brett terry]

There is a misconception regarding the spent rods as well.  While they
DO have a significant half-life, and they ARE dangerous if we get too
close, submersion under 3' of water is sufficient to completely
contain all the zoomies.  In other countries they simply store them
on-site (under water) indefinitely, but in the US ALL radioactive
material has to be disposed of in a nuclear waste facility, and not
just the 3% that is actually dangerous.  They absolutely CAN NOT
explode (fuel rods are about 5% enriched uranium U235 and 95% U238,
bomb grade is closer to 90% enriched to U235 and plutonium).  In fact
half of our uranium rods used in our power plants is derived from
recycled Russian missiles and bombs.  The biggest risk is in
transporting the spent rods, or a potential attack on the storage
facility.

More interesting (to me anyway) is the newer plant design that will
somewhat regenerate the rods while they are running the reactor.  Also
interesting are new techniques that extract uranium directly from
seawater.  It is entirely possible in the future we will see nuc
plants which will generate their own rods from sea water (and thus
will greatly increase the time between refuelings), produce power, and
provide a source of pure drinking water through reverse osmosis, and
the only "waste" produced will be slightly heated water at the cooling
tower outlet.  Won't happen because it will always be demonized by one
group or another.

If we could do this we could run our railroads directly on electric
power and cut nearly 20% of the oil use at the same time.  In fact,
since we were talking about CO2 emissions, about 50% of our power in
the US comes from coal-fired plants.  These plants are the single
source of about 40% of our CO2 as well as other greenhouse gases (and
bad pollution).  Reducing their use while increasing nuclear use will
also serve to clean the air.  Of course if we increase the CO2
concentration from the current 0.034% up to 0.1% (1000 ppm) plants
would grow up to 50% faster.  Considering my lawn is still under 15"
of snow I HOPE it will grow quickly when/if spring ever arrives!

Sorry, end of my Earth Day rant.  I hope I get a chance to practice
before the contests start in June and July!


On 3/30/08, Matthew Frederick <mjfrederick at cox.net> wrote:
> I agree with that point about nuclear power... Just gotta come up with
> something better than burying the spent fuel rods... Shoot em at the sun for
> all I care...
>
> Matt
>