Posted on 02/23/2007 9:20:47 AM PST by Tolkien
Patrick Moore has been off the reservation for a long time.
Yet again, another liberal demonstrates that he was on the wrong side of history. Have liberals EVER been right about anything of historical significance?
Flipper was always Pro-Nuc (At least that's what I was told...)
Been waiting for this for a long time. If greens were ever serious about their arguments they should have been Nuclear Power supporters since day 1. But the green movement has been more about politics than environment.
I'm all for this, especially if they invest heavily in fast breeder reactors. Breeder reactors can use U-238 and through neutron absorption and then subsequent beta decays, produces Pu-239 which is fissile. There is enough U-238 laying around in mill tailings to provide 100% of the entire U.S. power needs for the next 500 years. This removes the need for costly enrichment of U-235, commercial reactors typically need 3%-5% U-235. Naturally occurring uranium is 0.7% U-235 and about 93.2% U-238 with a little smattering of U-234.
redness, I have no idea what you just said, but it sounds great!
Dr. Patrick Moore changed his mind a LONG time ago. He split from Greanpeace when he saw they weren't necessarily pro-environment anymore, but anti-capitalist. For a while he's been running an organization called Greenspirit that preaches sustainable development, a harmonization of the concerns of the environment and industry. He hates the unproductive confrontation and emotional rhetoric of the current econut movement, preferring cooperation and actual science, which is why he is also listed as a "Global Warming denier."
"AS co-founder and former leader of Greenpeace, I once opposed nuclear energy. But times have changed, and new facts of compelling importance have emerged - and so my views have changed as well, as have those of a growing number of respected, independent environmentalists around the world...."
The information has been out there since the 1980's. Being increasingly exposed as fraudsters leeching off the public -- yes, times have changed -- of course you'll change your mind so as not to further confirm your frauds.
Morons.
And we have her heinous trying to shut down Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant in New York.
As a side note, if we would just reprocess out the uranium and plutonium from the spent fuel rods that are destined to be buried at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, then that could be used to provide power and not need to be sealed away for 3+ million years. It would really change the engineering requirements for Yucca Mountain.
If we would just start the process of recycling spent fuel rods again, we would decrease the amount of nuclear waste that has to be buried in Yucca Mountain. And recycling is good for the planet. :P
It's a bit late now. His stupidity and that of his friends have set back nuclear power in America by decades, wasted billions of gallons of oil, enriched the Arabs, empowered the terrorists, and polluted millions of leftist minds.
The Democrats in congress don't WANT to solve the energy crisis. It gives them a tool to bash the Republicans, and they aren't about to relinquish that tool.
This guy helped persuade the country to put an end to nuclear power, but I doubt very much that anyone will pay much attention to this reversal.
Don't forget Thorium. Th-232 through neutron absorption and subsequent decays produces U-233 which is fissile as well. And Thorium is more abundant than Uranium.
Also if I read your comment correctly, yes U-235 and Pu-239 are fissionable. But fast breeder reactors utilize U-238 as a fuel source and "breed" Plutonium at rates that produce it faster than the reactor "burns" it. That's the advantage of breeder reactors, you don't need to enrich uranium as naturally occurring uranium is 99.3% U-238 right out of the ground.
Bump. And I actually knew that.
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