Posted on 08/27/2008 8:22:17 AM PDT by kellynla
Energy. It's the stuff of which our world and universe are made. It is everything we can perceive and measure in the physical world. Beyond that physical world, we "see through a glass, darkly." Science, engineering and the industries that are based upon them deal solely with energy its nature and its uses.
We utilize many forms of energy gravitational energy, such as that in hydroelectric dams; kinetic energy, as stored in a flywheel or the wind; heat energy, as in a geothermal well; elastic energy, as in a rubber band; electrical energy, as carried in power lines; chemical energy, as in gasoline; radiant energy, as in sunshine; nuclear energy, as utilized by nuclear power plants; and mass energy, as material objects mass are just another form of energy with the quantity measured by E=mc2.
(Excerpt) Read more at wnd.com ...
And the thing that keeps them from being built is one Carter executive order that even Reagan didn't rescind.
Let me know when we’ve got several working well. Until then we ain’t ready. Not my field (I’m a systems engineer), so I’m admittedly not current as to where implementation is on these things. Having a concept is good. Having working units in production is what is required.
> Having a concept is good. Having working units in
> production is what is required.
Indeed, but it will never happen if you aren’t even allowed to try.
I’m well aware of portable nukes, and was before your flame. Again, for the record, wake me up when we’ve dealt with our existing stock of nuke waste properly and I’ll agree we’re ready. Not until. Otherwise we’re building a house and not planning to put any toilets in. Bad idea.
Actually the poor job of storage has been demonstrated, even if no one has been killed. We can’t even get Yucca Mountain done. And if the problem is political then solve that first. Plan ahead.
Don’t disagree with you. BUT, until we break through the barrier we’re putting the cart before the horse. First things first. This kind of discussion is a part of the process.
The point is that GOVERNMENTIUM is inhibiting the reaction needed to reprocess the waste into usable fuel. It is a well known that this substance can shut down any reaction no matter how energetic it is.
Ravenstar
Nor any president since, huh? Kind of indicates the nature of one of our problems. I’m NOT saying no to nukes, I am saying let’s get our ducks in a row first.
LMAO. All too true.
Bad idea. Many small facilities = no economy of scale. Besides, we've already built Yucca Flats, which is perfectly adequate as "monitored recoverable storage" for all the waste we're every likely to generate. The state of Nevada has already had the benefit of BILLIONS of dollars spent in their state to build the facility, and lots of high-paying jobs in the construction. And last I heard, Nevadans are most emphatically NOT "desparate".
"I realize that there are reactor technologies which eat up nuke waste. My point is that until we get them working, we arent ready."
Totally un-necessary. Re-process the spent fuel. Extract the usable fissionables and send them back to the plants to make more power (it is these fissionables that, if NOT re-processed and sent back to the reactors, require "geological-time" storage facilities). Store the very hot, but relatively short half-life stuff in Yucca. If you really want to get rid of it permanently, drop into the ocean in a subduction zone.
You apparently won't wake up even after a flame. As I said, the reason we can't reprocess the waste is that the President of the United States won't rescind an Executive Order. The reason for the order has nothing to do with technology or safety; it's about who gets to make money. The holders of treasury bonds need a reason to buy them with the Fed inflating the currency and this is how our government delivers to those bond holders while hiding the inflation from the public.
Now, you can go back to sleep.
Correct. This has been a bogus "problem" from the beginning.
Brilliant article that I am sending to my friend list!
Where to put these plants? There are tons of places they can go. Because we are so packed together in places where electricity, water and septic services are provided, all one needs to do is fly over the USA and see easily a few dozen places are available. As the professor stated (and I have to believe him as I don’t have the education on the subject), if government changed the regulations, this “waste” would be recycled and new energy made.
From what I’ve seen in Texas, even though the plant near Bay City was a cost overrun (due to regulatory agencies if memory serves me correctly) it gave more prosperity and jobs to that area.
We need to get a copy of this to Rush!!
Talk about a non sequitur?! I think not. Get our of your circular reasoning and back to linear.
The most accurate thing you've said today.
If you don't understand the history of enviro-propaganda for the purpose of energy racketeering then you have no business babbling about policy.
“Just asking. Weve done a lousy job with nuke waste so far,”
The only “lousy job” we have done with “nuke waste” is to allow the courts to accept the enviro-wacko claim that the 10,000 year shelf-life of the storage system at Yucca Flats in Nevada is too short to be “safe”.
We need a POTUS who will go ahead with using Yucca Flats, telling the courts not to worry, they have 10,000 years to try to force some other solution.
RKV,
If you can’t build plant #1 due to GOVERNMENTIUM you can’t “check it out”! Duh...The Physics of the situation is well known and the NAVY produces Nuke Engineers and Techs that are top of the line so we have the resource to safely operate the plants (Retired Navy Nukes).
Ravenstar
Wow. Amazing article. Thanks.
And your attitude won’t convince the naysayers. You’re not doing yourself any favors with the unearned arrogance btw. And all you can succeed in doing to me is make me laugh at you. And I do. I’ve known way too many of your kind over the years. You’re gonna go nowhere with that approach - and fast. I’m a reasonable guy and only ask that we sweat the details to get this right. Having a concept design is not the same as having a proven technology. I’ve worked long enough in aerospace to know the difference. Should we proceed with development? Yep. Should we work to remove the political barriers? Yep. But let’s not make promises we’re not entirely sure we can keep. That one thing that separates conservatives from liberals. Flame on. I’m off to work so don’t expect a response.
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