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| [ Login ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, [2], 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ] |
| Subject: Bravo | |
Author: Ed Harris (London) | [ Next Thread |
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] Date Posted: 00:22:37 01/21/05 Fri In reply to: Andrew(Canada) 's message, "nuclear power" on 23:41:20 01/20/05 Thu Nuclear power is a clean fuel which produces enormous power relatively cheaply. It has been given a bad reputation by the occasional meltdowns, which took place in exactly the sort of countries where one would expect them to be unable to run a whelk-stall, let alone an advanced fission plant. Would you trust the former communist Ukranian government with a building full of plutonium? With a few more nuclear plants we would be completely independent of those bizarre countries whose influence on the world is entirely predicated on their possession of nasty black goo under their sand, and our air would be a lot cleaner. Moreover, my physics teacher once explained the principal of disposal thus: take the nuclear waste, throw it into a very deep part of the sea; it will soon be covered with silt through which radiation can not penetrate, and the fish down there all glow in the dark anyway... As for nuclear fusion, this is a very good idea, if it can be achieved at temperatures below 20,000 degrees F, which is doubtful. Also, while there is no danger of fall-out or melt-down, it seems to me, from my vague knowledge, that there is a real danger of containment failure, which would leave a large, smouldering crater where western Europe used to be. What we really want is element 115, although the blighters in Germany, or was it Switzerland, who declared a few years ago that they had managed to create some of this stuff (which is the El Dorado of elemental research) have recently re-analysed their data and realised that they had in fact produced something altogether different. Alas. In any case, I don't think that my car could be converted to uranium fission. [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ] |
| [> [> Subject: Cold Fusion | |
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Author: Dave (UK) [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 12:51:43 01/21/05 Fri I doubt they'll be producing fusion reactions at that temperature for a long time. The current ITER project aims to produce a hydrogen plasma torus operating at over 100 million °C: warm enough to singe your eyebrows. I'm not sure about the consequences of containment failure and the radius of devastation it would cause. If it is indeed that large, then perhaps it is not worth exploring, as the consequence of an accident would be too severe to contemplate, even for a former Soviet Socialist Republic. [ Post a Reply to This Message ] |
| [> [> [> Subject: Well... | |
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Author: Ed Harris (London) [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 16:46:00 01/21/05 Fri Don't go on my knowledge of science, since it is scanty to say the least. [ Post a Reply to This Message ] |