David
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4454468.stm
although of course no one would want one next door.
Im concerned that in 15 - 20 years time we will have a major energy crisis. We are beginning to be heavily dependant on european gas imports, and we
have let our 300 year supply of coal fall into disrepair (thanks mrs T).
Not every day is a windy day.
If WW2 was to happen now, Hitler wouldnt have to send the luftwaffe over. Just a man in a flat cap with a spanner to turn off the gas supply in
Holland or Russia.
atb
steve
Nuclear is the way to go at the end of the day. Its a sustainable source of energy, that produces no greenhouse gasses etc. ALthough the waste can be
hard to deal with. But it wont be long before they figure out something to do with it.
David
I never really got the whole nuclear waste problem. Uranium is dug out of the ground in rocks where it makes up a few parts per million of the volume
and doesn't cause much of a problem. We concentrate it, use it for a few decades and then don't know what to do with it.
PUT IT BACK WHERE YOU FOUND IT IN THE SAME CONCENTRATION AS IT WAS WHEN YOU DUG IT UP.
It was always radioactive. It is still radioactive. It will be radioactive in 1000 years. Put it back where you found it and it will be no more of
a problem than if you left it alone, no?
OK, so there is intermediate level waste to deal with and so on but the Uranium and the metals it decays to are much the same as they would have been.
don't get me started on the coal fields ........
Still can't believe how they justified closing down parkside.
Previous year they made a profit and the managers where told to spend money doing the place up. They did so no profit was made.
Review the profitable pits and ..... parkside doesn't make a profit, close it down. They'd just opened a new seam, it was going great and
they had coal merchants driving 100+ miles for the coal it was that good.
ARGH - they even filled in the mine shaft, despite wives protesting for the best part of a year on the gates.
going off to rant some more now !
At the risk of hijacking this thread....
Does anyone know if any research has been done into the mass self delusion that thousands of people suffer every 4 - 5 years?
Everytime an election comes round we cast our votes safe in the knowledge that the people we are voting for are not (despite all evidence to the
contrary) complete and total morons. Then 6 months later hitting our heads and saying "d'OH!"
How many more times are we gonna do this?
Take a look at this link...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4295812.stm
Has anyone else just soiled themselves or is it just me? I see the post office and british rail providing supreme service these days!
At least the Tories didnt get in!!...Then we would be in a right shite state 
radioactivity is down to halflife. U238 (commonest) has a halflife of 4.47 billion years. U235 (this is the one used as fuel i believe) is a little
less stable, with a halflife of 700 million years. Ie, they are very stable and harmless compounds. The products of fission are a lot less stable, and
will be very active but for a lot less time - milliseconds for the most reactive. Hence the waste products are more dangerous as they decay a lot
faster than uranium itself.
Remember, its the decaying that makes it bad, not the halflife
Id stick the waste into the sun
quote:
Originally posted by flak monkey
At least the Tories didnt get in!!...Then we would be in a right shite state
quote:
Originally posted by JoelP
Id stick the waste into the sun
I think Guy Fawkes had the right idea!
ATB
Simon
It's re-cyclable.....just reprocess with new uranium.
The public has been trained to raise such a stink about nukes here in the US, it's cheaper to make new fuel and store the old spent fuel, but
those spend rods can be re-refined and the usable leftover made use of.
New plant designs can be continuously refueled without down-time, and without enough fuel mass in the reactor at any give time to go
"Critical".
All it needs is another severn crossing, from Minehead to Milford Haven, run hydroelectric power off it, you could power all of europe from that,
solve 90% of all energy needs.
As for the impact on the environment, have you ever seen the beach at Weston Super Mare?
quote:
Originally posted by DorsetStrider
quote:
Originally posted by JoelP
Id stick the waste into the sun
This thought (or at least space) had occured to me too. It surely can't be prohibitively expensive to stick it on a one way rocket into space can it? Everything up there is radioactive anyway!
quote:
Originally posted by iank
quote:
Originally posted by DorsetStrider
quote:
Originally posted by JoelP
Id stick the waste into the sun
This thought (or at least space) had occured to me too. It surely can't be prohibitively expensive to stick it on a one way rocket into space can it? Everything up there is radioactive anyway!
Erm, this was a joke right...
1. waste is very dense so it might not be as cheap as you think.
2. the first one to turn into a firework 3 miles up spreading finely atomised waste over 10's of thousands of square miles would be a bad thing - right?
I always thought politics would be better if politicans were drafted. Not some guy thats been begging and oweing favors for half his life. Some
mindless unimaginative burecrate spending most his time courting businesses and lobby groups only to try to run of a higher office.
Find a respectable successful business man and MAKE him serve under a close watch. Other wise you get someone owned by big business or big oil. (yes,
you dont have t say it but someone will point out the obivious).
Anyone that doesnt want the job sounds qualified.
As for wind, i'm sitting in the biggest windfarm in Britain at the moment and its producing exactly...Nowt! Great when there is a wind though.... Pity its so unreliable!
Did a drill a 100 metre hole in the ground in everyone's garden, stick down 2 thick cables of different material and let the temperature difference between the surface and the deep generate the trickery to power your house/charge your car/power the jacuzzi. Best thing is, the colder the surface gets the more trickery you generate for heating.
quote:
Originally posted by MikeR
don't get me started on the coal fields ........
Still can't believe how they justified closing down parkside.
Previous year they made a profit and the managers where told to spend money doing the place up. They did so no profit was made.
Review the profitable pits and ..... parkside doesn't make a profit, close it down. They'd just opened a new seam, it was going great and they had coal merchants driving 100+ miles for the coal it was that good.
ARGH - they even filled in the mine shaft, despite wives protesting for the best part of a year on the gates.
going off to rant some more now !
OK so let's assume the argument is won/lost and they will be built. Now everone's wondering, where?
Errmm, aren't there about 20 odd decomissioned/decomissioning dotted around the country? Why not build the new ones in the same place?
Already knackered the ground, must be alright for water supply else wouldn't be there in the first place. Local population used to living next
door to it so less uproar (well, in theory).
Is it just me?
Did make me chuckle when some local residents in Cambridge were happy about a wind farm NOT being built in their backyards.
How would they feel about a dirty great coal fired power station then? Bunch of snobs, anyone want to build a wind generator near me can do so and if
there is no wind I'll simply not use my computer/TV etc etc
quote:
All it needs is another severn crossing, from Minehead to Milford Haven, run hydroelectric power off it, you could power all of europe from that, solve 90% of all energy needs.
By Mark Allanson
