Re: Re: The Phoenix has landed!

"Ye Old One" <usenet@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:ova244hn4gudefkearf8fa4kg7rvqovbc9@xxxxxxxxxx
On Fri, 30 May 2008 21:30:57 -0400, "Robert J. Kolker"
<bobkolker@xxxxxxxxxxx> enriched this group when s/he wrote:

Vernon Balbert wrote:

Two problems with that. First, nuclear fission plants produce waste
that is notoriously difficult to deal with. I'm all for nuclear power,
but I much prefer to wait for fusion which promises to be a lot cleaner.

Borate the material and bond them in glass slugs. Them dump them in the
Marianas Trench, six miles deep. That should shield the world above from
radiation. Wasn't that easy?

No, it would NOT shield the world above from the radiation. Have you
not heard of ocean currents? Putting the waste in open water would be
the worst possible way to do it.


There aren't any currents that deep. But I think Bob's idea is impractical
(it's tricky to lower something inert into the trench with accuracy, and
accidents could happen) compared to simply storing the glass slugs in a safe
underground facility.

Nearly all the volume of "nuclear waste" consists of discarded equipment and
protective gear (gloves, lab coats) which is pretty low level stuff.

The volume of high level waste is actually pretty small. You could easily
get it in a single large underground mine. Choose a site in a dry location
where water penetration is minimal. It's politics ("What!! Not in my
backyard!!") not actual feasibility that is holding things up.

Store it underground until we have a space elevator that can safely
lift the waste for transfer to either the moon or to the sun.

Good grief! Why bother? Fears of underground storage are incredibly
exaggerated.

Second, electrical generation doesn't do much in the area of
transporting goods from one place to another. In the future this may be

Yes it does. Electric railroads, and electrict batteries to run electric
cars and trucks. Electrical transport move five million people a day in
New York for example.

The Swiss have been moving people and goods by electricity for the last
70 years.

Oh longer than that.



different when we have trucks that run on electricity rather than
petroleum, but it's not going to get the stuff to the store shelves or
to our doors. Airplanes aren't going to run on electric power for a
long time, if ever. (The power to weight ratio just isn't there as it
is with engines that burn petroleum based fuels.) In short, we're stuck
with petroleum for transportation fuel.


I agree that airplanes will need liquid petroleum fuels for an indefinite
period in the future. That's a small part of the total consumed every day.

That is true. But most of our freight is moved by ships which can be
powered by nuclear generators (look at the nuclelar U.S. Aircraft
Carriers), trains and trucks which can be driven electrically.

Not very well. Better to use electricity to break water into hydrogen
and then burn that in an infernal combustion engine.

Electricity from where? Burning coal? Or go nuclear? The former won't
solve the CO2 problem.


For
fast shipment we can still power jet planes by kerosine. The amount of
oil required for this application is more than covered by our own
reserves. Also petroleaum products can be made from coal so we need not
depend on foreign oil sources.

Get too it then - the USA is way behind at the moment.

Bob Kolker

--
Bob.



--
Mike Dworetsky

(Remove pants sp*mbl*ck to reply)

.

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