[mythtv-users] [Slightly OT] solar power for all our gadgets
Brent Norris
brent at brentnorris.net
Thu Mar 19 16:24:26 UTC 2009
Carl Reynolds wrote:
> First, no one has come up with a way of safely disposing of the huge
> amounts of radioactive waste generated by a nuclear power plant. When a
> plant is operated for a period of twenty years (the minimum amount of
> time necessary to break even on the construction cost of the plant) it
> will generate a mass of radioactive waste equal to the mass of all the
> material that went into the original construction of the plant. Also
> keep in mind that it is not safe to operate any nuclear power plant for
> more that forty to fifty years because of the deterioration of
> materials due to exposure to radiation. This deterioration requires
> complete replacement of the plant at end of life leaving another vast
> pile of radioactive material.
>
> The radioactive waste from a nuclear plant will remain deadly for
> thousands of years after the original plant has ceased to exist. We
> have absolutely no way to guarantee that we can protect future
> generations from being exposed to this radiation. We bury it in the
> ground and hope that the ground around it stays stable and put up signs
> that say 'Don't dig here', but who is to guarantee that the signs will
> continue to exist a thousand years from now or that people will be able
> to read it? When I've asked people in the industry how we are dealing
> with this, the response is always, "We'll figure that out at some point,
> but nuclear power is too important now for us to hold off on production
> while we figure out how we will protect people in the future from our
> radioactive waste."
Isn't at least part of this solved by the whole Breeder Reactor idea,
that has just been unimplemented in the US because of the nuclear
proliferation ideas? I was under that impression that France has gone a
long way to reduce their nuclear waste by reprocessing it and using it
again.
Brent
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