[extropy-chat] Nuke 'em

Dirk Bruere dirk.bruere at gmail.com
Sun Oct 23 13:08:04 UTC 2005


On 10/23/05, Greg Burch <gregburch at gregburch.net> wrote:
>
> Over the last few years I've come to the conclusion (like very many
> people) that nuclear power generation is generally undervalued as a source
> of electricity generation. Opponents to nuclear power point to issues at
> almost every step of the process from the mining of uranium ore through
> storage and disposal of spent fuel and other waste. Based on the evidence of
> how many reactors are in operation or have been constructed (in the U.S.
> at least) over the last 30 years, nuke proponents have done a poor job of
> responding to those concerns.
>
> >From a technical standpoint, it seems to me that no alternative to
> nuclear power generation comes close to the value that nuke plants can offer
> in the face of the many societal problems created by fossil fuel energy
> sources. But nuke advocates have to have good answers to overcome the huge
> hit that nukes have taken in public perception since Three Mile Island and
> Chernobyl. I'm sure that reactor design and operating procedures have been
> and can be developed to adequately address the kinds of problems that gave
> rise to those two incidents.
>
> But it seems to me that two issues remain as legitimate problems and
> therefore major stumbling blocks to more widespread use of nuclear power.
> These issues are weapons proliferation and waste storage. Both seem to call
> for structures of social control about which liberty lovers and skeptics
> about government power and efficiency should have deep misgivings. So I'm
> interested in the thoughts of those here on the List about these two issues.
> What kinds of social and technical mechanisms present the best balance
> between harvesting the obvious benefits of nuclear power on the one hand and
> avoiding the problems of inefficient and overly-intrusive social controls on
> the other?
>
>
If an efficient energy storage method could be developed eg electricty to
methanol with >80% efficiency, then totally renewable becomes feasible. Even
so, an electricity to hydrogen scheme coupled with a gas distribution grid
may be sufficient.

Dirk
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