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Freedom for Fission
skyman8081:
--- Quote from: Aloone_Jonez ---Fair enough we need a replacement for fossil fuels as they're non-renewable but wheather neuclear power is good or bad it's still non-renewable so it's no permanent solution to our energy problems.
--- End quote ---
100% renewables are not going to be a solution, there is always going to be something lost in the conversion of any kind of energy into useful electricity.
Fossil Fuels like coal and oil will run out, and unlike uranium, cannot be reprocessed back into useful fuel.
To think that the ENTIRE energy demands of the world can be met with non-renewables, is simply deluded and foolish.
Yes, uranium will run out with the open cycle, where uranium is used once and locked away. But the closed loop cycle, in which spent uranium is reprocessed into useful fuel is incredibly efficient and most of the fuel is re-used, only the waste products from the fission reaction would get tossed into Yucca mountain.
Lead Head:
not hydrogen fuel cells, I saw it in Popular Science but cant seem to find it on there website
skyman8081:
Like I said, if it is solar, there is the inherent weakness of the fact that there are about 12-18 hours when it cannot be used at all.
mobrien_12:
--- Quote from: skyman8081 ---Correct, but they shouldn't be overstated.
You're right that rocketing it to the moon is a bad idea. That's what Yucca Mountain is for.
And in the future, rocket it into the Sun.
You are right that Strontium-90 seepage is a problem, but one that can be solved.
--- End quote ---
Rocketing nuclear waste into space, now or in the future, is, to be blunt, a very stupid idea.
Space launches require enourmous amounts of energy just to get something into orbit. Even more to get it out. You going to spend billions of dollars to get rid of your nuclear waste? No. It is going to be stored on the Earth for a fraction of the money, whether or not it's good for us because that's the way things work in this world.
And there is one other big problem. Every once in a while, rockets explode. Remember Challenger? Don't kid yourself if you think it can't happen again. If you start sending rockets up on a regular basis to get rid of nuclear waste, there is a good chance that one of them is going to blow up and spread nuclear waste all over creation, as in a "dirty bomb." The ecological damage and death toll would be enormous, worse than Chernobyl because the rocket would be high in the air and the prevailing winds would carry the radioactive debris all over the place.
Lead Head:
also there us the risk that the container will come out of orbit and enter the atmosphere. They are working in a new thing on the existing holes that the waste is dumped, They are going to insert to thick electrodes in the gorund with the tips just below the hole. and they are somehow going to put a piece of grahpite between the to electrodes under the hole. They are going to power it up and leave it running for about a week, the graphite should get ultra hot and after the week is up turn the ground around it to glass stopping the radioactive waste from seeping
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