From: Lee Daniel Crocker (lee@piclab.com)
Date: Mon Feb 03 2003 - 11:08:47 MST
> (Kai M. Becker <kmb@kai-m-becker.de>):
>
> (1) AFAIK, coal is not suitable for deadly weapons and therefore of no
> value for villains of any kind, including "corrupt despotic theocratic
> murderous regimes".
That's probably true.
> (2) Coal is almost no hazard for human health, except when swallowed or
> hit on the head and therefore doesn't have to be kept safe and secured
> at all times.
That's not true. Burning coal pollutes air horribly, and not just
a few greenhouse gases, but really toxic stuff including Uranium
and Thorium.
> (3) The by-products of coal mining can be put back without any hazard
> for the biosphere.
Also false. Uranium is a byproduct of coal mining, and becomes
concentrated when removed. Putting it back that way is unsafe.
> (4) Coal ashes is not dangerous and does not need to be kept off our
> biosphere for thousands of years.
Mostly true, though coal tar is rather nasty stuff.
> (5) Even a very large malfunction in a coal fired power plant could not
> devastate a large area, cost millions of lives and billions of Euros
> (please read about the effects of Tschernobyl '86 in FSU and Europe).
That's mostly true. Coal burning kills millions of people slowly,
not all at once.
> (6) An exploding LNG tanker may have the mechanical power of a small
> A-bomb, but it will not make the whole area uninhabitable for years. BTW,
> what would you prefer as a terrorist attack, an oil tanker rammed into a
> harbour at full speed, or an atomic bomb on the same area?
That's fair.
> All this results in much higher costs for nuclear power systems.
That's a fair assessment too, but I think the relative costs are
often exaggerated by ignoring the substantial costs of burning
fossil fuels. Overall, taking all risks into account, nuclear
power still comes out a winner by a /large/ margin.
-- Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com> <http://www.piclab.com/lee/> "All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past, are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or modified for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC
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