Re: Hazards of Coal Burning was RE: Hydrogen as SCAM?

From: Chuck Kuecker (ckuecker@ckent.org)
Date: Tue Feb 04 2003 - 06:37:04 MST

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    The proper way to dispose of high-level waste is to irradiate it inside the
    reactor vessel to promote it's decay to stable isotopes. There are several
    power reactor designs out there that will do this without ever requiring
    the waste to leave the containment building.

    Shielding is not difficult - what's hard is to ensure that the waste dump
    remains unmolested for a hundred thousand years or more, until the
    longer-lived isotopes decay. We have several methods of sealing spent fuel
    into glass so it cannot enter the environment, but the glass itself needs
    to be stored away from inquisitive persons...

    The only way to eliminate the heat load of technology on the surface of the
    planet is to eliminate the technology - something that is dear to the
    hearts of too many enviro-wackos out there.

    Chuck Kuecker

    At 13:09 02/04/2003 +0100, you wrote:

    >(3) Radioactive waste from nuclear power plants on the other hand contains
    >high concentrations of gamma ray and neutron emitting isotopes. This type
    >of radiation is difficult to shield, highly dangerous for organisms, and
    >neutron radiation embrittles metal and other material. This waste also
    >produces heat for a _very_ long time. That means that even very slow and
    >very improbable chemical reactions between the waste and its containment
    >_will_ happen during the next 10.000 years. It's like Murphy's law
    >coupled to an Improbability Drive.
    >
    >But as I said: burning fossil fuels is also not the right way. In fact,
    >no large scale system is, if it produces something we cannot deal with
    >in a safe way, i.e. a complete circle of products. Oil/gas/coal produces
    >NOx, CO2, etc. Fission leaves large quantities of highly dangerous waste.
    >And all this energy, even from fusion, finally becomes simple heat that
    >influences the global climate. It's not the single car or the single
    >heater that makes the difference, but the coefficient of n*10^9 with n>6
    >and growing.
    >
    > Kai
    >
    >--
    >== Kai M. Becker == kmb@cameron.kn-bremen.de == Bremen, Germany ==
    >"Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced"

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