On Sun, 2001-11-25 at 10:29, Justin Bengtson wrote:
> On Sun, 2001-11-25 at 10:13, Jim Darrough wrote:
> > "The sky is falling, the sky is falling!"
> >
> > Nuclear power is the answer. Build more plants. It stimulates the
>
> <snippety>
>
> what about solar? wind power? strange power plants made out of
> cow-shit?
>
Not cost effective yet. And not at all ecologically on par with Nuclear.
Wind plants are always over 30% inoperative, and one mistake around the
propeller is almost always fatal to the workman. Solar requires a LARGE
investment in real estate. Unfortunately, the only effective and even
slightly economical way to produce electricity from solar power at
present involves reflectors and a large "tower" which is really a
boiler. Steam is produced which powers turbines that turn generators,
etc. If you look at it simplistically, nuclear reactors produce hot
water, so do fossile fuel plants, and so do present day solar plants.
> nuclear power is kind of scary. although i suppose with how safe the
> new plants are, the radiation level can't be that bad. maybe on par
> with a trip to the moon (probably less...)?
The amount of radiation one receives working around a reactor is less
than that from a chest x-ray. There are times when a nuclear worker can
get a larger dose, but this is only in emergencies, and the limits in
effect now are extremely low and not likely to ever result in any
adverse health effects. In fact, there are some very interesting
discussions on some of the trade reflectors that surmise a beneficial
effect from low-level radiation. I think the jury is still out for this
one.
>
> does anybody know if israel is still working on their
> magnetohydrodynamic reactor? or whether japan is still trying to get
> their tokamak fusion reactor self-sustaining (well, it's still
> technically >nuclear<...)?
There is still no power producing fusion reactors. It takes a fission
reactor to produce enough power to magnetically contain the fusion
reaction. If you do some research, you'll see that the temperatures are
horrendously high in fusion reactions, and we have nothing that will
withstand them at present, other than the magnetic "bottle". And that
required megawatts.
>
> i guess it's time to renew some old interests.
>
Sweden passed a bill about 20 years ago to reduce the amount of power
produced by nuclear plants. They are now producing almost 20% MORE power
from nuclear than they were when they passed that bill. Strange math. Go
figure.
Regards, Jim
