E10 Woes

[Will]

A lot of the problem is that the American public in general has grouped nuclear power with nuclear weapons. That has created a stigma on nuclear power that is does not deserve.

Necessity has dictated that the French got their act together over the last 60 years. If you think about it their country was demolished during WWII, and nearly collapsed during the 50s. It is true that the US and England liberated them in WWII, and the US bailed them out in the 50s, but during that time we should have been paying attention to what they were doing. They have employed a lot of great "realistic" answers to a lot of their problems. Their use of nuclear power is only one example.

I will also say that we have found out that the US Dept of Energy is the last one who needs to be running our nuclear power plants. It may sound odd, but if you look at their track record the best ones to run our power plants is most likely the US Navy. Our Navy has more reactors than the rest of the world combined. Some of our ships have more than one aboard.

[Big Dave]

When the French decided to massively embrace nuclear power, they looked around to see who had the best nuclear program. They swallowed their pride and decided the US Navy's program was far and away the best. They in fact asked Jerry Ford to send Admiral Rickover to France to tell them how to do it. I'd like to have seen the collision between the imperious Rickover and the French, but long term they implemented the US Navy system lock, stock, and barrel.

The USS Enterprise has eight reactors.

[rmay635703]

Originally Posted by Will

You are probably right, but I don't think it's enough, and I hate the stress on the food supply.


Ok, here comes the thunderstorm...

I still think that electric cars and nuclear power are the best we have. I know, people are going to shutter at the mere mention of nuclear power. I will stress that we need better disposal and possible neutralization methods for spent nuclear fuel. They we working on neutralization of radiation when I was in the army (not a secret). That was 15 years ago. (Boy, I am starting to feel the passage of time).

I still have high hopes for nuclear fusion as a much better alternative to our current fission.

I agree, but on ethanol I think it has been operated in a BONEHEAD fashion.

There are quite literally tons of potatoes right near the ethanol plant that go to waste every year. But because the ideot corn lobby owns the corn ethanol plant they won't digest potatoes into ethanol even though

1. Potatoes are much easier to make into alchol than corn
2. Potatoes make much more ethanol per pound than corn

Too bad we can't enforce a law that only waste/excess food and byproducts are used to make ethanol.

Its redicolous to use one viable food for fuel when unviable food stores could be put to a usefull purpose.

There is also the fact ethanol can be made
1. Without additional heat in the summer using different enzymes (aka no more blasted fossill fuels to make ethanol)
2. Ethanol can be made the old fashioned way by malting, so purchased and chemical additives would be more or less unnecessary.

It would take longer this way but be much cheaper to produce. Too bad common sense takes a back seat to vested interests.

[ATaylorRacing]

Originally Posted by RH77

Essentially, we send the waste to a "permenant" holding site in Nevada. The half-life of the nuclear waste is decades, if not on the Century-scale.

...And the term "send" involves an elaborate transportation system that is far from vulnerable.
It's just something to consider... Like diamonds, "Nuclear is Forever" (at least for 2+ generations).

RH77

I wish I still had the article (or where I even read it) but all of the US nuclear waste produced to date would only fill up a HS Gym.

[RH77]

Originally Posted by ATaylorRacing

I wish I still had the article (or where I even read it) but all of the US nuclear waste produced to date would only fill up a HS Gym.

Even still, we're talking about some seriously toxic waste. You're research probably shows the volume it also takes to safety store the liquid. It's larger than a gymnasium -- it requires a holding system that can withstand at least 100-years of storage and a site with few natural disasters. In addition, the problem of transportation safety has not been fully assured.

Maybeh we can just store it and let future generations worry about it when it starts leaking

RH77

[Funny]

Originally Posted by RH77

It's larger than a gymnasium -- it requires a holding system that can withstand at least 100-years of storage and a site with few natural disasters. In addition, the problem of transportation safety has not been fully assured.

Maybe we can just store it and let future generations worry about it when it starts leaking

RH77

Hey, why don't you just store the waste here, underground where you can't see it, in Massachusettes? We don't get the kind of natural disasters that could effect an underground chamber very often. I mean, Teddy Kennedy won't allow anyone to build windmills off Nantucket sound because they are six miles off the coast, and on a good day you might see them.
Check it out, Here, because he helped kill the Nations first offshore Wind Farm. But we sure should be able to store waste!

[TELVM]

Interesting readings on nuclear reactors, fission waste products and nature:

Oklo: Natural Nuclear Reactors - Fact Sheet

The Oklo Natural Nuclear Reactor

[rmay635703]

Originally Posted by RH77

Even still, we're talking about some seriously toxic waste. You're research probably shows the volume it also takes to safety store the liquid. It's larger than a gymnasium -- it requires a holding system that can withstand at least 100-years of storage and a site with few natural disasters. In addition, the problem of transportation safety has not been fully assured.

Maybeh we can just store it and let future generations worry about it when it starts leaking

RH77

Just brief comment on the above and then onward,

The volume of nuclear waste is a non-issue its the volume of the shielding and systems that take the space. If we had the foresite to design a system to bulk store we would be set but then the issue of a possible nuclear meltdown within our waste storage system comes into play.

One thing though, Nuclear waste may become a very valuable commodity in the near future. There are cells very similar to photovoltaic that produce electricity when exposed to nuclear radiation (which also blocks and shields radiactive content) and in no small order either, they make much more juice than a standard solar cell with sunlight.

They are still in the experimentation phase but this gives me hope, perhaps each one of us someday might have a refridgerator sized device sitting in our backyard running passive nuclear electric energy into our homes.

Not to mention the shielding from nuclear plants could be used for electric also increasing the plants efficiency.

There is already a 10yr paint that produces light off H30 nuclear isotopes relatively safely, I am waiting for that to start showing up on the radar (its already for sale in places) Imaging the paint in your house lighting it.

Now if we could get fusion to work safely then all this would be moot!

[DifferentPointofView]

Originally Posted by RH77

"Winter Gas" used to be 10% Ethanol, but I see the same sticker on pumps in the Summer now. I assume they won't be dumping-in any more this winter I can't keep track anymore...

Speaking of fuel filters, what's the replacement interval these days? I'm at ~80K since the last change...

RH77

I thought it was every 30,000 miles, thats what I think my Jeep's Rebuild Service Manual says, could be every 60,000 miles, or every 15,000. Its one of those three though.

The 95' Jeep grand cherokee has a serviceable fuel filter, thats located outside of the fuel tank. Its about a foot from the fuel tank, in front of the rear axel, although some are located near the engine (easier access if its in the engine bay).

When I replaced mine... it was soo clogged with gunk that when you put in clean fuel on one side, black fuel came out the other side...

On a 98' Teggy, I wouldn't know, but it was more common back in the 90's to have serviceable fuel filters. Now most of them are in the tanks, and when it gets clogged get ready to pull out your wallet, cause it's gonna be expensive.

Red- Did you say most fuel tanks are plastic? Mines definitely metal, as well as the one on my moms Caliber. I've never seen a plastic one before...

[RH77]

Originally Posted by rmay635703

The volume of nuclear waste is a non-issue its the volume of the shielding and systems that take the space. If we had the foresite to design a system to bulk store we would be set but then the issue of a possible nuclear meltdown within our waste storage system comes into play.

This is my point exactly. I used to be a huge fan of Nuclear Power -- it does make a lot of sense, and operation has a good safety record. After some reading, I realized that the spent waste transport and containment was revealed to be a weak spot. My statement was meant to be more thought-provoking than a jab to the topic. If we can bolster the weak links, I could see myself signing on to it again.

One thing though, Nuclear waste may become a very valuable commodity

This is an interesting proposal. Since we have to store it, why not find a way to safely use it? It still has the potential for some energy, or it wouldn't be a concern.

Back to the fuel filter. On Teggy, it's located on the firewall and is pretty simple to replace -- just a bracket, hose, and a banjo bolt -- right out in the open. But at ~70K miles, there was a thick brown/yellow gunk that oozed from it while draining, so it was doing its job. I'm pushing 140K miles now, so I'm just curious as to what's going on in there.

I worked on a '95 Mercury Mystique with an inline can-style near the fuel tank. The brackets were rusted and the pressure release conveniently squirted into the eyeball (even with safety glasses). Ouch! That was 105K miles and pretty clear fuel discharged from the upstream side -- so like people, vehicles can be different I suppose.

RH77