It's all over but for the sweating?

[Arragonis]

New type of nuclear reactor.

New nuke could POWER WORLD UNTIL 2083 ? The Register

A company spun off from MIT is claiming it has cracked the holy grail of nuclear technology: a reactor design that runs on materials the industry currently discards as waste and which could meet all of the world's power demands for the next 70 years. It's also "walk-away safe," the designers claim, making it immune to the kind of meltdown that destroyed the Fukushima reactors.

The plan is to build them ready to plug in:

The initial design for WAMSR is a 500MWe (megawatt electrical) plant that can be manufactured as a standalone unit and be shipped directly to customers, ready to be fueled up and switched on. It would cost around $1.5bn – which may sound like a lot, but is dirt cheap compared to a garden-varity nuke plant these days.

EDIT - the presentation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=AAFWeIp8JT0

[NeilBlanchard]

We already have a near perfect nuclear fusion reactor that will serve us for free for the next BILLION or so years. It is located at a safe distance - about 93 million miles away - and it transmits all the energy we could ever need, distributed all around the earth so that all life can work.

Some life forms can make electricity inside their cells from the suns energy, and then use that energy to make their own food - these are the cyanobacteria and the plants. All the other lifeforms are totally dependent on the photosynthesis both for the oxygen and the food they eat.

Let's choose to not soil our only planet, okay? Let's instead choose to cooperate with the cycle of life - we cannot survive without it. We can use our brains to do the right thing, and that has to be based on our best understanding of how the world works.

[Arragonis]

If you believe renewables can gather the energy from the Sun fine, but we also need some backup and baseload. If you also worry about CO2, Nuclear seems the obvious choice.

The reactor described reuses nuclear waste of which there is a lot - and we have to store it for, well, ever with no benefit at all. It will still be there, but we get power.

This could be a solution.

EDIT - it could replace the electricity lost from this for a start.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotlan...-fife-21788332

[freebeard]

I thought the story was going to be about this:

China blazes trail for 'clean' nuclear power from thorium - Telegraph

...but maybe not. I'll watch the TED talk when I get a chance.

It's been a while since I've seen an article by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard. Good to see he's still writing.

[TheEnemy]

Disregarding a solution, even a partial solution is not a good Idea, using what is now waste (even nucular) to generate power is better than just storing that waste. We will never be able to avoid all of the bad no matter what the technology. But we can learn from the bad that does happen and make things better.

Renewables despite being a good thing will not at all times be able to supply all of our power need (or wants) which means we still need to look to other solutions that may not be as environmentally friendly to cover those gaps.

[freebeard]

Renewables despite being a good thing will not at all times be able to supply all of our power need (or wants)

The exception, of course, is Moon power. It's not as variable as solar power, and thus suitable for baseload.

I watched the TED talk. MIT and China are both updating the same 60's tech. No mention from MIT of Thorium.

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by NeilBlanchard

Let's choose to not soil our only planet, okay? Let's instead choose to cooperate with the cycle of life - we cannot survive without it. We can use our brains to do the right thing, and that has to be based on our best understanding of how the world works.

Yes, and part of that understanding ought to be the lesson of Chernobyl, which is that the effects of a full-scale nuclear meltdown are far less detrimental to the environment than ordinary human activities.

PS: And if you think the sun is harmless, go lay on the beach all day without sunscreen :-)

[NeilBlanchard]

Fukushima was three "partial" meltdowns. Nuclear is not zero carbon, or even "low" carbon.

The Arctic is is fracturing and cracking and breaking up - as much as FIFTY ONE DAYS ahead of last season...

Melt Season’s First Signs in Arctic | Climate Denial Crock of the Week




This is not a small area - it is from the western part of Canada (near Alaska) and extends more than halfway toward Greenland. It started happening in late February.

[Arragonis]

Worthy of a read, a scientist without a PhD

Our rosy future, according to Freeman Dyson - Salon.com

[Arragonis]

Science in action, or maybe inaction... - From climategate 3.0 (the new emails)

cc: t.osborn@uea.ac.uk
date: Wed, 17 Jun 1998 12:03:13 -0400 (EDT)
from: mann@snow.geo.umass.edu
subject: Re: Something far more interesting
to: p.jones@uea.ac.uk
Dear Phil,
Of course I’ll be happy to be on board. I think the opportunity for some
direct collaboration between us (me, and you/tim/keith) is ripe, and
the plan to compare and contrast different approaches and data and
synthesize the different results is a good one. Though sidetracked
by other projects recently, I remain committed to doing this with
you guys, and to explore applications to synthetic datasets with
manufactured biases/etc remains high priority. It sounds like it
would all fit into the proposal you mention. There may be some
overlap w/proposals we will eventually submit to NSF (renewal
of our present funding), etc. by I don’t see a problem with that
in the least.
Once the collaboration is officially in place, I think that sharing
of codes, data, etc. should not be a problem. I would be happy to
make mine available, though can’t promise its the most user friendly
thing in the world.
In short, I like the idea. INclude me in, and let me know what you
need from me (cv, etc.).
cheers,
mike
__________________________________________________ __________________
Michael E. Mann
Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Geosciences
Morrill Science Center
University of Massachusetts
Amherst, MA 01003

This is the guy who even now refuses to share his data or methods with anyone else despite it being paid for by (your - in the US) taxes.