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Old 10-12-2008, 06:34 PM   #77 (permalink)
Concrete
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jamesqf View Post
You've been so - yes, let me use the word - brainwashed by the "evil nuclear radiation" meme that you can't or won't separate truth from fantasy.

Fact is, "radiation" doesn't last for tens of thousands of years, it lasts forever (or at least until the heat death of the universe, a good few trillion years from now). Everything is radioactive, to some degree, and always will be. We are bathed in a constant sea of radiation.

I think you have assumed I am anti nuclear... I am not
I understand background radiation - that is why a little extra from coal burning does not concern me
I realize Western reactors are much better than the old soviet reactors
I realize they are hardened against tremendous physical forces from inside & out

My real concern is one Enron like company running a reactor
Imagine a nuclear Love Canal incident & coverup
is that not scarier than Godzilla!
(sorry, had to use it, this analogy has had me laughing half the thread)

we should get the most out of the reactors we have, but I'm not real excited about bankrolling more
The reactor in my area was heavily over budget and raised the price of electricity locally
I put it in the same category as PV - not profitable without subsidies
(but PV is getting better and nuclear will always have waste issues)
If they made sense - they would be built

Wind is now competing commercially with coal (still higher but very close)
It looks like the day of Nuclear power is past
it is the bridge to the future not the future itself

as for radiation - I may think you are over simplifying
what are the half lives of the the products we are talking about?
many of them are +10,000 years

as for other waste - yes some of it will be cool/safe in decades
but there is a lot of it - concrete, re-bar, safety gear, the cooling water it self
it is not as simple as you make it sound
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