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Old 03-24-2009, 01:16 PM   #16 (permalink)
NeilBlanchard
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Hi,

We have not yet solved the nuclear waste problem -- Yucca Mountain is a debacle, and it probably will never happen. The half-life of plutonium is ~24,000 years, and it will remain dangerously radioactive for several half-lives.

That is much longer than all our recorded history, and if we continue to use nuclear power we will continue to pile up the plutonium.

Not only is it highly radioactive -- it is extremely poisonous, too.

Compare these huge downsides to something like wind power, and I think the arguments for nuclear become moot. A combination of three or four (or more!) renewable energy (solar, wind, wave, tidal, biogas, geothermal, small hydro -- the list is a long one!) can easily meet all out energy needs, with almost none of the downsides of petroleum or nuclear.
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Sincerely, Neil

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