Economics and politics finally have a nuclear bond.

[sendler]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

Peak oil doesn't necessarily mean it becomes too expensive. It means the point in time that humanity consumes the greatest amount of oil, and tapers consumption after that.

This could be due to dwindling supply, or alternatives. I tend to think it will be a combination of both.

Peak oil availabilty will not be determined by demand per say. Oil will begin to leave us long before we are ready to leave it. We use resources from the best, first. And we used all of the Beverly Hillbilly oil a long time ago. Peak oil will ocurr from constricted supply as it gets harder and more expensive to get. There may be a long plateu in price though since we are likely to see world economic deflation as more and more middle class people find that they will have less and less surplus income to buy things and oil producers will be forced to sell production from existing wells at a big loss to try to keep some cash coming in. Eventually the price will skyrocket in 20-30 years as we are stuck with nothing left but very tight or deep water oil and tar sands. Pricing oil out of reach for most uses like transportation and agriculture that we have taken for granted for the last 100 years.

[oil pan 4]

Originally Posted by ModNewb

While I applaud their efforts at energy conservation, if peak oil turns out to be true, what happens when natural gas becomes too expensive to use?

We start burning all the bio gas we produce.
Then pass any additional costs on to the consumer.

[sendler]

Originally Posted by ModNewb

While I applaud their efforts at energy conservation, if peak oil turns out to be true, what happens when natural gas becomes too expensive to use?

Large mega cities above 40* North in Central and Eastern North America and Eastern Europe that have exploded in population during the carbon pulse will cease to remain viable at that scale in winter.
.
75 years.

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by sendler

Large mega cities above 40* North in Central and Eastern North America and Eastern Europe that have exploded in population during the carbon pulse will cease to remain viable at that scale in winter.

Winter isn't that much of a problem, as enough humans packed together generate plenty of heat. The bigger problem would be all the (sub)tropical mega cities. Phoenix, Las Vegas, or Miami in the non-air conditioned summer, anyone?

And of course, without agriculture & transport, all the mega cities will starve, anyway.

[freebeard]

Originally Posted by sendler

Peak oil availabilty will not be determined by demand per say. Oil will begin to leave us long before we are ready to leave it.

Else the deep, hot abiotic source will continue to resupply at a rate we learn to not overspend.

[freebeard]

Is this the best thread for nuclear stories?

ThorCon's Thorium Converter Reactor - Lars Jorgensen in Bali

The technology consists in a pot in a can, four serially redundant cooling loops and redundant failsafes.

Ocean deliverable so the whole thing is designed for 1G acceleration.

[rmay635703]

In Europe it is common for electrical power plants to provide clean distilled hot water to surrounding homes up to 100 miles away,

No doubt the us could do something similar with nuclear sources unless R60 rated insulating micro films become viable

[freebeard]

...unless R60 rated insulating micro films become viable

How would these be employed? What stands in the way of viability?

If 'the us' is the USofA, what [some of us] look forward to is the Tesla air condtioner that will deliver a gallon or two a day per unit.

[rmay635703]

Originally Posted by freebeard

How would these be employed? What stands in the way of viability?

If 'the us' is the USofA, what [some of us] look forward to is the Tesla air condtioner that will deliver a gallon or two a day per unit.

No idea, the concept only works on a microscopic scale

The water recovery devices might become a thing as more wells go dry

[Hersbird]

Originally Posted by rmay635703

In Europe it is common for electrical power plants to provide clean distilled hot water to surrounding homes up to 100 miles away,

No doubt the us could do something similar with nuclear sources unless R60 rated insulating micro films become viable

In the US it makes more sense to put the reactors far away from populated areas. There wouldn't be enough homes in a radius around the power plant to justify the hot water. Plus water doesn't have to be "used" at a power plant meaning there is no waste. It all just gets continously recycled back through the steam generators. You don't want to remove much of the heat, just enough to condense the steam back into water so it can be pumped again back into the steam generators. The hotter it stays the easier it is to make steam again.