"columbiaaccidentinvestigation"
wrote in message
...
On Aug 18, 5:03 am, AM wrote:" Nuclear.... The
cleanest form of energy we know of right now."

no, that waste is very messy.



It's only messy because we're using 40 and 50 year old designs.

The big problem here is we not invested in Nuclear technology for about 30
or 40 years.

A 40 year old car or computer is a joke by today's standards.

Without question, Thorium based nuclear reactors are the way to go.

The problem right now in the usa is the military never supported thorium
base type reactors, one reason of course was in the 1950s during the Cold
War they needed a source of nuclear fuel for creating bombs. The second
reason is is the military is a big proponent of putting out papers on global
warming and a lot of other technologies that reduce the self sufficiency of
United States. Remember if we became energy self sufficient, we would NOT
need the big military that we have, and we would not have to bother about
the Middle East at all. So the industrial military complex is a huge benefit
of hot spots around the world including the Middle East..

The other big reason for the nuclear industry being against thorium reactors
is due to the huge billions of dollars of business to be had by processing
the spent fuel from these reactors. In fact that processing and management
of the fuel rods and waste is one of the most lucrative contracts in the
energy business you can get into. This is very much like the farmers of Iowa
supporting corn ethanol when we all know it's a really bad idea.

The key component in the new generation of thorium reactors is they have any
spend rods as waste. The liquid thorium is used over and over as the working
fluid. As a result there's very little nuclear waste if any at all. Contrast
to reusable liquid that gets used over and over to that of highly expensive
exotic metals and materials that nuclear fuel rods are made of. Those fuel
rods are used for controlling the reactor and when they get used up and full
of radiation, you have a very expensive high quality metal rod and that
creates a very expensive waste problem.

With thorium, there's no fuel rods, and the working fluid gets used over and
over. When you remove the component of not having any spent fuel rods in a
reactor that can run years on end in this fashion, nuclear absolutely and
positively wins this race for the cleanest and most efficient type of energy
hands down.

The problem is of course just like the corn farmers of Iowa, why on earth
would the nuclear industry that has gets billions of dollars from processing
and management of the waste, give up that lucrative gravy train? That's like
going to the Iowa farmers and asking them if they think ethanol's a good
idea? Of course ethanol only makes sense to these Iowa farmers because
they're getting billions of dollars of subsidies.

The USA has aboat 110 nuclear reactors that it been running for what 40 plus
years now. There's never been a death in United States due radiation in any
commercial nuclear reactor. Contrast this to the thousands of people that
lose their lives in coal mines.

So between the nuclear industry not wanting thorium reactors, between the
military that does not want energy self sufficiency (and a loss of needing
all those expensive aircraft carriers and equipment that we always have to
throw into the Middle East when troubles flares up), is a huge political
shot against anything in America that will drive them to Energy self
sufficiency.

Nuclear energy is our answer, and is the cleanest and most environmentally
friendly source of fuel and energy we can create. The idea that were going
to power our steel mills and factories from a bunch a wind mills is
absolutely laughable. Wind farms have for each tower a big huge mechanical
beast of maintenance, and if you need to increase the amount of power, you
have to put up more ugly mechanical beasts that require expensive
maintenance.

Nuclear is not a fossil fuel or chemical based reaction, it is a nuclear
reaction, and the miracle of harnessing the power of the atom means it's
thousands of times cleaner and less impact than any other source of energy
we have. The idea of burning chemicals does is come close to that of using
the atomic power that's contained within an atom .

To put this into perspective, a typical coal fired power plant today uses
about 110 boxcars of coal every single day. The nuclear reactor requires one
car every 18 months. (think about this for second ONE EVERY 18 months!). And
in fact the 18 months comparison is based on today's nuclear reactors, and
thorium reactors are another 10 or even as much as 100 times more efficient
in terms of power compared to current nuclear reactors. The result is even
LESS waste for the given amount of energy that you make.

It is without question that thorium based nuclear reactors is our answer.
The problem is we're being sold out by the military, and were being sold out
by the nuclear lobby that doesn't want these technologies.

Super Turtle