5 ms·
Every technology has pros & cons, effects & residues. Coal : Effect/Pros - Energy/Cheap. Residue/Cons - C02/GlobalWarming Nuclear : Effect/Pros - Energy/Clean
by cmonnow 7y ago
Every technology has pros & cons, effects & residues.
Coal : Effect/Pros - Energy/Cheap. Residue/Cons - C02/GlobalWarming
Nuclear : Effect/Pros - Energy/Clean. Residue/Cons - RadioactiveWaste/Contamination.
Where do the nuclear byproducts go currently ? Into the earth? Rivers? Oceans?
30 years ago, we switched from paper based products to plastic, to save trees. Today, we want to switch from plastic based products to paper, to avoid pollution.
Every 'switch' will come with side-effects that the current generation is fine with, because they're not going to be ones dealing with it.
- pasabagi 7y agoI think it gets dumped off the coast of Somalia, actually. Obviously, capitalism isn't very good at accounting for externalities, whether they are measured in birth defects, or in degrees centigrade - but I think global warming is a bit more extreme in scale than your typical pollution issue.
- Accujack 7y ago>Where do the nuclear byproducts go currently ? Into the earth? Rivers? Oceans? No where, because there aren't any. If you meant spent fuel if it's not reprocessed it's stored as long as needed to be less dangerously radioactive. If it's reprocessed, any radioactive elements in it that aren't useful are stored and left to decay. Present storage of things like this is on-site as mentioned above, because reprocessing mostly doesn't happen. The amount of unusable material from reprocessed fuel is tiny, by the way.... even less trouble than storing the spent fuel rods, on the order of a handful of material from a whole fuel rod assembly. Power generating reactors don't give off anything but electricity, heat, and spent fuel, they are zero emissions.