4 ms·

Nuclear has its own decommissioning and long term disposal problem.

by varjag 6y ago

throwaway0a5e 6y ago
If anything nuclear's problem is even more political than practical. We could fulfill the world's nuclear waste storage needs with a couple landfills if the will was there (though any geologist will tell you are better options than near surface storage). From an ecological perspective nuclear is the best option by a mile because the amount of stuff you need to pull out of the ground, move around, use and dispose of is so small per energy produced.
- varjag 6y ago
  It's the same for hydro, the lack of political stakeholders in decomissioning process. I wasn't suggesting that it's physically impossible.
  - bullen 6y ago
    Nuclear has 1.000.000.000x the energy density of batteries so yes, but you need dead trees to build and maintain power lines, the power grid cannot be remade after it's current decline. Tiny local hydro (with natural dam) is the future, but getting a building permit is near impossible. (I leave it to the reader to guess why) We need to switch off electricity for everything except (low power) computers and networks. = hand pumped water, wood stove for water heater, earth cellar as fridge! Mass transports are completely over, grow/breed/preserve your food locally!
    - bzbarsky 6y ago
      > wood stove for water heater Even ignoring the CO2 aspect, the particulate emissions from this would be quite problematic in any sort of dense area. Not to mention what fraction of those particulates would end up inside the house... Also, you don't mention heating (houses, not water). That is a huge part of energy consumption in many parts of the world.
    - ryanmarsh 6y ago
      > the power grid cannot be remade What has changed such that you could not remake the power grid? Do we lack the raw materials or know how?
    - greedo 6y ago
      And then reality set in. This lifestyle simply won't happen.
    - sudosysgen 6y ago
      You don't need trees for powerlines. Steel and an excavator is more than enough. Actually, just a shovel would be enough.
- redis_mlc 6y ago
  > We could ... But we haven't done so in the last 80 years for civilian use, so I guess we're not doing it anytime soon. The Marianas military waste vault was bungled (no liner, cracking dome, below waterline), and Congress refused to budget for on-going maintenance - what a surprise.

Nuclear has its own decommissioning and long term disposal problem.

by varjag 6y ago

Nuclear has its own decommissioning and long term disposal problem.

If anything nuclear's problem is even more political than practical. We could fulfill the world's nuclear waste storage needs with a couple landfills if the will was there (though any geologist will tell you are better options than near surface storage). From an ecological perspective nuclear is the best option by a mile because the amount of stuff you need to pull out of the ground, move around, use and dispose of is so small per energy produced.

varjag 6y ago
It's the same for hydro, the lack of political stakeholders in decomissioning process. I wasn't suggesting that it's physically impossible.
- bullen 6y ago
  Nuclear has 1.000.000.000x the energy density of batteries so yes, but you need dead trees to build and maintain power lines, the power grid cannot be remade after it's current decline. Tiny local hydro (with natural dam) is the future, but getting a building permit is near impossible. (I leave it to the reader to guess why) We need to switch off electricity for everything except (low power) computers and networks. = hand pumped water, wood stove for water heater, earth cellar as fridge! Mass transports are completely over, grow/breed/preserve your food locally!
  - bzbarsky 6y ago
    > wood stove for water heater Even ignoring the CO2 aspect, the particulate emissions from this would be quite problematic in any sort of dense area. Not to mention what fraction of those particulates would end up inside the house... Also, you don't mention heating (houses, not water). That is a huge part of energy consumption in many parts of the world.
  - ryanmarsh 6y ago
    > the power grid cannot be remade What has changed such that you could not remake the power grid? Do we lack the raw materials or know how?
  - greedo 6y ago
    And then reality set in. This lifestyle simply won't happen.
  - sudosysgen 6y ago
    You don't need trees for powerlines. Steel and an excavator is more than enough. Actually, just a shovel would be enough.
redis_mlc 6y ago
> We could ... But we haven't done so in the last 80 years for civilian use, so I guess we're not doing it anytime soon. The Marianas military waste vault was bungled (no liner, cracking dome, below waterline), and Congress refused to budget for on-going maintenance - what a surprise.