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Yes, and in the meanwhile they live in a cleaner place, whereas in Germany people breathe toxic particles in the air (including radioactive particles released b
by gitanovic 5y ago
Yes, and in the meanwhile they live in a cleaner place, whereas in Germany people breathe toxic particles in the air (including radioactive particles released by burning coal)
Also, there are possible solutions to nuclear waste, such as auto-breeding reactors that basically burn waste, or energy amplifiers... that also reduce nuclear waste to waste products with much more manageable half lifes.
IMO Being a luddite with nuclear energy means not looking at reality for what it is
- lolc 5y agoI agree about the pollution caused by coal and that trading nuclear for coal is bad. But don't you think the "down-breeding" was tried and failed? It's been 50 years now.
- gitanovic 5y agoNope: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CANDU_reactor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CANDU_reactor The CANDU is a successful attempt, the energy amplifier was never attempted, and self breeding reactors are a material engineering problem (alas not yet completely solved), not a physics problem. Throwing a fraction of what we are spending to chase the "fusion dream" we could have achieved a great deal more for present reality. Again that's all IMO. edited: clarification
- vfclists 5y agoHow about IFR reactors - https://www.skirsch.com/politics/globalwarming/ifr.htm https://www.skirsch.com/politics/globalwarming/ifr.htm
- tremon 5y agoFAFAIK, breeder reactors have never been operated commercially. There have been proof-of-concept reactors in the 60s and 70s, but nothing in widespread operation because of the political uncertainty of nuclear power. According to [1], no new reactors have been built between roughly 1985 and 2015, and the only new reactors are now found in Russia and India. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breeder_reactor#Development_and_notable_breeder_reactors https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breeder_reactor#Development_an...
- bayesian_horse 5y agoThere are lots of possible solutions. None have worked so far. Which is why one might be careful about ramping up the production of the waste.