4 ms·
Thousands of years from now, we will be far more technologically advanced. When we run out of uranium, it will be orders of magnitude simpler to develop alterna
by natrius 18y ago
Thousands of years from now, we will be far more technologically advanced. When we run out of uranium, it will be orders of magnitude simpler to develop alternatives on the off chance that we haven't yet. I don't think finiteness of nuclear is a practical concern. When our energy needs exceed what our Dyson sphere can provide, we'll need an alternative to solar as well.
As for the waste issue... shoot it into the sun? I don't know what the tradeoffs are between renewables and nuclear, but if nuclear is far more feasible at the moment as I suspect, it seems pretty reasonable to go for it. I'm pretty sure we'll have a good solution to the waste issue within the next century or two.
(tl;dw, so I don't know if the video mentions any of this.)
- DaniFong 18y ago"As for the waste issue... shoot it into the sun?" Ah, if the rocket explodes, which does happen, waste everywhere! Also, strangely, it takes quite a lot of energy to get to the sun (you might think one could just 'fall into it', but you have to fight against the earth's orbital velocity!)
- natrius 18y agoThis is exactly why they don't put the fate of humanity in my hands. Finding a way to deal with nuclear waste just doesn't seem like an insurmountable problem to me. In the meantime, reprocessing the waste and storing the remaining waste somewhere safe seems like a prudent enough plan. If we can't find a way to get rid of it by the time we start running out of space, we stop using nuclear energy. We'll be far better prepared to switch over to solar et al at that point, assuming that nuclear is currently significantly more cost-effective than the alternatives.