ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Nuclear power

I failed to mention that I also looked out at the surf that day in '74, which was about 8'. I wondered how much energy was being wasted with each wave, and if someday we'd be able to harness it for our use.
Not yet, 27 yrs later they still pound the whole coast about once every 15 seconds, powering nothing but surfboards.

Scott,

There have been some projects here looking into harnessing wave power, but I think any widespread use is a very long way off.

Hi everyone, great thread going on here!
Been following it over time and would like to throw in my comments / feelings.

First off, you guys had me ROTFLOL about the "No Nukes" stickers being printed using Nuclear Generated Electric power!!! That's a belly acher!

Now for the serious part

I cannot stand using Fossil Fuels to drive Prime Movers at all!!! It's bad enough that we still use Fossil Fuel Prime Movers in our Automobiles, but driving Prime Movers for large scale Electrical Energy Generation is so lame!!!
Horrible impacts on the Enviroment, and as far as costs go [complete picture being from obtaining the raw fuels, to the large level of energy just wasted as heat], the stuff is so inefficient!

Renewables are such a great step in the right direction. Hydroelectric, Geothermal and Solar do not impact as drammatic [exception is HydroElectric, due to the Dams and the corresponding change of the landscape from the contained water].

Nuclear Reaction Generated power is [to me] very efficient and a less of an impact [when waste is contained properly]. as Scott [electure] said, the only thing noticably changed in the enviroment around SONGS [San Onofre] is that the water temperature has been elevated.

It really is a shame that our technology has not evolve enough to the point where Fusion Reactions can be contained and controlled the way we have learned to control and contain the Fission Reactions.

Our current technology for cracking an element [for use as fuel for a Prime Mover, not to kill someone!] involves gigantic Uranium elements - not so dangerous in their raw unused state, but are so terribly dangerous after being spent [AKA U239 waste].
That, coupled on the fact that it takes U239 about 4.6 Billion Years for the first step to 1/2 life, really sucks! [then how many steps down before it's finally Lead - I think it's around 10 or so, some elements having a 1/2 life of just a few seconds, others having 1/2 lives of Millions or Billions of years].

I'm just amazed that this planet still has these odd and unstable elements on it so far after it's creation!

If technology ever allows us to harness Fusion Reactions, our problems of Electrical Power Generation will be almost completely gone! This only from the standpoint of available fuels, energy levels per mole of fuel, and the enviromental impacts in case the Reactor Core fails, or leaks out Fused Elements [AKA the newly created elements].
I am not including some clown terrorists using the Technology to kill people.

If we used Hydrogen fuel and Fused it through the steps like Stars do, the end resulting newly created element would be Helium! Even two steps would produce a non threatening little element [isn't it Deuterium / heavy Hydrogen / Hydrogen 3???]. I am thinking about just before Hydrogen 2 and Hydrogen 3 get Fused into Helium - is this correct???

I wouldn't mind the fallout results of a 3 step Hydrogen Fusion Reaction! The Kinetic Energy released would make our U235 Fission Reactions look like a lit match, as compared to a raging forest fire!
After the dust settles, everyone would be speaking with high pitched voices

That's not too bad of a deal to me!

Until the time comes when wide scale Electrical Power Generation is no longer needed [someone perfects Superconduction or similar], we'll be at the mercy of E=MC2; directed mostly from blasting apart U235 for Kinetic Energy releases - but in areas where ever Fossil Fuel "Burning" plants do not "Rule the Domain"!

As much as I would prefer renewables to any other means of deriving raw Potential Energy then transporting it [transduce the energy into Electrical Power, then transfer it to the point of dissipation where it's changed into Kinetic energy state], I am quite sure that Oil, Coal, Natural Gas and Uranium suppliers will keep this from happening. They do not want to stop making a bundle of money.

OK, as you can see I am slightly upset by a few things on the subject of Electrical Power Generation.
I typed out the more extreme explanations of nuke stuff because it sounds cooler that way to me... big 'ol smilee face!

I have successfully vented all the hot air from within me, so thank you for your patients!
Feel free to blast away with the Phasors set on Kill if this sounds like a load of c**p!

Scott SET

P.S. If anyone has the answers to the questions I made regarding the nuke physics stuff above, please let me know what's up.
It's been so long since studying that stuff, I am unsure if anything I have stated above is accurate

SET

sums it up nicely......

Just for anyone who's curious, I stumbled upon the following statistics while looking for something else:

U.K. data for year ending 1996

Total annual production 309.672 billion kWh
Fossil fuel 72.28%
Nuclear 26.33%
Hydro 1.28%
Other 0.11%

Scott,

U239???? 238 is the highest numbered isotope of Uranium that I know of. Perhaps you're thinking of Pu239 (Plutonium) whose 1/2 life is only 24000 years (more or less). Uranium 1/2 lives are in the 10 to the 7th power to 10 to the 9th power for the most common isotopes.

For those interested, here's a couple of facts about Plutonium, which is some truly nasty stuff.

Atomic Mass: 239.0521565 +- 0.0000021 amu
Half Life: 24110 Y
Specific Activity: 0.06203 curie/g

1/1,000,000 of a gram lodged in your lungs will give you cancer.

I don't think you'd want to be fueling your home fusion reactor with anything except hydrogen (H) and Deuterium (H2).

Deuterium (H2),is a stable isotope but Tritium (H3)isn't, with a 1/2 life of 12 years or so.

probably viable maintenanceguy
, but I can't shake this image of glowing Darwinian's marching into 'that big orange place' seeking suggestions...





[This message has been edited by sparky (edited 12-18-2001).]

I kinda like this approach:

'66

I'm with you!!

Al

Tom,

Thanks very much for the information!!!

Re: U239, I was referring to the U238 bulk Elements laying dormant during the Fission reaction which "Gobble Up" a freed Electron from a Fissioned U235 and becomes the extremely unstable radioactive Isotope U239.

I think their's a simmilar situation which happens with the created Plutonium [a Plutonium Element receives a freed Electron and becomes highly unstable and highly radioactive].

Like I said, it's been a while, so I'll take a look at the books [blow off the dust and scrape off the cobwebs!] to make certain.

If this sounds incorrect, let me know!

Sorry to throw all this nuke nerd tech at everyone. Just grin and nod your head if this baloney makes no sense!

Scott SET.