August 29th, 2006 by Atomictumor
So, I read in the Knoxville papers that the Oak Ridge city council is playing with the idea of courting a DOE facility to treat spent radioactive fuel to turn it into “useful products” (hair gel, portable electronics, fungicides, etc). They’re meeting in September to try to hash it out.
You know, something thats always bugged me about the times we live in is seeing the drop into complacancy the western world has fallen. During the first half, maybe even the first 2/3rds of the century we saw people bravely moving forward, hurdles jumped, techniques and technologies pioneered, and the world changed because of it.
Nuclear power is an example.
These days, most people think of Chernobyl, of death clouds and cooking from the inside out when they think of nuclear power. Thats unfortunate, considering that using fossil fuels for power is resulting in death squads and freaky cults having way too much power.
Fact is, we have to get off fossil fuels. Global warming and peak oil theories notwithstanding, we’re going to keep paying for the RPGs and IEDs blowing legs off the soldiers in the desert, or at the very least we’re going to keep propping up the kind of governments that aren’t ideally democratic or neighborly.
If America had the kind of drive that got people on the moon in a tin can, and applied it to getting a renewable, or at least sustainable energy source, where would we be? Would it have happened, or would we still be excited about gas prices dropping to $2.54?
Anyway, point is, bring it on, Oak Ridge. Lets get back on the nuclear train, because its the best bet we have. Solar and Wind energy is a pipe dream, and hydro obviously isn’t enough, but we need to get rid of the fossil fuels.
August 29th, 2006 at 9:59 am
Hey, I’m completely with you on this one. We should have pushed harder to increase nuclear power production in the 1970’s — the last time there was a serious oil crisis.
Wish I could find one of the bumper stickers from that era, “More people have died in Ted Kennedy’s car than in US nuclear power plants.” Of course, there still isn’t a great public comfort level with the idea: to wit, the Sentinel’s article on Sunday about tritium leaks at three TVA nuclear plants.
Does anyone remember that tritium has a half-life of about 12 years, and was commonly used to make wristwatch hands glow in the dark for decades? Yeah, I know it also makes a good trigger for a nuclear warhead… but c’mon, it’s not nearly as dangerous as the coal and oil industries, not to mention the freaks who own all the oil.
August 29th, 2006 at 10:07 am
And anybody who watched Spiderman 2 knows that theres only a few pounds of it in the world, so we should feel lucky. That, and its evidently a potential source of unlimited power that inevitably backfires on its creator.
But seriously, yeah, there are hazards, but if we have to weigh them, it seem obvious to me that the atom wins out. Now, once we start getting to zero point power and all that stuff (I understand that mojofilters been working on that during his recent unemployment), we’ll be talking a different story.
August 29th, 2006 at 10:42 am
This is, of course, silly. The reason nuclear power hasn’t been more widespread in the US is not because of cowardice, it is simple economics. Other fuel sources have just been too cheap in the US. Now that we’ve reached peak oil world-wide, the economics are changing. Coal is cheaper and more plentiful, and the costs of safely operating a coal-fired plant are orders of magnitude lower, but under normal operating conditions, coal plants are far more polluting. We will see more nuclear plants in the US in the future, for the same reason that generate a larger proportion of power in Japan and France; the demand will make the case compelling.
The comparison to tritium is just ignorant. The half life is not what kills you, it is the damage caused by the ionizing radiation. All radioactive decay is not the same. The mean path length in water of the beta particles emitted by tritium is a half a micron. The ionizing radiation emitted by tritium in a watch dial can’t even leave the surface of the watch dial, let alone penetrate the bezel or watch back to cause any tissue damage. Even if you laid the watch dial next to your skin, the betas couldn’t penetrate the dead layer on your skin surface.
Comparing tritium leaks to tritium in a watch dial is also ignorant. The minute quantities immoblized in watch dial paint cannot be ingested with out a fairly determined effort, while tritium gas is highly volitile and can be inhaled. What makes tritium dangerous is that it is an isotope of hydrogen, and thus exchanges freely in water. It readily diffuses throughout the body, and can freely enter cells, where it can cause DNA breaks.
Uranium and plutonium are both beta and gamma emitters. I don’t have the mean path lengths for these radiations, but they are orders of magnitude longer. You may recall that blue glow of water-cooled reactors; that’s cerenkov radiation emitted from the water surrounding the metal-jacketed uranium. That’s due to the same high-energy radiation that would kill you in minutes if you were standing there instead of the water.
And yes, uranium and plutonium are *way* more dangerous than oil or coal. Remember that the phony claim that Saddam was seeking uranium yellowcake in Niger was one of the major charges used by the Bush Administration to gin up support for the Iraq invasion. The desire by Iran to have nuclear power is what has the Bush Administrations knickers in a twist now.
Finally, nuclear power plants, operating safely, are no more dangerous than oil or coal plants. But the consequences of a containment failure for a nuclear power plants are potentially orders of magnitude more devastating. Only a fool would discount this reasonable concern.
August 29th, 2006 at 10:45 am
I like the way, Joel, you can argue while backing up the points that came before you. Its a skill.
August 29th, 2006 at 10:47 am
But I know what you mean, and thats what I was talking about with regards to Chernobyl, which is a mighty fine example of the consequences of a nuclear accident. It’ll smite your ass.
However, we’re slowly smiting ourselves now, and cold fusion just ain’t working out that well yet.
August 29th, 2006 at 10:49 am
If you’re referring to your post immediatly above mine, I didn’t see it until after I submitted mine. Mea culpa.
August 29th, 2006 at 10:50 am
Cold fusion is a fraud.
August 29th, 2006 at 11:10 am
Yup. Snake oil.
August 29th, 2006 at 2:35 pm
*Smiling vacantly and nodding abstractedly*
August 29th, 2006 at 2:59 pm
GAC: *Smiling vacantly and nodding abstractedly*
LOL. Ditto.
August 29th, 2006 at 5:23 pm
Speaking of atomic energy….way back in the day…there was this idea… http://www.damninteresting.com/?p=656