[pp.int.general] Environmentalists and pirates, free information perspective

[Félix Robles]

On Tue, Oct 27, 2009 at 8:36 PM, Andrew Norton <ktetch at gmail.com> wrote:

> Radioactive waste seems bad, but it can be reprocessed, to make new
> fuel from high-level waste. Also, it seems that a lot of the time,
> people over-hype the danger of nuclear waste, and how bad
> radioactivity is. I worked, a few years back, on some systems for a
> company, concerned with telepresence in a nuclear environment. I spent
> time at Sellafield and THORP (the associated reprocessing plant) and I
> don't glow.
>
>
Perhaps you spent time at those places and you don't glow, but remember that
it's only because the radioactive material was very controlled. No one can
assure that the radioactive waste will be under control in 10 thousand
years, or in 1 million years.

So we are risking the lifes of future generations: you don't glow, but will
your descendants glow in  50 thousand years?


> There have also been other projects, such as a proton-based
> accelerator. the idea was to fire at waste, either making new fuel, or
> at least making it safer (either by converting gamma producers to
> alpha/beta or to shorter hl isotopes, if not to stables in general)
> Needless to say, funding was cut before even theoretical models could
> be properly developed (I only heard about it because I know the people
> behind the Distributed Particle Accelerator Design project at RAL, aka
> muon1)
>

So instead of 1 million years we'll just have to wait 240 thousand years
until it's safe? How nice... I'd support the idea of making nuclear waste
safer, but I'd only support Nuclear Power Plants when the radioactive waste
they produce is safe in less than 100 years (for example).

On the solar technology, well, I hope that as of now the technology is
energy efficient enough to produce more energy that it consumes! And on that
calculation it should be added the energy it takes to clean the polluted
water  through the creation of solar panels.

Good night,

Félix Robles
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