[Kosh]

Yes. Even though fission is not a viable long-term replacement to fossil fuels, it's better than other currently available alternatives.

I guess that depends on how you define long term. There's plenty of uranium everywhere, not just in currently known deposits but it literally is in everything, especially seawater, and if that isn't enough there's still plenty of it on the moon. If we ever come close to running out there's its even more plentiful cousin, thorium. Adding to that we still have waste reprocessing that massively increases the amount of fuel available and potentialy fast breeder reactors to extend that fuel even more. Fuel supply wont be a problem for quite a while. The only problem is scare mongering and lies and lies from environmental groups. Given the state of modern, generation 3+ reactors (like the AP1000), I find the idea of cutting outselves off from this immensely energy rich fuel source because of fear to be quite absurd.

All that being said fusion in the distant future is a better choice because it packs even more power and hopefully will give us a chance to finally get out of using boiled water as a means to generate electricity (pulling electricity directly from the plasma), but it will take a long time for it to reach the maturity and miniaturization fission has.

In short, we already have something that works, is rather simple in concept, and has no detrimental effect on the environment... so why not invest in more solar?

Solar certainly has its place, but in my view it is too fundementally inconsistent and inefficient to be depended upon as a source of baseline power. There was an article a couple of years ago in the LA Times, IIRC, about environmental groups filing lawsuits to block the development of solar farms in the california desert. This was the closest I could find that sheds some light on the issue.

[headdie]

The problem with fission is that it is not renewable like fossile fuels there is only a limited amount of fissiable material on the planet. Also all stages of the process result in hazardous levels of radioactive waste that has to be processed and stored often for many decades while radiation levels fall to a 'safe' point which is a nightmare all of its own. I know fussin is likely to irradiate the reactor but i belive the predicted danger period is a fraction of that from most stages of the fission process.

[QuantumDelta]

not renewable like fossile fuels

ERMMM...
Although strictly speaking in billions of years of non-use fossil fuels may have been replenished, it's not really 'renewable' in human terms, nor in the energy business terms...

[General Battuta]

not renewable like fossile fuels

ERMMM...
Although strictly speaking in billions of years of non-use fossil fuels may have been replenished, it's not really 'renewable' in human terms, nor in the energy business terms...

What he was trying to say was that 'like fossil fuels, they are not renewable'.

[QuantumDelta]

Ah, yes...
A comma would have been very helpful :<

[headdie]

sorry was on my phone, but yes i meant to say that like fossil fuels nuclear fission is non renewable

[Mongoose]

Herra, I feel like I'm going to be linking that post of yours in a number of places in the future. That's an angle I've felt has been underrepresented in discussions about carbon-reduction proposals, one that might actually make a bit of headway against the head-in-sand crowd.  We're going to run out of easily-accessible fossil fuels at some point, most likely before this century is out...so wouldn't trying to wean ourselves off them be immensely beneficial whether or not global warming is a serious problem?

[StarSlayer]

Wow no Air Ops over Europe, suppose it's lucky this isn't 1944.

[Dilmah G]

Well IIRC, flight ops were grounded for several days during 1944/1945 for bad weather anyway.

[Kosh]

The problem with fission is that it is not renewable like fossile fuels there is only a limited amount of fissiable material on the planet. Also all stages of the process result in hazardous levels of radioactive waste that has to be processed and stored often for many decades while radiation levels fall to a 'safe' point which is a nightmare all of its own. I know fussin is likely to irradiate the reactor but i belive the predicted danger period is a fraction of that from most stages of the fission process.

Like I said, that fissionable material is so plentiful it can last for centuries, especially with breeder reactors.

Also storage and processing of nuclear waste isn't nearly as big of a problem as it is made out to be, the technology is perfectly safe and a nuclear reactor doesn't actually generate that much waste. It's just a political problem. I've heard there are some new reactor designs being proposed that will be able to actually consume the waste, so in the future this will be even more of a non-issue than it already is.

[Nuclear1]

Wow no Air Ops over Europe, suppose it's lucky this isn't 1944.

All of the flights out of Al Udeid here to Rammstein are off for another week too. 

[Liberator]

Nuclear = good
Pushing for Fusion = good
Solar in it's place(which is not where it is now being hailed by the greenies as the end all destination) = good

Making me buy a car that costs 4000 to 5000 more dollars than it's non-hybrid equivalent with a giant battery that can crush me in a wreck and wears out and has to be replaced at a cost of thousands of dollars AND is hazardous to the environment all by itself and then having the temerity to tell me I'm a bad person if I don't do this = bad

Let me be clear, there's nothing inherently bad about what the greenies want in the end, clear air, water and land, which is fine.  I'm just sick and tired of being the spawn of the devil for not bending over backwards and kissing they're nethers as they try to kill the economy that makes they're little putt putt cars available in the first place by placing ridiculously overblown regulations on industry, which in turn makes everything more expensive.

We are not a post-singularity society, we do not have infinite, free energy for every man, woman, and child or the ability to shape raw matter into any form we need or desire.  An economy must be free enough to generate innovation and entrepreneurship, but all I see right now is a bunch of people who want to chain it down like a rabid animal because a few people behaved unscrupulously.

[Nuclear1]

Nuclear = good

[ssmit132]

Like I said, that fissionable material is so plentiful it can last for centuries, especially with breeder reactors.

Also storage and processing of nuclear waste isn't nearly as big of a problem as it is made out to be, the technology is perfectly safe and a nuclear reactor doesn't actually generate that much waste. It's just a political problem. I've heard there are some new reactor designs being proposed that will be able to actually consume the waste, so in the future this will be even more of a non-issue than it already is.

I think there's also the problem of people associating everything nuclear with nasty nuclear weapons as well, what with the Cold War and everything. Maybe. I'm not quite sure, but I'm sure that there's still some of that around.

[headdie]

Like I said, that fissionable material is so plentiful it can last for centuries, especially with breeder reactors.

Also storage and processing of nuclear waste isn't nearly as big of a problem as it is made out to be, the technology is perfectly safe and a nuclear reactor doesn't actually generate that much waste. It's just a political problem. I've heard there are some new reactor designs being proposed that will be able to actually consume the waste, so in the future this will be even more of a non-issue than it already is.

I think there's also the problem of people associating everything nuclear with nasty nuclear weapons as well, what with the Cold War and everything. Maybe. I'm not quite sure, but I'm sure that there's still some of that around.

amongst some of the more closed minded and less educated areas of the global that is a problem but i think the bigger problem is with the political "old guard" in most countries being around for Chernobyl going critical meaning most people associate nuclear power the disaster being ignorant or uncaring of the distinction between fission and fusion

[Liberator]

To be fair, an increase in nuclear power usage also means an increase in the availability of nuclear materials to peoples and organizations who want to make statements as loudly as possible or just plain wanna kill as many of their enemies as possible.  You can scoff at this if you want, but if you think Iran wants to build nuclear reactors exclusively for power generation, I question the location of your head and offer a bottle of shampoo to wash the sand out.

[Enigmatic Entity]

I heard that the last time that volcano erupted, it erupted for two years, and it could also cause other volcanoes in the surrounding area to erupt...

[Herra Tohtori]

The ash cloud will cause a new ice age and we will rue for the days when we could casually burn such precious commodities as coal or oil...

[Colonol Dekker]

Combine the two, and burn........... coil

[QuantumDelta]

as they try to kill the economy that makes they're little putt putt cars available in the first place by placing ridiculously overblown regulations on industry, which in turn makes everything more expensive.

We are not a post-singularity society, we do not have infinite, free energy for every man, woman, and child or the ability to shape raw matter into any form we need or desire.  An economy must be free enough to generate innovation and entrepreneurship, but all I see right now is a bunch of people who want to chain it down like a rabid animal because a few people behaved unscrupulously.

The IRONY, I can't take it cap'n THE IRONY!