Be glad you don't live in Japan Friday

[Bill]

Originally Posted by Cleo

Naturally the anti nuclear people are already using this as an example of why no more should be built... because burning fossil fuels are so much better I guess.

Chances are good that many if not all of them are nearing the end of their projected lifespan, and may have to be decomissioned after this.

We should be replacing that style of reactor/generator with newer models anyway.

But yeah you are right, the unthoughtful greens will be all "NO NUKES" about this, unwilling to face the fact that the "no nukes" path requires a massive dieback, just as much as the "burn all the fossil carbon" path.

Not that the nuclear path is all roses. There are no great options left to us after wasting the last 40 years in an amnesiac consumption frenzy.

[tickler]

Originally Posted by Bill

Chances are good that many if not all of them are nearing the end of their projected lifespan, and may have to be decomissioned after this.

We should be replacing that style of reactor/generator with newer models anyway.

But yeah you are right, the unthoughtful greens will be all "NO NUKES" about this, unwilling to face the fact that the "no nukes" path requires a massive dieback, just as much as the "burn all the fossil carbon" path.

Not that the nuclear path is all roses. There are no great options left to us after wasting the last 40 years in an amnesiac consumption frenzy.

If I read right those are the Canadian reactors, which are somewhat safer than the American fast-breeder types! |tomato|

Not that a lot of things would stand up to an earthquake which was 8,000 times stronger than the one that just leveled Christchurch!

Fossil Fuels on Demand
In September, a privately held and highly secretive U.S. biotech company named Joule Unlimited received a patent for “a proprietary organism” – a genetically engineered cyanobacterium that produces liquid hydrocarbons: diesel fuel, jet fuel and gasoline. This breakthrough technology, the company says, will deliver renewable supplies of liquid fossil fuel almost anywhere on Earth, in essentially unlimited quantity and at an energy-cost equivalent of $30 (U.S.) a barrel of crude oil.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/...rticle1871149/

We will have to see how this new gem plays out!
a) - [ ] Oil companies deep six it
b) - [ ] Gets wild & devours all carbon

[Bill]

I couldn't say, I haven't looked at all into the design of the japanese reactors.

It's a fascinating experiment tho - what happens to a nuclear plant in an earthquake. And how do you repair a reactor after an earthquake, lol.

An expensive experiment I bet

Seems an odd choice, putting reactors on the ring of fire. But we got em in california, also on the ring of fire.

---

Who knows about algal biodiesel. One hears this claim and that claim. But one sees no appreciable stream of algal biodeisel flowing.

Same with cellulosic ethanol.

$30 a barrel sounds real nice. Seems that is it were true, at $100 oil, somebody would be building some algal biodiesel plants.

I'm not holding my breath. Our energy supply system is crazy, and we humans have been fucking up on energy pretty consistently.

Three years ago we had an energy shock that should have started a real self-examination - but we did nothing but heave a sigh of relief when an economic collapse temporarily dropped the price of oil.

So here we are again, not really one step further down the road, except our economy lost trillions which it might have spent on developing alternatives to fossil carbons.