Cheers,
Dennis
Madrid, United States of America

Nuclear energy isn’t going to pollute as much as fossil fuels have, but if there will be green nuclear waste being produced.. where will we put it? Bury it under the ground as well as everything else?

I say yes to solar, wind and anything else that isn’t going to kill the Earth.

Do you know anything about safety critical software development? Do you know all the government IT disasters: NHS, National ID card, Social Security, Inland Revenue, Defence systems, CSA – all disasters and only the s/w in aircraft are considered safety critical. So add all the current IT software costs together and multiple by 10 (or 100, who knows) to get an approx cost for the safety critical software for nuclear power stations. (No, you can’t say the French have already done it because the new power stations will be “4th Generation”)

How can you make the waste safe? Er… you can’t! Just passing the problem to future generations.

How do you stop nuclear waste proliferation? Er… you can’t.

So your argument is based on economics where most of the main variables are just not known!

It’s startling to drive I-10 out of L.A. through the Morongo Valley and suddenly be greeted with the sight of scores of gigantic white modern windmills. But the wind isn’t constant. Neither is the sun. There is a limit as to how much hydroelectric dams we can build. Oil and petroleum will run out. And eventually the same will happen to coal. So what other options to we have. Fusion? Antimatter?

Perhaps not all buy the ‘climate change’ argument, but it has happened before.

Blue-green algae, the first successful lifeform on earth, thrived in the oceans for 1.4 billion years till their luck ran out about 2.4 billion years ago. They were pumping too much oxygen into the atmosphere — bad for them and their anaerobic friends, but good for the protozoans, who eventually evolved into the lifeform typing this message.

Safety is a matter of personal integrity. And eventually some resourceful entrepreneur will finagle some multi-billion $$$ industry out of reprocessing spent fuel rods in to revitalized uranium and lead, completing the circle of the alchemist’s obsession.

Till then, we’re going to have to drive less, walk more, plant more trees, and grow less children. Because…

What happens when you set an air-conditioner in a sealed room, and turn it on? Does it get cooler? Or hotter?

–Thoughts from Louisville, KY, USA. Cheers…

However, Nuclear power has such a long range of potential radiation danger overwhelms the current danger.

In addition nuclear energy is the only energy production which has a by-product which can be further refined for weapon grade products.

Until there is a safe disposal of nuclear waste then we should devote our energies elsewhere.

Nick Wehage
Portland Or

The first is new hydrogen physics or “cold fusion.” Much information on this topic is available online, and the reality is that one gallon of water holds the energy equivalent of 300 gallons of gas.

The second is Vacuum Energy otherwise known as Zero Point Energy, which has been repeatedly scientifically proven.

The third is Environmental energy, in the form of sensible thermal energy and molecular motion which is clearly possible through extensions in the second law of thermodynamics.

We do not need nuclear energy, give clean autonomous energy its due recognition!

Best
Jazen

Second, your pro-nuclear guest claims a modern society CAN NOT function without huge amounts of electricity. Let us be clear. Ipods, TV’s, electric heat, even refrigerators and electric lights are modern conveniences – in other words luxuries. I am not suggesting we give these up altogether. I am saying we should be honest about the fact that we are leaving our waste (CO2, nuclear, etc.) for future generations to deal with so we can have our luxuries now. We should enter the conversation from that perspective.

Third, how about focusing on birth control and planned parenthood to reduce the rate of increase of demand? Where is the focus on human population in this debate?

Andrew Stone
Portland, Oregon, USA