Ferrari Mailing List: Re: Nuclear

[Ken Rentiers (rentiers]

Rick said:

"There are only two options; (1) find another source of high energy  
or, (2) consume so much less that the other sources like wind and  
photoelectric will suffice. "

Exactly. In a word: the flux capacitor.

The question is not how much oil is left, the question is do we wish  
to sustain a technologically advanced civilization. We have one now.  
We cool and heat our houses, communicate at great distances, we travel  
across the planet at many times the speed of walking, we eat things  
that have not spoiled in weeks or months.

If we want air conditioning, the internet, UPS, amazon.com, the  
Ferrari List, the NFL, Las Vegas vacations, cellphones, traffic  
signals or even traffic period we have to get beyond conservation and  
organic rutabaga gardens on the rooftops. Beyond inefficient windmills  
and 100 Mile indigenous diets. Beyond stupid curly-fry Chinese  
lightbulbs full of mercury. All the Green Movement feel-good crap.

Conservation buys time, but time until what? When the forests of  
Europe began to run out it was "time until coal fires the Industrial  
Revolution". The catalyst came the day it became cheaper to burn coal  
than wood. But in 2008 we are blunting the forces of supply and demand  
through regulatory interference with energy companies, drilling  
leases, refinery construction and any form of nuclear research. The  
big particle accelerator is in Cern on the border of France and  
Switzerland. China is building 50 additional nuclear plants as this is  
written. South Korea and India too, envision a nuclear future.  
Meanwhile America is wringing its hands about the happy breeding  
grounds of Santa's Reindeer. Neither presidential candidate has a clue.

The blithely ignorant 'do something' by riding their Vespas to Whole  
Foods to frolic amongst the organic farm-fresh eggs in their hemp  
clothing and pastel-hued crocs. It's all feel-good smoke and mirrors.  
Where did the crocs, the clothes and all those shrivelled brown apples  
come from? Hell if I know; but they came from there by burning fossil  
fuels. Energy delivered the consumables to this refrigerated temple of  
high-priced groceries for drooling idiots.

When the electricity goes off we won't even be able to huddle around  
the campfire in a cave as our ice-age ancestors did. Ice-age man was  
so thinly scattered that it was very unusual for one small band to  
encounter another tribe. If modern civilization reverts to the stone  
age, which is where our current path leads us, there won't be enough  
caves and the firewood will very quickly run out. Price out a six-pak  
of kindling at the 7-11 if you doubt this.

RIck said it first; we have only two options. Two options: and those  
are "Warp Six, Mr. Sulu!" or "ooga ooga mushka"


http://cdsweb.cern.ch/
http://www.domain-b.com/industry/power/20080809_nuclear_power.html
http://www.livescience.com/strangenews/060908_humans_odd.html

ken


On Aug 10, 2008, at 7:52 AM, rolindsay [at] yahoo.com wrote:

> In my original note where I wrote the N-word (nuclear), I was trying  
> to be more broad in scope than to recommend building more nuclear  
> power plants. I meant then, as now, to say that chemical energy  
> sources like coal and oil have a finite life AND the term of that  
> life will wain to near extinction within the liftspan of the younger  
> ListMembers here! It then folllows that there are only two options;  
> (1) find another source of high energy or, (2) consume so much less  
> that the other sources like wind and photoelectric will suffice. And  
> while (2) is a better, smarter solution, it is not in the nature of  
> humans. We want more, not less.
>
> So my original note was to say, the only other source of huge energy  
> potential (known to us today) is stored in the very center of atoms.  
> Extracting it in what is in essence a controled nuclear explosion is  
> primative and not far from our first attempts with chemical energy.  
> Its huddling around the nuclear campfire. What we need is the atomic  
> version of a Ferrari, safely and in a very controlled environment,  
> releasing the energy within the atom. We're not there yet but it may  
> be the only path to providing the amount of energy humans demand.
>
> I'll put the 2-cents this opinion is worth on your tab...
>
> Rick
> PS: Long notes typed on a BlackBerry are hell!