Anybody care to guess when something like this will be commonplace? (because when it happens down here in Venezuela we better find alternative means of income! )

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Sic Transit Gloria Mundi

Commonplace? 100 years for first-world nations.

Possible? 50 years.

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Quaeso quousque humi defixa tua mens erit? Nonne aspicis, quae in templa veneris?

Ha!

I live in the heart of Canada's oil and gas industry. This year there are billions of dollars invested in drilling new wells and even more billion in what we call 'oilsand' production. :P

To quote the greatest sage of the 20th century, Alfred E. Neuman:

"What, me worry?" :wink:

We are swimming in dough. PLEASE ask Mr.Chavez to rock the boat some more...oil and natural gas prices are 'Up, Up and Away'.

I hope this technology pans out. At current rates of consumption, we're set to just about run out of fossil fuels when this becomes a economically viable energy option.

I hope they get the issue of where to build ITER settled soon. It's good news that the EU is willing to shoulder it alone if need be, too.

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audentes fortuna iuvat

"we're set to just about run out of fossil fuels"

We are nowhere near set to run out of fossil fuels. The question is one of the economic incentive to explore for new sources or to bring existing sources into production.

People confuse depleting 'known reserves' with potential reserves. We would have run out of fossil fuels decades ago if we were dependent on the 'known reserves' of the time.

Alberta's tarsands...about 22% of known world oil was not once included in the world's known reserves. At $22 U.S. a barrel to develp it was not economic to do so. The economy to produce the oil is now there and almost a million barrels are now produced each day.

Many oil and natural gas wells are shut in and many coal mines closed not because they are 'empty' but because they are not viable economically. The question becomes is there any realistic energy alternative that will be less expensive to utilize than re-opening a coal mine or investing the hundreds of millions in a new mine.

Just to put Alberta's reserves into perspective...

There is more oil locked up in oilsands there than there is oil in Saudi Arabia.

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Quaeso quousque humi defixa tua mens erit? Nonne aspicis, quae in templa veneris?

Fusion is the way to go. It's a crying shame that humanity is investing so little in that technology!!!

And util fusion becomes available, more fission. Why not????

Because people are afraid of it. What a shame...

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Quaeso quousque humi defixa tua mens erit? Nonne aspicis, quae in templa veneris?

They like solar, why wouldn't they like fusion. Same thing.

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Freedom For Fission A breath of fresh Iodine-131

Funny thing... do you know how many people died because of the Chernobyl accident? about 30, some stretch to 50.

How many die because of the pollution from fossil fuel burning? Millions over the years. How much environmental damage was done by hydroelectric plants? A lot!

If I was Greenpeace, my slogan would be "NUCLEAR OR DEATH"

That doesn't sound right somehow. Are you sure about that?

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Anyone who believes in the warning of the bible (prophecies concerning the end time which is now) shall be benefited from my invention. Because they won't be stupid enough to pass this! -Alex Chiu

Yes. 31 were killed in the short term, 29 of radiation poisoning. These deaths were among the emergency workers and plant workers. Deaths among the surrounding populations are somewhat difficult to determine, but estimates place it around 10 deaths due to complications with thyroid cancer. The UNSCEAR 2000 report didn't mention these.

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Freedom For Fission A breath of fresh Iodine-131

Thanks Glom

It's amazing what the anti-nucular smear campaign has done to us. I also though it was like 100 thousand people before I checked the facts!!!!

And yes, very well pointed out, Glom, the vast majority of the casualties were among firefighters and emergency teams who were poorly trained and didnt know how to deal with a nuclear leak...

NUCLEAR OR DEATH!

And don't even get me started on Germany's Atomausstieg (Atomic "Stepout") #-o

My applause goes to France.

After doing a quick google search I find that the 30-50 dead you quote is only people killed in the initial explosion. From http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/722533.stm
and thats just from the people sent in to clean up afterwards
So your numbers are way off. However I believe that a well run nuclear reactor isn't that much of a problem as long as you can prevent sabotage and you protect the waste shipments.

While I don't doubt your figures on fossil fuels I feel that I must say that all hydro plants do is flood the area behind them, which only will cause problems to those people living in that area.

As it stands, I can see only two methods of power generation being both economic and environmentally friendly. Nuclear (fission or fusion) and geothermal power. I'd be happy with either.

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Quaeso quousque humi defixa tua mens erit? Nonne aspicis, quae in templa veneris?

Geothermal is great when you can get it, but you can't get it everywhere unless you want to drill great holes in the crust to the mantle and form new tectonic plates.

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Freedom For Fission A breath of fresh Iodine-131

You don't need to drill that far down. I'm not sure of the actual depth required, but it's doable.

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Quaeso quousque humi defixa tua mens erit? Nonne aspicis, quae in templa veneris?

Geothermal cooling and heating systems for your home only require a 80-100ft shaft. All you need to do is get down to a level where the heat is constant year-round, then use a heat exchanger. It doesn't matter how thick the crust is in your particular location.

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audentes fortuna iuvat

Thanks for the links. Well, I am no expert, I just read stuff. But of those 15,000, how many died from incompetence in dealing with the situation?

Can anybody else with more knowledge (Glom?) comment on the total impact of Chernobyl?

If compared to the average radiation released by normal non-nuclear activities, how does nuclear radiation compare?