quote:

ORIGINAL: pahunkboy
I never seen a welder weld metal using solar.

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ORIGINAL: AnimusRex

I have to admit I am skeptical about nuclear power, but not for the usual reasons. I do agree that the disposal problem hasn't really been solved, but there is a deeper problem.

There are two sides to resource issues- either reducing consumption, or increasing production. Neither one is a panacea, but I have the most trouble accepting the notion that the answer is to simply produce more of it.
I say this because what is often neglected is the understanding that human desire is infinite, our ability to consume is literally limitless.

Lets say that we found a perfect energy source- free, unlimited, nonpolluting, safe. What happens next is that the cost of every item on the planet drops, because embedded in every car, desk, apple, inside every service and product made, is the cost of energy. When energy becomes free, we will consume more of it. The cheaper it is, the more we will consume. In consuming more energy, more products, more services, we will in the process consume more forests, waste more food, mine more steel, scour the oceans ever deeper for yet more of the already depleted schools of fish....

There is no limit to our demands, no end to our insatiable hunger for more, more more. There is that story of wolves that find a sheep pen, and following their natural desire to chase and kill, end up going mad, slaughtering vast numbers of sheep, far more than they can ever eat, since they have no natural mechanism to stop.
Or the buffalo hunters, who when faced with the vast herds of bison, slaughtered them by the thousands, only taking the tongues, leaving the rest of the carcasses to rot.

That will be us, once we reach the consumer nirvana of free anything. Have we as a species every shown any self-restraint, any sobriety or modesty when we are faced with infinite riches and limitless wealth?

Has making something free ever resulted in it being used wisely and prudently?

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ORIGINAL: InvisibleBlack

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ORIGINAL: Brain

ITER is an international consortium that is planning to build a 500 megawatt fusion reactor by 2016. Fusion power is the holy grail of the energy industry because it uses relatively inexpensive fuel (hydrogen), creates little contaminated nuclear waste, and can generate large amounts of power.

While I admit that my knowledge of fusion technology is about a decade out of date, as I recall no one was anywhere near building a fusion reactor. They were doing some fiddling with magnetic bottles that could contain plasma but that's about as far as they'd gotten.

If someone manages to build an actual functional fusion reactor, it'd probably be front page news in every paper in the world.

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ORIGINAL: TheHeretic

If we are going to become energy independent, and move away from all those baa-aaad carbon dioxide spewing power plants, nuclear fission power is what we have on the shelf.  We need electricity on heavily overcast days with no wind, after all.

One thing we should consider if we are going to start building the next generation of such plants is coming up with a standardized design.  Let's simplify these things, with a process that focuses more on building and operating safe, secure facilities, than giving every kook who had a bad dream his day in court.  Those legal fees show up on my electric bill, dammit.

The leftovers are a motherfucker, no doubt about that.  There is that perverse side of my outlook that says when the middle east runs out of oil, that hellish area of land won't be good for anything but a storage lot anyway.  I dunno.  Maybe we just keep sticking the shit under Nevada rock until we can build a linear accelerator big enough to fire the cannisters right into the sun.

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ORIGINAL: DarkSteven
Just thought I'd mention here that France already has standardized their nuclear power plants.

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ORIGINAL: pahunkboy

there is no one correct way on this.  and to stick to just one form limits the outcome.  BTW- oil hates coal and there is an effort to destroy the coal industry.   Ask yourself- do you really want one group of big boys controlling ALL of your choices?

quote:

ORIGINAL: AnimusRex

I have to admit I am skeptical about nuclear power, but not for the usual reasons. I do agree that the disposal problem hasn't really been solved, but there is a deeper problem.

There are two sides to resource issues- either reducing consumption, or increasing production. Neither one is a panacea, but I have the most trouble accepting the notion that the answer is to simply produce more of it.
I say this because what is often neglected is the understanding that human desire is infinite, our ability to consume is literally limitless.

Lets say that we found a perfect energy source- free, unlimited, nonpolluting, safe. What happens next is that the cost of every item on the planet drops, because embedded in every car, desk, apple, inside every service and product made, is the cost of energy. When energy becomes free, we will consume more of it. The cheaper it is, the more we will consume. In consuming more energy, more products, more services, we will in the process consume more forests, waste more food, mine more steel, scour the oceans ever deeper for yet more of the already depleted schools of fish....

There is no limit to our demands, no end to our insatiable hunger for more, more more. There is that story of wolves that find a sheep pen, and following their natural desire to chase and kill, end up going mad, slaughtering vast numbers of sheep, far more than they can ever eat, since they have no natural mechanism to stop.
Or the buffalo hunters, who when faced with the vast herds of bison, slaughtered them by the thousands, only taking the tongues, leaving the rest of the carcasses to rot.

That will be us, once we reach the consumer nirvana of free anything. Have we as a species every shown any self-restraint, any sobriety or modesty when we are faced with infinite riches and limitless wealth?

Has making something free ever resulted in it being used wisely and prudently?