Jovial Monk wrote on Jul 24^th, 2017 at 10:11pm:



Jovial,
you claim to have a BSc.
Did you know that nuclear reactors make isotopes of elements
that haven't existed for billions of years?
The world is 4.5 billion years old & when first formed was very radioactive.
So much time has passed that now radioactive rocks are quite rare
& most elements have decayed into harmless isotopes.

Nuclear reactors are reversing that process
& it would take another 4.5 billion years to get back to where we were.
Surely there is a better way to make safer power?

Thorium reactors could in theory eat up radioactive elements giving them a faster decay time -
yet we've invested not one penny into them.

The half-life of uranium 238 is of 4.5 billion years,
while uranium 235 has a half-life of 'only' 700 million years.

Pu-239 has a half-life of 24,100 years and Pu-241's half-life is 14.4 years.

I notice there is a lot of concentration on the hazards of nuclear power but no attention to the hazards of continuing to burn coal.

Booby is worried about the way the reactors work. No nuclear generator has exploded except  Chernobyl and that was due to boneheaded stupidity!

Bobby. wrote on Jul 24^th, 2017 at 10:19pm:

Thorium is like fusion, when will the tech be available.

We must replace the coal fired generators that will shut down over the next two decades and we must reduce emissions of GHG. Nuclear is safe.

Bobby. wrote on Jul 24^th, 2017 at 10:24pm:

So how many have actually exploded?

You say that you believe in AGW (once the non-existent ice age has passed) and if you do you know we need to reduce GHG emissions.

Renewables won’t quite cut it by itself, being basically intermittent.

Fukushima was old tech and was located over a fault line in a tsunami zone. Chernobyl was old tech and was operator error.

If those two are the only ones you can name I think we can say nuclear power is safe.

All generators, coal, wind, nuclear etc have a life cycle.

We cannot just continue burning coal. That is the fact nobody here has been able to argue away.

Casting doubt on my qualifications is just a sign of jealousy and is an ad hom.

One huge power station has closed in Victoria, others will be closing.

We need to start with known tech and even so the time it takes means we need to start planning now.