Page 4 - Nuclear Power

Hydrogen is a good idea but right now it'd not feasible either as it takes more energy to create hydrogen than the hydrogen itself can produce. Once we develop the technology to easily make hydrogen it will finally see its day.

As for radiation, I just have to correct your info. There are three main forms of radiation from a nuclear reaction: Alpha, Beta and Gamma. There is also X-ray radiation but that involves a reaction of Alpha and water. Anyway, Alpha and Beta are particles. Alpha cannot break through the skin but it can be inhaled and ingested. Beta CAN get through the skin. When Alpha is in the body (or Beta) you do start getting various effects from it ranging from slight sickness (like a flu) to mutation of cells which cause cancer and even death.

Gamma is purely energy waves...very strong energy. Nothing but distance will protect you from Gamma. (yes, you can decrease that distance using shielding such as lead but gamma will still get through it just in tiny amounts) Get enough Gamma and yer dead in minutes. This is the worst one.

As for the X-ray, if Alpha particles come into contact with water they react and give off X-rays. X-rays are an energy wave form of radiation, like Gamma, but are weaker than Gamma.

I didn't mean to sound like a doomsayer, but we did have a hole in the reactor head at a plant here in Ohio, and while nuclear power still may be fairly safe, solar is obviously safer and cleaner. I'd much rather have nuclear than oil, and would prefer solar over nuclear.

Solar is great!!!
But.... How much solar cells will we will need to replace even one nuclear plant?
Did you ever thought about countries that have small number of sunny days over the year? They need power too.
Aside technological reasons there are financial reasons to use nuclear energy. Did ever comes to you that not everyone have money to install solar power system in their homes?
Problem is that everybody needs energy and everybody uses energy but noone wants nusproducts that it produces.
Solution is not to replace nuclear plant with something else. Solution is to use less energy and for that all of us will need to change our habits and civilisation which is based on spending a lot of energy. I really doubt that will be soon.
So, we need nuclear plants if we want to preserve the way we all live (changing it would be veeery hard).

change may be hard, but as it looks - it will become required

The only time this would become a problem is if you had millions of extremely ineficient cars spitting hydrogen out of the back. Diesel engines are usually pretty bad for that, unburnt fuel that is. That all ends up in the atmosphere. Supposedly, if all engines were perfect, there would be nothing but water coming out of the exhaust. Besides, we have catalytic converters that should do the rest... Hey, what about a hybrid hydrogen car? Should work, no?

Hybrid with what? The hybrid part of current hybrids that is the hybrid part that's not gasoline?

sorry, I got carried away :P That would actually be pretty sweet. If that happens I've got my bets on Toyota/Honda/all other Japanese and most European car manufacturers having it and GM and Ford not.

I think he meant hybrid hydrogen/electricity, or hydrogen/gasoline (both sound like a car bomb waiting to happen)

i completely missed this thread .

hybrid hydrogen fuel cells use Hydrogen and Oxygen (compresses, and then burned) to basically do the shit the infernal combustion engine does. only product is water.

and IMO all power stations currently; are inefficients. burning coal and gas gets you about 30% of the stored energy through evaporation of steam. and nukes just produce kilos of dangerous waste.

fusion is the way to go!

Whats the difference between fusion and fission?

ye gods don't they teach you kids anything!!

Fission: splitting atoms.
Fusion: (strangely enough) combining atoms. namely, hydrogen atoms, to make helium.

Nuclear power is good, but I think research should also be done into fusion power plants, vs. the nuclear fission. What sucks is that the last nuclear power plan constructed in the United states is some 25 years old. Stupid conservatives.

a month old thread 000

and that plant got about 5-10 years left then. lol, you guys are gonna be screwed for power soon if you don't build more (it is if Bush gat's his way and another one like him gets in next time and denies that global warming is happening and refuses to invest more than $0.32 a year on alternative energy ).

and fusion research IS being carried out. it's just hard to harness the heat of the sun... we don't have a readily available limitless vacuum in which to store it, or enough cable to reach it once we get it there .

Most of Oregon is hydroelectric... almost nothing is wrong with it environmentally (minus the effects of the dam )... can't really beat it.

We should just attach generator packs to kindergardeners and then plug them in when they get home from running around all day :P Or better yet, extend it to everyone. Go out and run a mile, shoot some hoops, play a little soccer, work out in the weightroom...come home and power your computer

push it in america as a way to lose weight and lower your electric bill - you'll make a mint.