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Re: Solar power



Date: Sat, 31 Jan 1998 18:13:32 -0500
Reply-to: phys-l@mailer.uwf.edu
From: "Rick Stine" <rstine@ptdprolog.net>
To: <phys-l@atlantis.uwf.edu>
Subject: Re: Solar power

Why spend any more $ on old tech. Wait a few years and
(hopefully) we will have nuclear fusion. Too much old
fission fuel being transported over highways to be safe.

Rick


I am not comfortable with picking up this thread, but I
just can't seem to resist. I have two or three points that
I would like to see the list-ers discuss.

(1) Don't underestimate the amount of radioactivity that
will be generated by a fusion reactor. Yes, I know that
the product is helium, BUT there are a lot of very high
energy neutrons in that plasma-soup and a lot of them are
going to activate something--the containment vessel maybe!

(2) Burning of fossil fuels is not without environmental
problems. The problems with coal mining, greenhouse
gasses, acid rain, and fly-ash production and too well
known to need amplification here.

(3) My prediction is that one day we in the USA will
realize that the way we generate electricity is not
sensible. Then will be the time that we will design and
build a new generation of nuclear reactors. Perhaps, some
of them will use natural uranium (no need for all that
enrichment mess). We should check with the Canadians--they
have been doing it for a long time. Perhaps, some of them
will burn up all of that excess plutonium that the world
has got lying around and thereby keep it out of the hands
of the terrorists.

My judgement is that our nuclear power program ran into
trouble because we were trying to do two things at the same
time and the conflicting goals of the two programs brought
us to grief. My guess is that the power companies do not
need or want the same kind of a reactor as the kind of
reactor that would power a nuclear submarie. Again, check
with the Canadians--they didn't build any nuclear
submarines.

Sorry about the sermon! I have to go to work now. WBN
Barlow Newbolt
Department of Physics and Engineering
Washington and Lee University
Lexington, VA 24450
Telephone and Phone Mail: 540-463-8881
Fax: 540-463-8884
e-mail: NewboltW@madison.acad.wlu.edu

"Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future."

Neils Bohr