"If You Care About the Environment, You Should Support Nuclear Power"
But our fears may be way out of proportion to the actual risks . . .
But what is the role of science if not to meet our greatest fears with actual data? Tomatoes were once thought poisonous, and doctors once believed it was wrong to treat illness by cutting open the human body. Our fear of nuclear power has gone too far.
As the kids say: "No sh*t, Sherlock."
About 20 years ago I tried to discuss nuclear waste disposal with my grad stats prof. I pointed out that at the time *all* the high-level nuclear waste produced by the US, civilian and military] would make a pile about the size of a football field about 8 feet deep. I suggested we mix it all with tough glass at 10-1 and put it on a stretch of desert and post warning signs and then ignore it.
He totally refused to even acknowledge that the size of the pile of waste made a difference. It was just "to dangerous."
Posted by: JorgXMcKie | February 06, 2013 at 10:09 AM
Power is defined as energy rate, denominated in units of energy per unit time. Energy comes in a variety of flavors: mechanical energy; electric energy; nuclear energy; etc. Energy is frequently used to perform work, both useful work and destruction. The latter is frequently thought of (and frequently is) delivered via weaponry. Hence, there are mechanical weapons, electro-magnetic weapons, and the formidable nuclear weapons.
Curiously, mechanical, electric, as well as other traditional forms of power are commonly viewed as the potential to do constructive work, but are not usually conflated with the potential for causing destruction. But since 1945, nuclear power has been equated with nuclear weapons in the minds of most people who are not nuclear physicists.
Posted by: TheBigHenry | February 06, 2013 at 01:35 PM
all of this so called waste can be put to further uses.
Posted by: kyle8 | February 06, 2013 at 07:05 PM
Arguing that environmentalists should advocate nuclear power undermines the true purpose of environmentalism, which is to destroy the West and reduce everyone to living in poverty (“equality”) except the rich party masters (like Gore). Watch what they do first (Gore’s bogus schemes) , then what they say (e.g., compare people to AIDS or cancer, the 10-10 video), and only then will one learn their true objectives.
Nuclear power and cheap energy would allow happy, prosperous, numerous cancers and viruses, which is not the green goal.
Posted by: ErisGuy | February 07, 2013 at 06:03 AM