Global Warming News

[dave1949]

I partly agree with you. However, these are all political decisions and "long term" to a politician is the next election

There have been too many short term decisions made with zero regard for the medium or long term results.

50 or 100 years from now, they will still be moving it from one leaking site to another leaking site.

Ken
I want "none of the above" as an option on the ballot

I think you are right. Once the government buries it they will spend a fortune in perpetuity to guard it, study it, monitor it, test the monitoring, etc,etc. The only way it will ever come back out of the ground is if someone finds a way to make money off reprocessing it.
Dave.

 

[charlz]

So, how long do we really need to store nuclear waste? Until it breaks down on it's own to become safe? Maybe not.

Why not have a little faith in the future? Put is somewhere where it will be safe for a few hundred years. In a hundred years from now, if they haven't found a way to make it safe virtually overnight by some sort of processing, by then they will know much better than we do about the geology and technology for storing waste in a safe manner for the long term. And if they haven't solved the problem by then, they will only need to render it safe for another few hundred years.

Thing with a place like Yucca Mt. is that it _was_ designed to keep it there until it was 'safe'. The designed life expectancy is (supposed to be) 1,000,000 years. The doors would be 'open' for 30 years (now extended to 100) for waste to be collected and piled up. Then they would back fill it with concrete, put up 'call before you dig' signs and walk away. It is/was to be an unmanned facility after the doors closed from everything I read.

On the other hand if the stuff is laying around being a pain in the butt maybe they have more impetus to figure out how to actually deal with it?

 

[SpringHollow]

The analysis of the science and solutions are extremely complex, more than we think.

I was just thinking about the switch to efficient light bulbs. Most compact fluorescent lights use 75% less energy but are much more expensive. People calculate how much energy they will save the nation.

But not so simple. In winter in the colder climates, that wasted energy from an incandescent bulb (heat) warms the house and so is not wasted energy. But then in warmer climates during summer, it increases the cooling load. Then there is the trace mercury in the CF's. However coal electricity also creates mercury. CF's decrease demand which possibly allows smaller power plants and less stress on our distribution system. How much energy is used in creating one versus the other? How much pollution? How many jobs? Where are the jobs located? There are a million other questions that one could raise.

An expert in each area would focus on their area, stating whether we should use CF's. The average "citizen" will listen to those experts and pick out the ones they like who support their preconceived opinion on the question. Many politicians will grand stand and make laws based on how they see the wind blowing.

And this is for something as "simple" as whether or not CF's are a good thing.

Ken

 

[Ken45101]

Ken,

good analysis. You are right.

There is also the costs of environmentally proper cleanup if you break a CFL or fluorescent bulb since (I believe), it's supposed to be treated as a hazardous waste site (moon suits? tear out the carpet...?) Wow! That's an expensive accident! Of course, not that any of us do that!

Oh, don't forget the cost of gasoline to take them to a proper disposal site when they burn out (if you can find one). (I have a dozen burned out 4' fluorescent bulbs standing in a corner that I don't know what to do with.)

 

[czechsonofagun]

Ken,

good analysis. You are right.

There is also the costs of environmentally proper cleanup if you break a CFL or fluorescent bulb since (I believe), it's supposed to be treated as a hazardous waste site (moon suits? tear out the carpet...?) Wow! That's an expensive accident! Of course, not that any of us do that!

Oh, don't forget the cost of gasoline to take them to a proper disposal site when they burn out (if you can find one). (I have a dozen burned out 4' fluorescent bulbs standing in a corner that I don't know what to do with.)

While ago school in DC was closed because somebody broke mercury thermometer!!! In my days, we used mercury in chemistry class and thought nothing of it.

 

[EddieWalker]

If the Global Waming Scientist were serious about this, would it be better for them to have more or less monitoring stations? Would it be dificult to understand that they only used the temperatures from selected areas and ignored them from other areas?

Son of Climategate! Scientist says feds manipulated data

Eddie

 

[Ken45101]

It's beginning to sound more and more like State of Fear by Michael Crichton was a warning, not a novel.

 

[20 20]

While ago school in DC was closed because somebody broke mercury thermometer!!! In my days, we used mercury in chemistry class and thought nothing of it.

Mercury is kool stuff.

 

[IH3444]

Thanks Eddie for the post. Enjoyed reading it.

 

[Ken]

Reading this site reminded me of the several locations built to contain and remove to a safer area the waste from generating power. Nevada Nebraska N. Mex.others The goverment (Your Tax Dollars) studies bought the land and prepared the deep chambers to place the material. then a Govenor that wasn't even born when the work started cancelled the project. usually paid for the by power companys. Wasted money. Now the local power plants have to contain this materal where.
It is put in a container in the back of the local power plant. and is this safer than some location where it is put in a incapsulated glass container. Away from potential damage and spills.
No one wants a coal fired power plant or a natural gas fired plant much less a nuclear plant.
Remember our great Pres. that shut down the Natural gas pipe lines because of shortages of oil in the 70's caused the power plants to burn crude oil. working with a N.G. Co. at that time and Copper smelters were having to haul oil by train tanker to the plants. smoke smog and smell over powered need.
N. G could be transported by ship liquid except the nay sayers worried what would happen if hole developed in ship. could not unload 3 mile off shore might explode. 40 years later now transported by ship to Japan from Alaska. Also to New York city other locations.
Coal fired plants could use pipe lines to transport the coal. except the Railroads want the business.
Was traveling in Eastern So. Dakota where the local news paper was excited that the wind generators were going to develop 50 meg. power so that the local coal plant could be shut down. except the question of where were they going to find the 850 meg watt power it was generating.
No body wants any thing in there back yard. Argue Sue and delay until something better comes along. Only sell us the power cheap of course underground but don't dig up my back yard .
Getting off my stump. Global warming/cooling 75 years and always hot in summer and cold in winter. Some better some worse. Some years wetter/dryer The sun still rises in the East.
ken

 

[EddieWalker]

For those who don't want to believe there is a conspiracy, what about incompetencey? Anybody hear about the UN's claim that the glaciers are melting in the Himalaya's?

You're really gonna love this. World misled over Himalayan glacier meltdown - Times Online

Over and over again, when the science is examined, it turns out that there really wasn't anything done to support their claims.

At some point, it becomes a question of when is enough enough?

Eddie

 

[IH3444]

What??? I'm Flabbergasseded!!! That article is from a right-wing nut job paper.......OH NO, I'm wrong again, it's from the Times in the UK!!! Great Jumping Horn Toads, the glaciers are bigger than originally reported!

 

[Ken45101]

Why not base scientific conclusions on unfounded speculation, after all, people believe Al Gore knows what he is talking about.

Gore is as credible as his predecessor, vice president Spiro T. Agnew "I am not a thief" (yes he was.)

Maybe there is something in the water at the VP mansion.

 

[SpringHollow]

A damning article for sure, the one about the glaciers. But i also have seen what is happening to the glaciers in Europe - they are receding at an alarming rate. As I keep saying, this stuff is complicated.

Ken

 

[Pilot]

There was a recent study that reported that any glacial retreat in the Himayalas was due to soot, not global warming. The soot on the snow absorbs the heat from the sun.

Diesels make a lot of soot. Europe uses lots of diesels. Ksimolo says glaciers are retreating in the Alps. Why does it have to be due to global warming? Could it be that something else is causing the glaciers to recede in the Alps? Something like soot?

 

[FallbrookFarmer]

My understanding about the success of the French Nuke program was because they standardized on their plants. They have a limited number of plant sizes. I think it was three, small, medium and large, if you will. So they had commonality of parts, design and operation. What I have read is that a US plant operator is licensed, if that is the right word, to run a given reactor. They are very likely NOT licensed to run the reactor right next to "theirs" because it will be different.

US Nuke plants are custom built one offs. Which of course costs more money to design, get approved, build and run. And Nukes are so expensive due to the required safety systems required for the reactors that are being used.

The pebble bed reactors look like they would be MUCH safer, supposedly melt down is impossible, and much cheaper to build and run. I read a proposal to put one in Alaska somewhere. Their biggest operational expense was going to be security. In this case this is a smaller reactor to provide power for a small town in the middle of now where.

Pebble Bed Reactors aka PBRs, , no it is not a beer in this case, Pebble bed reactor - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Later,
Dan

When we had our last wildfire here in San Diego,and the power went out, the Navy offered a nuclear carrier,which could produce all the power we would need ,no problem, just plug it into the grid.
Along those lines, I wonder why sailors, who are obviously living in close proximity to those nukes aboard the ships, aren't glowing when they go on shore.
Perhaps a partial solution to the NIMBY problem,about having a nuke, could be answered by having a movable nuke.

 

[WTA]

The Navy has done that before. Before Nukes even. I was on two carriers and a battleship in the 80's and several times we supplied power to cities we were in. Twice after volcanoes erupted, in Japan and the PI we supplied power when there was nothing left of the grid at all in the city till they got back up and running.

Oh I read one post about australia having a hot season. Duh, It's summer down there right now.

 

[SpringHollow]

Ksimolo says glaciers are retreating in the Alps. Why does it have to be due to global warming?

Hi Pilot,

I did not say it was global warming. I do say things are complicated. There could be many reasons, global warming is only one possibility.

Ken

 

[SpringHollow]

Oh I read one post about australia having a hot season. Duh, It's summer down there right now.

Hi WTA,

I know someone in Australia and they have had an extreme drought in their region for many years now.

Ken

 

[WTA]

Most of Australia is always in extreme drought. It's a desert. So are we where I live but farmers have turned it all into irrigated farmland, like me, and some of them can't understand why their wells are drying up. It's easier to blame global warming than to blame themselves for pulling more and more water out of the ground in a desert.