The Nuclear Option

[benbo]

Edit: Carter's undergraduate degree was in physics.

I didn't know that. That explains a lot. He never actually had to apply his knowledge, just try to figure out how things work through experimentation. That kind of sums up his presidency.

You're joking, right?

I'm no Jimmy Carter fan, he's completely misguided IMO. But he did work on the Navy's nuclear fleet early in his career.

My dad had degrees in Physics and Mathematics and he did pretty much the same thing as the Engineers at Hughes Aircraft, where he worked for 40 years. He held both Senior Scientist and Senior Staff Engineer positions before going into management. I first went to school for Physics and my first summer job was as an Engineering Intern while studying Physics.

 

[chaosiscash]

No one mentions uranium mining, but its not like it grows on trees, you have to dig to get to it and there isn't exactly a whole lot of it to go around (like coal).

That depends on how much downblending happens to supply fuel, which doesn't require mining. Also, there is a lot (a whole lot) more energy in a pound of U than in a pound of coal.

Sorry, I meant that as a question/looking for comments. I assume that you still need to get more U as the rods become spent. I know little about the nuclear reaction process, I know the basic operation, but not how they refuel or process the ore.

No problem, and you're right, at some point, there would be some mining. I'm just saying that would be significantly less that what would be required for coal for the equivalent amount of energy produced.

 

[Chucktown PE]

Edit: Carter's undergraduate degree was in physics.

I didn't know that. That explains a lot. He never actually had to apply his knowledge, just try to figure out how things work through experimentation. That kind of sums up his presidency.

You're joking, right?

I'm no Jimmy Carter fan, he's completely misguided IMO. But he did work on the Navy's nuclear fleet early in his career.

My dad had degrees in Physics and Mathematics and he did pretty much the same thing as the Engineers at Hughes Aircraft, where he worked for 40 years. He held both Senior Scientist and Senior Staff Engineer positions before going into management. I first went to school for Physics and my first summer job was as an Engineering Intern while studying Physics.

Little sensitive are we benbo? I was joking about the physics degree, not about Jimmy Carter. In my opinion, he is in the top 10 of most awful presidents.

 

[benbo]

Edit: Carter's undergraduate degree was in physics.

I didn't know that. That explains a lot. He never actually had to apply his knowledge, just try to figure out how things work through experimentation. That kind of sums up his presidency.

You're joking, right?

I'm no Jimmy Carter fan, he's completely misguided IMO. But he did work on the Navy's nuclear fleet early in his career.

My dad had degrees in Physics and Mathematics and he did pretty much the same thing as the Engineers at Hughes Aircraft, where he worked for 40 years. He held both Senior Scientist and Senior Staff Engineer positions before going into management. I first went to school for Physics and my first summer job was as an Engineering Intern while studying Physics.

Little sensitive are we benbo? I was joking about the physics degree, not about Jimmy Carter. In my opinion, he is in the top 10 of most awful presidents.

No. I've got an EE degree.

I figured you were joking. But sometimes it's hard to tell. Frankly, I've seen you post some weird stuff. :dancingnaughty:

 

[Chucktown PE]

Edit: Carter's undergraduate degree was in physics.

I didn't know that. That explains a lot. He never actually had to apply his knowledge, just try to figure out how things work through experimentation. That kind of sums up his presidency.

You're joking, right?

I'm no Jimmy Carter fan, he's completely misguided IMO. But he did work on the Navy's nuclear fleet early in his career.

My dad had degrees in Physics and Mathematics and he did pretty much the same thing as the Engineers at Hughes Aircraft, where he worked for 40 years. He held both Senior Scientist and Senior Staff Engineer positions before going into management. I first went to school for Physics and my first summer job was as an Engineering Intern while studying Physics.

Little sensitive are we benbo? I was joking about the physics degree, not about Jimmy Carter. In my opinion, he is in the top 10 of most awful presidents.

No. I've got an EE degree.

I figured you were joking. But sometimes it's hard to tell. Frankly, I've seen you post some weird stuff. :dancingnaughty:

I think you've got me and rrpearso confused. Other than my libertarian rants, what weird stuff have I posted?

 

[benbo]

Edit: Carter's undergraduate degree was in physics.

I didn't know that. That explains a lot. He never actually had to apply his knowledge, just try to figure out how things work through experimentation. That kind of sums up his presidency.

You're joking, right?

I'm no Jimmy Carter fan, he's completely misguided IMO. But he did work on the Navy's nuclear fleet early in his career.

My dad had degrees in Physics and Mathematics and he did pretty much the same thing as the Engineers at Hughes Aircraft, where he worked for 40 years. He held both Senior Scientist and Senior Staff Engineer positions before going into management. I first went to school for Physics and my first summer job was as an Engineering Intern while studying Physics.

Little sensitive are we benbo? I was joking about the physics degree, not about Jimmy Carter. In my opinion, he is in the top 10 of most awful presidents.

No. I've got an EE degree.

I figured you were joking. But sometimes it's hard to tell. Frankly, I've seen you post some weird stuff. :dancingnaughty:

I think you've got me and rrpearso confused. Other than my libertarian rants, what weird stuff have I posted?

Actually, I don't find the libertarian rants to be weird. Now who's getting sensitive?

 

[Chucktown PE]

Edit: Carter's undergraduate degree was in physics.

I didn't know that. That explains a lot. He never actually had to apply his knowledge, just try to figure out how things work through experimentation. That kind of sums up his presidency.

You're joking, right?

I'm no Jimmy Carter fan, he's completely misguided IMO. But he did work on the Navy's nuclear fleet early in his career.

My dad had degrees in Physics and Mathematics and he did pretty much the same thing as the Engineers at Hughes Aircraft, where he worked for 40 years. He held both Senior Scientist and Senior Staff Engineer positions before going into management. I first went to school for Physics and my first summer job was as an Engineering Intern while studying Physics.

Little sensitive are we benbo? I was joking about the physics degree, not about Jimmy Carter. In my opinion, he is in the top 10 of most awful presidents.

No. I've got an EE degree.

I figured you were joking. But sometimes it's hard to tell. Frankly, I've seen you post some weird stuff. :dancingnaughty:

I think you've got me and rrpearso confused. Other than my libertarian rants, what weird stuff have I posted?

Actually, I don't find the libertarian rants to be weird. Now who's getting sensitive?

I'm not being sensitive. I just want to refrain from posting any weird stuff thus avoiding the banhammer fate of rrpearso.

 

[Flyer_PE]

One of the things we don't do in the states is re-process the spent fuel rods. Just doing that would greatly reduce the need for uranium. A typical fuel bundle spends either 4.5 or 6 years in the reactor (depends on if the plant is on a 24 or 18 month refueling cycle). Once it is "spent", only about 3% of the uranium in the rod has been depleted. There just isn't enough left to sustain a critical reaction. Once it's removed from the core, it just gets stored on-site in the spent fuel pool. It is possible to re-enrich the spent fuel so it can be used again. Another benefit is that it greatly reduces the volume of material that has to be stored somewhere like Yucca Mountain.

 

[Wolverine]

Not to mention that we really don't need to store it permanently. 100 years from now we'll be digging up spent fuel for re-use, it's just that we don't have the technology right now to use it without creating some nasty by-products that we then still don't know what to do with.

Willheld, I have to challenge you on the claim that solar has a future on every house. When I sat down and looked at the math seriously one day to calculate cost, capability, and square footage required to install solar, it was completely unfeasible. We've been working on it for 40 years and it still just doesn't work (unless you get rid of HVAC, refrigeration, fluorescent lighting, and computers). A regular home reliably powered would take something like 1000 sq ft of panels and cost $30,000. That's my power bill for 35 years.

 

[Capt Worley PE]

^And the panels only last something like 20 years, and I bet power generation is way down at that point.

 

[wilheldp_PE]

Willheld, I have to challenge you on the claim that solar has a future on every house. When I sat down and looked at the math seriously one day to calculate cost, capability, and square footage required to install solar, it was completely unfeasible. We've been working on it for 40 years and it still just doesn't work (unless you get rid of HVAC, refrigeration, fluorescent lighting, and computers). A regular home reliably powered would take something like 1000 sq ft of panels and cost $30,000. That's my power bill for 35 years.

The key word there is "future". Lots of R&D needs to be done to increase the efficiency of panels, and reduce their cost. Commercial PV panels only get about 15% efficiency, and they are ******** expensive. I heard a while back that a company had developed a modified printer that could "print" PV cells. Research like that could cut the cost to a point where it would be viable for residential power.

You are correct, though, that at it's current state, solar is no more than a luxury for most people.