[ RadSafe ] All the Energy We Will Need for Millennia

[Steven Dapra]

Oct. 5

         James, how about telling us something about that 
ruthenium-iron alloy you were touting a few days ago.

Steven Dapra


At 12:00 PM 10/5/2011, you wrote:
> > The Earth has all the fuel we need for millennia in the form of
> > uranium and thorium
>
>The problem is that the actual realized cost of nuclear power in the
>U.S. proven to be between 25 and 30 cents per kilowatt hour:
>
>http://web.archive.org/web/20090225154550/http://climateprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/nuclear-costs-2009.pdf
>
>We can argue whether the regulations and political opposition which
>causes this are justified (and I have a feeling we probably will) but
>according to a SLAC colloquium presentation earlier this year, nuclear
>would be expected to kill ten times as many people as wind, primarily
>because of issues involved with mining.  Meanwhile wind costs are the
>lowest and falling, currently at 5-6 cents.
>
> > and we don't have to ... kill birds with windmills
>
>If the U.S. started synthesizing transportation fuel from nighttime
>wind and stopped importing oil entirely, and derived all that fuel and
>all electrical power from wind, that would only require turbines on 5%
>of U.S. farm land:
>http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2009/06/19/0904101106
>
>You know what a dead bird is to a farmer? Free fertilizer. Even with
>that exclusive wind power scenario, house cats would still kill more
>birds, because the new larger multi-megawatt turbines turn slower and
>so are only deadly at their smaller surface areas on the tips of the
>blades.
>
>As Jeff has pointed out, the danger to bats is a more pressing
>concern, but I have yet to see any study which seriously suggests that
>exclusive wind power in the U.S. would be a mortal threat to any bat
>species, just that more study is needed on the subject.

[James Salsman]