[ RadSafe ] Future of Nuclear Power

[JPreisig at aol.com]

Dear Radsafe:
 
 
     From:    _jpreisig at aol.com_ (mailto:jpreisig at aol.com)       .
 
     Hey All,
 
          Hope you are  well.  20 years from now, when some of the USA and 
other reactors will  be
going offline (finally???), what will they be replaced by.???  A new  
reactor of more advanced 
design.???  Will the current reactors be extended another 20 years  beyond 
the next 20 years???
 
          Maybe the new  smaller modular reactors (in some number greater 
than one at a current  reactor
location) will replace some of the old reactors????
 
          There is no very  good reason now why nuclear reactors cannot be 
used to give the USA, and
elsewhere, a higher percentage of total power for the future.  We may  be 
more dependent on electric
cars by then.
 
          Sure, natural gas  and coal will still be around.  What to do 
with all that coal slag  and
the products of combustion.???
 
          I don't think team  Obama or Mitt Romney will go forward with 
Yucca Mountain.  We'll see  what
actually happens.
 
         As an aside, Cancer  is being treated by surgery, gammaknives, 
radiation treatments and/or
new and improved chemotherapy.  One key to curing cancer is early  
detection.  People getting
cancer will simply (or not so simply) have surgery, followed by some office 
 visits for radiation
and/or chemotherapy.  This is all not a very simple thing, but  the whole 
process may become more
viable and less expensive/time consuming that it has been.  I expect  
considerable Cancer research
funding will continue for the next 20 years so.  That being said,  Cancer 
research findings of
considerable importance are coming pretty quickly now.  I guess  pancreatic 
cancer is still a bit tough
to deal with.  Dr. Sally Ride passed on from pancreatic cancer the  other 
day.
 
       What lies up ahead looks pretty  promising....
 
       Regards,      Joseph R. (Joe) Preisig, PhD