CO2 and Cars

["William G. Nabor" <wgnabor@uci.edu>]

Radsafers,

     Bob Flood made a comment recently to the effect that cars put
out greenhouse gasses as well as power plants.  Now would be a good
time to stop making a distinction between cars and other types of
power plants.  Cars are merely small, portable, incredibly
inefficient power plants used for a specific purpose.  Gasoline
powered vehicles can be converted using 1960's technology to burn
hydrogen, eliminating hydrocarbon emissions.  Fuel cell/electric
motor vehicles could be made using 1990's technology to eliminate
the NOx as well.  All we need is a source of hydrogen, which we
have (it's called the Pacific Ocean.)  To refine hydrogen from the
ore (water) merely requires electricity (admittedly a lot of it). 
Acceptable battery powered vehicles are for the far future, but in
any case would require electricity also.  Thus, our greenhouse gas
argument is still one of electricity generation.  

     Can nuclear power solve the whole problem?  We need to know
how much electricity is needed to convert enough water to hydrogen
for all of our heat/transportation needs.  Probably more than we
have U-235 for, but what about breeding some (gasp) Pu?  Wouldn't
it be nice to be able to tell Iran/Iraq where to go?
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William G. Nabor
University of California, Irvine
EH&S Office
Irvine, CA,  92697-2725
WGNABOR@UCI.EDU
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