Boy, what an opportunity for anti-colonialists!

Post #62,452 by Arkadiy 11/12/02 11:39:52 AM Reply	Boy, what an opportunity for anti-colonialists! "West exports accident-prone technology to further enslave poor underdeveloped countries." Also, would you care to have breeder reactors in Iraq? Iran? Lebanon? -- We have only 2 things to worry about: That things will never get back to normal, and that they already have.
Post #62,461 by deSitter 11/12/02 12:30:59 PM Reply	Re: Boy, what an opportunity for anti-colonialists! Properly done, nuclear power is not dangerous, while fossil fuel power is destructive in many ways, and of course is limited. Most people do not have the luxury of abundant hydroelectric power. The fissile material created in breeder reactors is not weapons-grade. The former is a mix of four isotopes - Pu239, 240, 241, and 242. Weapons-grade plutonium is nearly pure Pu239. Separating the latter isotope from the breeder product is a vast undertaking. Because the isotopes are chemically identical, you cannot use the simple chemical separation processing that removes the U238 from Pu239 in weapons production. If breeder reactors could produce weapons-grade plutonium, everyone would be doing it. In any case, an UN oversight committee and staff would monitor the operation of these reactors. With cheap abundant power for all, the tendency to go crazy for Allah, Buddah, or Yahweh would probably die away. -drl
Post #62,521 by Arkadiy 11/12/02 6:18:15 PM Reply	It's all in the perception. The nuclear power is not percieved as safe, no matter whether it is or not.Therefore bleeding souls will cry, whether in California, New York or Algeria. Also, according to what I hear from CIA, Saddam has the technology to separate isotops, he just needs some raw materials. -- We have only 2 things to worry about: That things will never get back to normal, and that they already have.
Post #63,447 by tablizer 11/17/02 5:58:19 PM Reply	Death Math The nuclear power is not percieved as safe, no matter whether it is or not.Therefore bleeding souls will cry, whether in California, New York or Algeria. It seems people will pick a predictable danger over an unpredictable one even though the first statistically kills more poeple. For example (only), petroleum power generators may kill an average of 10 people per sampleWatt, but nuclear power may kill an average of only 3 people per sampleWatt. Yet people go with petroleum because the risk is more known or consistent. And nuclear power brings up images of glowing zombies in people's minds that gas does not. IOW, you can get away with it as long as you roast them slowly and steadily. You know what they say about cooking a frog. ________________ oop.ismad.com
Post #62,565 by Ashton 11/12/02 8:55:16 PM Reply	However, and unlike CANDU and other such non-breeder techno - which are examples of achievable lo-risk design: I haven't heard of any means for a breeder with anything near such safeguards. Ergo 99.99% utter reliability, technical performance and [remote!] maintenance -- would not be near Good Enough. Perhaps I am ignorant of a massive breakthrough.. I haven't been paying much attention to nuc. tech for a while. I think that some other source among the many, might be better for making the transition from a quite under-educated workforce, often religiosity-besotted and superstitious as hell (if not quite as malevolently superstitious as Muricans) -- than a replay of Fermi. You have to grow up around 'techno' to develop the basic mindset for How Things Work IMhO. (Like.. we learn Language (not a specific tongue) as a toddler, or not at all - in the [Bronowski] Ascent of Man sense). No ?? Then there's the waste - and another chain of Perfect Performance Accomplished, largely - Remotely. Y'know? Bhopal was run mostly by locals, though starved all-along for $afety procedures by the US (Usual Suspects\ufffd\ufffd\ufffd). And it wasn't even full of radionuclides.. Going the rest of the way in this scenario: what makes you think 'the world' is ready for self-government, even ?? -- We Aren't. All the above suggests nay Screams! that we shall be: Going out with a whimper, more accurately as mewling-consumers? under the continuing control of Feudal Lords in Armani suits (little compensation that their iron-fenced estates shall fall pretty early-on, and that the Armanis shall have holes in them. They have no sense of the inevitable, either Hey! they're MBAs!) But going we damn well seem to be; the rising amusement industries.. divert absolutely. Ashton the Optimist (wanna hear some really Ugly scenarios?) Language was invented that men might disguise their thoughts from one another.
Post #63,041 by Arkadiy 11/15/02 11:41:48 AM Reply	See what I mean? -- We have only 2 things to worry about: That things will never get back to normal, and that they already have.

Welcome to IWETHEY!