Will electricity be around forever?

Post #361,459 by dmcarls 7/31/12 11:41:50 AM Reply	Will electricity be around forever? Your 'ominous feelings' may have merit... [...] "I donÂt think anyone is even thinking about the issue of loss of availability of electrical generation and its impact on our ability to maintain spent nuclear fuel pools. Everyone assumes that we will continue to have our current system forever. " http://ourfiniteworl...ent-nuclear-fuel/
Post #361,473 by Another Scott 7/31/12 9:54:26 PM Reply	It is a concern. But I think she overstates the problem a little. There is dry-cask storage around the world. It's a solvable problem - it just costs money... http://spectrum.ieee...ent-nuclear-fuel- Worldwide, about 90 percent of spent fuel is in vulnerable cooling ponds and only a tenth in dry casks, according to the report. The numbers are somewhat better for the United States, where, of roughly 64,500 tonnes of heavy metal (uranium and plutonium, basically), 15,250 -- almost a quarter of the total -- is in dry casks. Princeton University's Harold Feiveson , a participant in the ongoing fissile materials studies, points out that as much as 50,000 tonnes or more could be promptly moved to dry casks, having already cooled for the requisite five years. But the general point is a good one - lots and lots of important parts of our modern society depend on reliable electrical power. We can no longer assume electricity will always be there like the air. I would not want to be in the Burj Khalifa if it lost power... Thanks. Cheers, Scott.
Post #361,475 by Andrew Grygus 7/31/12 10:17:28 PM Reply	But, but, what happened to . . . . . "Too cheap to meter"? Wasn't almost no cost electrolysis supposed to generate the fuel for my flying car? This is soooo disappointing! Here in California, back in the late fifties, and very early sixties, the power companies were advertising "Medallion Homes" and encouraging developers to build them. "Some day all homes will be all electric, but you can have yours now". Whole communities were built without gas lines. Today, owners trying to get out from under their astronomical electric bills find these homes are very hard to sell.
Post #361,477 by Ashton 7/31/12 10:33:56 PM Reply	Yep, the 'Reddy Kilowatt' Years of flunking Physics101 --as, even then it was clear that: having spent all the "overhead $waste cost" of turning elemental energy sources into Megavolt transmission, of the highly structured form called AC: and THEN --using a Big Fucking Resistor! turning that into disorganized heat!==was spitting in the Eye of Thermodynamics101: This was a Big-time Loser at the starting ad-campaign (and I was just in H.School, and this was evident.) Gawd, collectively The Stupid trumps the Brilliant every time, in this maya picture show we bought a ticket to.. Who Knew: it was Tragedy! never mind the Comic.
Post #361,476 by Ashton 7/31/12 10:22:27 PM Reply	And that's just re nuclear.. India, China, [all the 'rising' Asian folk] anticipate unlimited GROWTH, un-leavened by any thought of Malthus/world population == much closer to the species-blindness under whose umbrella falls: all the other psychologically-Insoluble topics you can put in that spreadsheet. Example the first: So, here's 600M sans power today.. planning $B100s for as rapid expansion next, as possible. As the US, its RobberBaron replacement for all those 18th century stirring democratic dreams, faces a precipitous decline [only the slope might be arguable] --the above folk shall easily transcend our most wasteful years (aided then by the free-money of perpetual borrowing), back when that still looked like 'an Economy'. Personally, I'm grateful for each of the 'sci-fi' (really actual literate extrapolation--we now see more clearly) via which my mentation can, at least limn.. the projections from the current miasma of absence-of critical thinking, compounded by crass logical-think --so flawed as to be evident to any bright tyke. Of course, the madness ahead (to be feared in Any of us) may reach beyond what those stirring tales of the Eloi taught us about, as 'fiction'. None of us does welcome this ~~Brave~~Cowardly New World (unless bonkers already, like the Colorado glock-geek.) And I hadn't conceived being around when the Murican Dream (and Int'l equivalents) crashed through actually being examined. Interesting Times ... to coin a phrase. I Who Be Was .. jes lookin fer loophoes, Son; lookin fer loopholes. --W. C. Fields .hr Law above fear, justice above law, mercy above justice, love above all.

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