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Comment Re:Thanks for pointing out the "briefly" part. (Score 1) 461

Exactly what heavy metals incorporated into PV panels are you talking about??

Silicon, not a dangerous metal, you'll find silicon dioxide in vast quantities at any beach(sand), it also makes up 43% of earth's crust
Aluminum frame, not really, Al2O3 makes up 7% of earth's crust, also recycles real well.
Glass, a mixture of SO2 and few other harmless compounds.

A little bit of copper, also recyclable, soo what are you writing about??

Comment Re:Evil vs buggy (Score 0) 222

A more likely scenario ... It will be the lack of machines which severely curtails humanity.. I.E.. EMP blast from orbit.. man-made, CME, Black hole formation.

Without our technology, 99.9% of humanity will quickly starve to death. Those that survive will be dealing with 400+ nuclear reactor meltdowns and spent fuel pool fires.. Average human lifespan will be reduced significantly.. Human's will be considered lucky to survive to age 30..

Comment Re:They don't agree with us! Burn them! (Score 1) 661

"With the melting of the tundra 10 years ago, we hit a tipping point, it became too late to stop climate change. It is now a positive feedback loop. You could remove every human being from the planet, and global warming would continue.

What we do about humanities 36 billion tonns/yr of CO2 emissions from FF, or not, will affect the rate of climate change. If at some point humanity starts producing a surplus of renewable energy, then we can extract CO2 from the oceans and use it to manufacture CH4 for later sequestration. At which point we really can reverse AGW.

But, first steps first.. We must reduce the amount CO2 emissions in the first place. By reducing wasteful energy usage(*), increasing the amount of renewable energy produced, and penalize fossil usage.

I.E. Wasteful energy usage, using a 10% efficient 2 tonn automobile where an Electric bike (600 to 1500MPGe), can accomplish the similar objectives.

Comment There could be other factors.. (Score 2) 245

Like the signal reflecting off the ocean below instead of coming directly from the aircraft.

The only sure way to is to duplicate the flight path with a similar size aircraft using the same Engines and monitoring stations, using similar SAT positions. Only this time use a plane with extended range 777-200LR(verses missing 777-200ER) with minimal payload&maximum fuel and/or safely replicate the flight path in sections.

Use the resulting SAT/GPS data to help calibrate mh377 final resting spot.

Comment The whole "GOD": thingy.. (Score 1) 453

With 95% of humanoid population believing in a GOD who created mankind in his image,... has got to go..

The risk biological contamination, (both ways), is far to high, at best they'll send a sterile probe... land it on the moon, observe, and move on.. Until we start doing some really impressive space engineering projects, their isn't much to talk about.

Comment Re:Increase fuel burnup and this becomes cheap ! (Score 1) 288

Bzzzt.. no thorium was ever installed/used in MSRE. It was just one tiny air cooled, (7.4MWTh), Molten Salt reactor prototype. Initially it was fueled with U235/U238. Later U233/U238 (U233 was bread in more conventional reactors).

The MSRE prototype had significant problems upon decommissioning..

Comment Re:I have a project (Score 1) 165

WHO, IAEA, NIH, et al.. haven't refuted anything. The book was a compilation of several hundred scientific papers written in the appropriate non-english languages authors covering the affected area and population.

Nobody of any scientific reputation outside of those incestuous organizations agrees with any of the conclusions.

Comment Re:Too Little, Too Late (Score 1) 165

"You have also not mentioned your ASTRONOMICAL error claiming 60 million deaths from fall out." Why should I? I included a referenced click able link, that's a lot more credible than your claims. No error on my part, just the unvarnished truth that you don't want to admit exists.

Nuclear power always has been a fools bargain, their will be no winners..

Comment Re:Too Little, Too Late (Score 1) 165

Less than 25% of US spent fuel(as of 2009) has been dry cask'd.. Most fuel (world wide) remains in common spent fuel pools.

Fukushima on 3/11/2011 had a total dry storage capacity of 408 fuel assemblies for all six reactors, verses capacity for over ~10000 fuel assemblies(~75% full) in seven spent fuel pools, with another 2000 to 3000 assemblies still inside the reactors.

Thus Fukishima's Dry casked storage represents less than 5% of total storage.. But even dry casked storage(requires maintenance) and that also is at risk after a massive release since no person can approach the site without receiving a fatal dose of radiation.

Comment Re:Too Little, Too Late (Score 1) 165

"And no reactor has 80 million tons of fuel" Bzzzt.. Just in you're totally clueless.. The Megaton's refers to Fission Bomb yield equivalent..

The worlds total N-weapon arsenal is less than a few thousand Megatons of Fission byproduct (bomb equivalence), if they were all to be detonated in one day, Note: Modern N-weapon designs are ~50%fission(dirty)/~50% fusion(relatively clean), And only a small fraction is ready to deploy in an initial exchange.

Meanwhile more than 150 times that amount resides inside NPP's around the world, and all it takes is a loss of electrical power to start the release process.

Comment Re:I have a project (Score 1) 165

Chernobyl Death Toll: 985,000, Mostly from Cancer and still counting as of (April 26, 2010) from just 6 Megaton's worth of Fission Byproduct release into the biiosphere.

Imagine what would happen if their was a significant release of the 150,000 Megatons of Fission Byproducts humanity has lying about at/in/near NPP's!

Comment Re:Too Little, Too Late (Score 1) 165

With ~150,000 megatons(*) worth of fission byproducts lying about, waiting for the next accident/natural disaster/Loss of cooling/war to be released into biosphere. The last thing we need, to is increase that inventory above the ~5,500 megatons we currently are producing each year.

(*)Note: Assumes Megaton's worth of fission isotopes is created for every 0.4tWh of electricity produced by a NPP, No accounting for decay since much of the radioactive food chain isotopes, (Internal radiators, Sr-90, Cs-134, Cs-137, I-129), are still around, and will still be around for decades/centuries/thousands of years.

World wide, atmospheric weapons testing released 100-200 megatons of fission byproducts. The addition of those radio-isotopes to our biosphere sent at least 60 million humans to an early grave

Fukishima's melt thru cores (reactor units 1,2 and 3) contained somewhere between 80 and 174 megatons worth of fission byproducts. If their contents make it into the biosphere, it would be very close to equaling All the atmospheric N-weapons testing to date. Sending at least another 60+ million humans to an early grave.

One can only imagine the outcome, if a significant portion of 150,000 Megatons worth of globally stored radio-isotopes were released into the biosphere. Mankind, being the apex predator, would be lucky to survive such a release.

.

Comment Re:Big Oil loves Wind & Solar (Score 1) 769

Bzzzzt.. $2kWh bogus number with no scientific support.. Meanwhile in the real world.. I can purchase a 240 w panel, + grid inverter for less than $400.. that combo will produce over a 400kWh in the first year..

That's less than 1$ per kWh in the first year... run it another 30 years.. less than $0.033 per kWh, wayyy cheaper than any fossil or nuclear power by a long shot. As for long term storage, simply not burning fossil fuels when the sun is shinning, or the wind is blowing is a simple well established strategy.

Eventually we'll have enough surplus renewable to exact co2 from the environment, process it into CH4(methane) and pump it back into the ground, waiting for a cloudy/windless day..

Comment Re:Good for them.. at least the jury got it right. (Score 1) 146

Considering the US wastes 61 to 86 percent of its energy, we've got plenty of room for improvement. Even the Toyota Prius is only 25% fuel efficient. Your average auto is around 10%. and that does NOT include all the losses involved in finding/refining/delivering the gas. Again lot's of room for improvement.

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