By Kaelieh, April 24 at 4:00 am
“”“Other countries use it, but here it is like the ultimate taboo. To me, it seems like nuclear power is not an option that is open for public debate. I’m curious as to why.”“”
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Well, I consider these countries to be not giving a rats ass no matter how much radioactive junk they try to bury.

Plutonium-239 has a half life of about 24,000 years, kind of waiting around for plutonium to decay into something inert would take the multiple half lifes to do so. Plutonium-241 a half life of 14.4 years. Here is a link on plutonium:

http://hypertextbook.com/facts/JaniceChing.shtml

Uranium-238 half life of 4.6 billion years which as humans are concerned, forever. Here’s a link to it:

http://www.ieer.org/fctsheet/uranium.html

There are different isotopes of these elements with varying degrees of half lifes. The stuff just doesn’t go away or become safe. The sinks, places of storage, are extremely toxic and for me it doesn’t take much imagination to realize fooling with this stuff is unwise. Another link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioactive_waste

I hope this helps you to realize the folly in the use of nuclear power. We may not be affected by it as we will be dead by our offspring and their down the rest of time for humans will be affected without some miracle process to render this stuff inert.

By Kaelieh, April 23 at 2:44 am
“”“Wait. Seriously? What is the technology? I don’t think I’ve ever heard about it.”“”
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Well, there is solar, wind, and ways to produce methane safely. But the best is from our previous decider’s crawford home, here’s the link:

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/02/is_george_bush.php

Nuclear power? the waste is far too dangerous.

By Hulk2008, April 23 at 11:14 am

I don’t have tv hookup as I can’t stand to be insulted on a continual basis from sick and irritating shows and advertizements, so I missed this which interests me a lot. That is a big area and I will take it as true because our country of high profits and low cost is the rule of the day and what will be a major factor in the resulting ‘ecological bomb’ that will hit us before much longer.
But I think it necessary that any discussion along these lines really needs to include the ‘unfettered’ growth of the human population. That just cannot keep going without at least an effort to lessen the effect or stop it. Will it accomplish something? Probably not, because it will be tampering with the natural act of procreation and as you state, I don’t see anything short of this ‘ecological bomb’ hitting us all due to the corporate, political and religious sectors that are trying to maintain a world that is unsustainable. Another thing, I have seen pictures of these wind farms and solar fields. They take up far too much space, especially when people are doing nothing to reduce the ecological footprint of humans. A possibility may be that eventually this procreation will become the only way to feed the people.(Soylent Green)

Yesterday’s Oprah’s show highlighted the area in the Pacific that is a huge huge trash zone - as big as Texas and as deep as 90 feet in places.  Maybe the air turbines could be placed near there and “vacuum” up the filth over time (?) as a bonus to generating electric power.
  The sad truth is that the conservatives in Congress will shut down EVERY new idea and nothing will improve.  Historians may have a few footnotes in future volumes that mention 2009 as a year when a few items were at least discussed to improve the environment.  But, then again, there may not be any historians around in that future time - historians may be as extinct as the dinosaurs when the “ecology bomb” hits us.

“”“President Obama outlined a plan on Earth Day to lease federal waters on the Outer Continental Shelf for wind and tidal power projects.”“”
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This is nothing more than giving the energy sector the rights to charge everybody for their misuse of new methods of harnassing power when the technology is here for each household the generate their own power for just the cost of the equipment and maintenance. The people will continue to be at the mercy of unscrupulous jackoffs as before unless we do something the make our electorate KNOW what the people really want.
And then there is the consideration of just what would happen to the ocean currents when these ‘best and brightest’ start drawing the energy from the oceans. More mindless and thoughtless shenannigans.
SAME AS IT EVER WAS, SAME AS IT EVER WAS!!!!