On 7/31/2010 1:45 PM Han spake thus:

"HeyBub" wrote in
m:

There aren't any places left to build dams - in fact some are being
torn down so the Wart-faced Faux Salmon can defecate. Further,
hydroelectric dams are the most dangerous of all methods of power
generation (dams don't fail often, but when they do...).

I am thinking smaller dams, not everything needs to be Hoover sized

Nor--even better example--Three Gorges-sized.

The term for such smaller dams is "low head hydro". Smaller dams reduce
the negative impact of damming watercourses: loss of wildlife habitat,
farmland, canyons, etc.

That leave nuclear, but far too many people are too phobic about the
prospect for nuclear energy to be politically viable.

Let's collaborat on promoting nuclear. I happen to believe that nuclear
is an excellent way out. Look at France ...

Let's not. Nukes are still a Very Bad Idea.

First of all, they're really not necessary. Even if we eliminate coal as
a source for electrical power generation--by far the worst environmental
offender, by consensus--we can still generate the power we need with a
mix of other technologies (including cogeneration, which captures energy
otherwise wasted), plus conservation. This includes solar, wind, hydro,
biomass, etc.

Nuclear power is still far too dangerous for this planet at this time.
Unlike other technologies, it has significant risks at each step along
the nuclear fuel cycle: mining, milling, fuel-rod fabrication,
transportation, power generation, decommissioning and spent-fuel storage
and disposal. There have been significant accidents at each step of the way.

And worst of all, there is still no viable scheme for long-term waste
disposal. I happen to know something about the subject as I researched
it in college and wrote a paper about it. Even now, 20 years after the
feds ran the nuclear waste railroad into Nevada (Yucca Mountain), things
are no better and we're no closer to a safe storage facility. The stuff
is just too ****ing dangerous for us stupid humans to deal with it,
apparently, despite slews of pointy-headed scientists that have grappled
with the problem.

Perhaps in the future, but not now.

Besides, why not use the greatest *fusion* reactor in the solar system?
It's a nice safe 93 million miles away from us, and provides all the
energy we'll ever need. We just need to learn how to capture and use it.
(And I'm not just talking electricity he somehow, we've seemed to
have forgotten all about simpler, more direct uses of the sun's
energy--remember "passive solar"? Still works, still is extremely
underutilized.)


--
The fashion in killing has an insouciant, flirty style this spring,
with the flaunting of well-defined muscle, wrapped in flags.

- Comment from an article on Antiwar.com (http://antiwar.com)