"The Natural Philosopher" wrote in message
...
Franz Heymann wrote:

"The Natural Philosopher" wrote in message
...

Martin Brown wrote:



Solar power works reasonably at latitudes below about 45 degrees, but
it
is quite frankly a complete non-starter at latitudes 55N and above.
Unless you count biomass conversion in forests for indirect fuel
generation.



Agreed. Horses for courses.

However tide power is not impossible either. Not an easy one tho.

If only we could get fusion power working...


Fusion power is going to turn out to be a great deal filthier than
fission
power.



I don't think so. The fisson products would all be relatively short
lived isoptopes, and teh main product is helieum. Non radioactve helieum

Its only the vast amounts of radiation intereacting with the shielding
that would cause some radioactive compounds to be generated.


Fission power is the cleanest and least polluting energy source ever
produced on earth.



Yes, I tend to agree with you.


The number of deaths per kilowatt hour which occur in the extraction and
processing of fossil fuels is a lot higher than the corresponding
number
for the extraction of uranium



I would not be surprised.


The pollution of the atmosphere by fossil fuel stations is vastly worse
than
the pollution caused by nuclear power stations.

That is certainly true.

If all power stations were nuclear around the world the waste would pile up
and be a huge problem in the future. Silly idea and should be forgotten.

The radioactive contamination by a nuclear station is negligible,
despite
the protestations of the anti-nuclear lobby. And even that
contamination is
largely caused by irresponsible practices.

Yes, the arguments are kind of curious:-

"We mustn't use nuclear power because the waste it generates might after
a few hundred years cause a little environmental change in certain deep
caves or the bottom of the ocean, so we had better stick to natural gas
and oil and coal, which are running out, are absolutely known TO BE
causing MAJOR environmental impact, and WILL DEFINITELY affect the WHOLE
HUMAN RACE in a few years, extremely adversely".

The real reason is probably to limit the suppies of enriched uranium in
case some gets into the wrong hands...


Franz







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