When was the last nuclear power plant built? When will the next singular plant
produce power? When will we have 10,000 nuclear power plants of *any* kind?
Given that some say the world is already past peak oil, I personally don't see
how we're going to make it to 10,000 nukes...
see PO article in last Monday's The Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/oil/story/0,,2196435,00.html
Graphic Showing Oil Producing Countries Past Peak Oil...
http://www.indybay.org/uploads/2007/10/25/oil-producing-countries-past-peak-oct-2007.png
or: http://tinyurl.com/33ambo
If we are past PO, then the likely ensuing hoarding will accentuate the
problem...
Mike Quinn, Austin
-----Original Message-----
From: Lyndon Tiu [mailto:l...@alumni.sfu.ca]
Sent: Sun 10/28/2007 8:22 AM
To: Texas Cavers
Cc:
Subject: Re: [Texascavers] OT - recycling economics
Mike Quinn wrote:
> Dr. David Goodstein, a physics professor at the California Institute
of Technology and author of the best seller: "Out of Gas: The End of the Age of
Oil" estimates that it would take 10,000 new nuclear power plants to replace
the energy created by oil but even then the world's uranium would be gone in
one or two decades.
>
That's assuming we are using 10,000 "fission" nuclear power plants.
Uranium is a non-renewable resource. The supply of uranium will follow a
depletion curve similar to that of oil.
"Fusion" nuclear (as opposed to "fission") holds more promise as it uses
heavy water/regular water/hydrogen which is more abundant, but if I
understand it correctly, current fusion nuclear technology is only good
for WMD's and not for power generation.
There is international work underway to develop fusion nuclear tech for
power generation. If I remember it correctly, a reactor is being built
in France for this. Try googling it.
--
Lyndon Tiu
