Expategghead

Expat in Israel.

Sunday, December 11, 2005

Large explosions at fuel depot north of London

I hope all are well. What with the Iran thing today, people are buzzing here.
Posted by ExpatEgghead at Sunday, December 11, 2005

4 comments:

Cathy said...

We had a huge cloud make its way several thousand feet over north London yesterday. Interestingly, it did not smell - clean burning fuel? Too high? It reminded me of California forest fires: being miles away and seeing the smoke clouds in the upper atmosphere.
If it was an accident or terrorism who knows yet. Either way iit demonstrates the futility of rehabilitating nuclear power. If that plant had been nuclear most Londoners would be dead by now and the area contaminated for eons.

12/12/05 13:17
Adrian said...

Guilt. I'm leaning to the view that nuclear power is the way to go. See:

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

for a possible safer reactor design.

12/12/05 14:14
Cathy said...

I see that Wikipedia is conducting a strategic review re editorial oversight following a certain amount of over-freedom of expression.

Unresolved issues of nuclear power include:
-the six-sigma enigma alluded to above: a very, very small chance of something happening that is very, very destructive can still happen at its most destructive level.
-spent fuel safe transport and storage: very vulnerable to eg going missing.
-we have enough spent fuel in dumps which are becoming unsafe after only 30 years...with 250k years half-life.
-enriching power-grade material into weapons-grade material has become easier and doable for eg a terrorist.

Reducing carbon emissions over the next 50 years in exchange for producting toxins for the next 250,000 years is not a logical trade-off...unless you go with the proposal to shoot all the spent fuel and contaminated materials into space...the galaxy is the new landfill...

12/12/05 18:01
Cathy said...

Now nuclear fusion is another story altogether.

12/12/05 18:03

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