From: Lawrence Johnston (johnston@uidaho.edu)
Date: Tue Sep 10 2002 - 09:10:54 EDT
Hi, Glenn, George, Ian and other ASA people -
I would ask Glenn or other energy people what the world supply of
available Uranium and
Thorium is. My impression is that there is enuf in proven lodes to
keep the world in energy
for many decades. And just as we have to mine the water supply and
use a lot of energy to
get a teeny amount of Deuterium, we may be able in a pinch to mine
the oceans for the dissolved
Uranium. This should give us a big reprieve until the world's
scientists can develop an even
better energy source, perhaps fusion.
Everyone says when Nuclear energy is mentioned, that it is a
political problem. That means
that if we are serious about pushing that resource further, we have
an educational job
ahead of us. I blush that some of my physicist friends have been
prominent in promulgating
the public's fear of the N word.
I believe it was Charles DeGaule who decided that France needed to go
Nuclear. He gathered
the anti-nuclear activists together and asked them: "would you
rather that we install Nuclear
power generators, or freeze in the dark?" or words to that effect.
They decided to think of
something else to protest. Now France and most of the 3rd world
rely on nuclear power,
with less danger to the health of the atmosphere than comes from
burning coal, and with no
contributions to atmospheric warming due to CO2.
Disposal of nuclear waste is usually mentioned as a big problem, with
the heat and radiation that
it generates. This is a problem, but not comparable to that of
developing Fusion power. It should
be filed under "Political Problems". A helpful way to think about
the worry of "All that nuclear
waste giving off radiation for many years" is to remember that this
radiation is similarly being given
off by the Uranium minerals in the earth and in the ocean, in almost
exactly the same amounts,
per atom, only in a longer period of time. Each Uranium atom, in
going thru its long chain of
decays into some isotope of lead, gives off alpha particles and beta
rays and gammas, and puts
the same amount of waste energy into the earth, as it would in the
process of being made into
reactor fuel and the energy being used by mankind. In fact the
earth is being warmed mainly
by the decay of radioactive isotopes in the crust. We are just
diverting a bit of it into running
our economy.
Bernard Cohen has made some telling analyses of the comparative risks
from Nuclear power,
which I will try to find, if there is interest. but I remember that
the largest risks to life and
health seem to come from oil field accidents, and mining accidents in
the case of coal and
Uranium.
More Power to us People! Larry Johnston
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"There is sufficient light for those who desire
to see, and there is sufficient darkness for those
of a contrary disposition."
-Blaise Pascal, Pensees 149 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
================================================
Lawrence H. Johnston home:917 E. 8th st.
professor of physics, emeritus Moscow, Id 83843
University of Idaho (208) 882-2765
Fellow of the American Physical Society
http://www.uidaho.edu/~johnston/ =====================
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