RE: Thermodynamics and Money [Oil/Energy]

The link to an article on thermodynamics and energy posted by Janice
Matchett doesn't lead to anything new. Of course, there are many cases
where more energy is spent than is being generated. This is the reality of
Newton's laws of thermodynamics. Any process used to convert one form of
energy into a more useful form is inefficient. What this has to do with
energy supplies is beyond me. The article also contains this gem: "As an
alternative to gas, Total S.A., the French oil giant, is thinking about
building a nuclear power plant to supply heat to melt and crack the tar. But
nuclear reactors extract only a minuscule fraction of the energy locked up
in the nuclei of uranium atoms; all the rest gets discarded as "waste." On
Eroei logic, uranium would never be used to generate either electricity or
heat. But per unit of raw stored energy, uranium is a thousand times cheaper
than oil." It's not only "Total S.A." that has looked at this. At least 20
years ago, a similar study was done in Canada to use organic-cooled nuclear
reactors to heat the bitumen in the Alberta oil sands. But the statement
that "nuclear reactors extract only a minuscule fraction of the energy
locked up in the nuclei of uranium atoms; all the rest gets discarded as
"waste"" is irrelevant. A U-235 nucleus, when it fissions, releases all the
energy that is created in the conversion of matter to energy. Not all U-235
is fissioned (although more than half the U-235 is "burned" in CANDU
reactors, as well as quite a bit of the Pu-239). Recycling the spent fuel
could be used to extract the remaining U-235 and any Pu-239 but there is so
much U in Saskatchewan that recycling is, at present, not economically
viable.

Chuck Vandergraaf

  _____

From: asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu [mailto:asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu] On
Behalf Of janice matchett
Sent: Sunday, October 30, 2005 3:59 PM
To: asa@calvin.edu
Subject: Thermodynamics and Money [Oil/Energy] Was: Re: Life after the oil
crash

Thermodynamics and <http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1511695/posts>
Money [Oil/Energy]
Posted on 10/29/2005 2:59:11 PM EDT by
<http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1511695/~matchettpi/> Matchett-PI
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1511695/posts
Received on Sun Oct 30 20:54:23 2005