Re: Thermodynamics and Money [Oil/Energy]

Beyond what Chuck says, I think there is a nitwit charge: you're not
using all the energy in the uranium (Pu) nucleus. This is because
fissioning usually produces a couple of neutrons and a couple nuclei
whose total mass is fairly close to the original U or Pu mass. Therefore,
since you haven't transformed all the mass of the U or Pu into energy,
you're "wasting" it. You can avoid this waste by rescinding the laws of
nature. So chop! chop!
Dave

On Sun, 30 Oct 2005 19:53:32 -0600 "Tjalle T Vandergraaf"
<ttveiv@mts.net> writes:
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 Money [Oil/Energy]
Posted on 10/29/2005 2:59:11 PM EDT by Matchett-PI
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1511695/posts
Received on Sun Oct 30 22:38:19 2005