Nuclear Power WAS a Good Idea

[RobertEarl]

In the beginning there were dedicated scientists, real intellectuals and great thinkers who put their heads together and designed a way for the world to control splitting the atom.

Even today there are many great minds working employed in the nuclear field.

Problem is..... in order to harness and control the atom, many other systems had to be brought together to make it all work. Construction people, piping, controls, material handlers, computer techs. And last but not least: Banksters.

So here we are. It was inevitable to be here, now, with the split atoms being out of control in Fukushima; reeking pure havoc upon the face of the Earth.

Albert Einstein, one of the original great minds wrote:

“Our world is faced with a crisis that has never before been envisaged in its whole existence… The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking, and thus we drift towards unparalleled catastrophe.”

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, May, 1946

[Systematic Chaos]

1. I guess it's REALLY wreaking havoc if it reeks so bad.

Does it reek even worse than the emissions from coal-fired power plants?

[RobertEarl]

4. heh, yeah, coal does reek

But like you say, and i should have written it as such, Fukushima emissions are wreaking havoc on Japan, the Pacific Ocean and is spreading around the world.

Thanks!

[NYC_SKP]

2. Many among us are still looking for a magic bullet, like nuclear power promised to be...

...or was seen to be or sold to be; relief from dependence upon fossil fuels, endless abundant energy forever.

Anything to keep up our wasteful wanton ways.

Lately people think it'll be fusion. "Don't worry about peak oil, we will use TECHNOLOGY to get out of the trouble technology has gotten us into."

[RobertEarl]

6. That's the 'Mode of Thinking'

The same thing that got us here will get us out. ?!?!?!

Einstein was also mentioned later in life as saying that he wished he had instead been a plumber.

[Edweird]

3. You're blaming "construction people" for the problems with nuclear power?

Because they aren't "real intellectuals"?

That's as arrogant and elitist (not to mention completely clueless) as "Albert Einstein, one of the original great minds" is ignorant.

[RobertEarl]

5. That's weird

That you would read it that way. But hey, you have to eat the nuke crap same as anyone, so you have the right to spout off.

The idea of splitting the atom was a good idea. But the rest of the package around that splitting, due to our mode of thinking and the 'save money' -- accept the low cost bids from construction firms -- is showing its ass.

[Edweird]

8. We are just going to have to agree to disagree about who is "showing their ass" here.

Construction workers build what your so-called "great minds" design. They build it where there are told, how they are told. Fukushima lies solely at the feet of some over-educated shit-head 'intellectuals' that decided to place a flawed design in the worst possible place.

[NYC_SKP]

7. My favorite quote, by Tesla, that the best sources of energy don't use "fuel".

THE POWER OF THE FUTURE
We have at our disposal three main sources of life-sustaining energy—fuel, water-power and the heat of the sun's rays. Engineers often speak of harnessing the tides, but the discouraging truth is that the tidewater over one acre of ground will, on the average, develop only one horse-power. Thousands of mechanics and inventors have spent their best efforts in trying to perfect wave motors, not realizing that the power so obtained could never compete with that derived from other sources. The force of wind offers much better chances and is valuable in special instances, but is by far inadequate. Moreover, the tides, waves and winds furnish only periodic and often uncertain power and necessitate the employment of large and expensive storage plants. Of course, there are other possibilities, but they are remote, and we must depend on the first of three resources.

If we use fuel to get our power, we are living on our capital and exhausting it rapidly. This method is barbarous and wantonly wasteful, and will have to be stopped in the interest of coming generations.

The heat of the sun's rays represents an immense amount of energy vastly in excess of water-power. The earth receives an equivalent of 83 foot-pounds per second for each square foot on which the rays fall perpendicularly. From simple geometrical rules applying to a spherical body it follows that the mean rate per square foot of the earth's surface is one-quarter of that, or 20 3/4 foot-pounds. This is to say over one million horse-power per square mile, or 250 times the water-power for the same area. But that is only true in theory; the practical facts put this in a different aspect. For instance, considering the United States, and taking into account the mean latitude, the daily variation, the diurnal changes, the seasonal variations and casual changes, this power of the sun's rays reduces to about one-tenth, or 100,00 horse-power per square mile, of which we might be able to recover in high-speed low-pressure turbines 10,000 horse-power. To do this would mean the installment of apparatus and storage plants so large and expensive that such a project is beyond the pale of the practical. The inevitable conclusion is that water-power is by far our most valuable resource. On this humanity must build its hopes for the future. With its full development and a perfect system of wireless transmission of the energy to any distance man will be able to solve all the problems of material existence. Distance, which is the chief impediment to human progress, will be completely annihilated in thought, word and action. Humanity will be united, wars will be made impossible and peace will reign supreme.