Re: But There Ain't No Global Warming.

From: G. R. L. Cowan (gcowan_at_eagle.ca)
Date: 01/26/05 

Date: Wed, 26 Jan 2005 13:23:32 -0500

PowerWorker included:

>
> ... my bet is that history is right and a better harbinger of
> what's coming than all this handwaving. And if you're betting against it,
> the last couple o'million years sez that you're most likely gonna be wrong!
>
> > Assuming global warming is a fact, it is not clear whether the
> > warming is due to human activity or natural causes.

The ball and window analogy is useful here.
Global warming was predicted
(http://webserver.lemoyne.edu/faculty/giunta/Arrhenius.html)
decades before it began to be apparent
(http://www.giss.nasa.gov/edu/gwdebate/).

When windows turn up broken after indoor ball games,
those in line for blame may pretend to be unimpressed
by the grumpy old owner's attempt to assign it,
when obviously it is not clear whether the windows
got broken by ball impact or some other, more natural cause.

But the owner's having predicted such a result in advance
is highly impressive to everyone else.

>
> But the one thing I have faith in--not the fevered braying here--

It would be dishonest to characterize *my* braying as fevered.

>
> ... Next, let's carpet the land with those new modular reactors, like the
> Toshiba 4S? Or PBR's (although they require more hand-holding). Those new
> designs are factory sealed and delivered ready to plug in and go. They
> don't require additional cooling, they have no moving parts, then can run
> unattended for their entire 30-year expected service life. Think of 'em as
> a 280 ton, 25MWe atomic battery. Plug-n-play at its finest...

Much of that is misleading, and would be obviously so
to a genuine power worker. For "are factory sealed and delivered"
read "may someday be ..." For "require no moving parts"
read "require no moving parts unless electricity production is desired".
For "280 ton" read "280 tonne plus shielding mass".

It would be much quicker, and cramp the style of fossil-fuel
tax eaters much sooner, if more reactors of kinds now in service
were built. Thus today we have the report --
http://www.world-nuclear.org/nb/nb05/nb0504.htm#NB05.04-11 --
of the startup of an advanced boiling-water reactor in Japan
that for the last eight days has been producing more electricity
than 55 of the proposed Toshiba nuclear batteries someday may.

To be sure, high-temperature reactors that can drive
thermochemical fuel production are much to be desired.

-- Graham Cowan, former hydrogen fan
http://www.eagle.ca/~gcowan/Paper_for_11th_CHC.html --
How individual mobility gains nuclear cachet

Relevant Pages

  • Re: But There Aint No Global Warming.
    ... When windows turn up broken after indoor ball games, ... Next, let's carpet the land with those new modular reactors, like the ... For "require no moving parts" ... read "require no moving parts unless electricity production is desired". ...
    (sci.energy.hydrogen)
  • Re: Nuclear Power on the way...
    ... >>> production. ... history of early plutonium production in the UK one of the more dryly ... "Today there are four operative nuclear reactors at Sellafield. ... reactors were used exclusively to produce plutonium for the weapons ...
    (soc.culture.scottish)