Re: Life after the oil crash

In article <Rxoye.12917$U4.1563524@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Bruce Sinclair <bruce.sinclair@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>In article <dad3ep$90d$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
>rlbell@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Richard Bell) wrote:
>>In article <e%kye.11575$aA5.3141@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
>>Nocturnal <nocturnal@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>>
>>>I am scared and
>>>feel a little hopeless. I have a five year old son and I would love to see
>>>him grow up. I'm sure some of you have children as well. What can I do to
>>>prepare for the coming oil shortage? How bad will it really be? Will it be
>>>all out hysteria with Armageddon like things happening?
>>>
>>The oil shortage is a lot further off than you think. However, that does
>>not mean that we should be complacent. Start lobbying your legislators for
>>a sweeping expansion of the use of nuclear power. The prime complaints
>>against nuclear power are the waste products and nuclear proliferation.
>>Given that nuclear fission products are neatly contained in the spent fuel
>>pellets, and that even a once-through fuel cycle is practical for a long time
>>(a ten percent rise in nuclear electricity will pay for extracting uranium
>>from sea water), spent fuel is a non-issue. We have long since built steel
>>casks that will survive intense fires, massive collissions, and falling
>>onto hardened steel spikes from several stories.
>
>Survive for how many tens of thousands of years ? Until you are dead is not
>sufficient - sorry :)
>
The waste repository need not sequester the waste for more than six hundred
years. Even King Tutankhamen's tomb sequestered its contents from humanity
five times as long. The Great Pyramid was sealed, until someone invented
explosives. Granite plutons are more durable and the process of blasting
out a concrete plug that is tens of meters deep will either take a long
time, or quickly draw attention from the authorities. By the time ground
water gets to the waste, leaches it out of its vitrified lump, and gets
back to the surface, the ten thousand years considered necessary by some
will have more than elapsed.

The virtually indestructible transport casks do not have to last more than
a few years (a few weeks if there is already a destination available when
they are completed).

.

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