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[Tellemurius]

This is what you get when you let lesser states like Wisconsin control the great lakes. Send letters to your Congresspeople telling them to give all the lakes to Minnesota! Avoid this sorta shit again!

Excuse me? What was the name of the lake again? You got thousands but none of them will be "Great"

[Impending Doom]

Now is not the time to put nuclear away. Now is the time to modernize our fleet of reactors and establish new ones, and come up with a better storage system than eternal ponds.

Or, y'know, we could stop throwing away perfectly good fuel. A typical 'spent' fuel rod is still around 90% perfectly good Uranium. The technology for Nuclear Fuel Reprocessing has been around since the very beginning. The only reason we're not doing it large scale is because it happens to be the same process used to make enriched materials for nuclear weapons, which scares people shitless.

[MaximumZero]

You know, one of these days my state may stop getting shat upon.

...at least the Lions are doing well.

[Tellemurius]

Now is not the time to put nuclear away. Now is the time to modernize our fleet of reactors and establish new ones, and come up with a better storage system than eternal ponds.

Or, y'know, we could stop throwing away perfectly good fuel. A typical 'spent' fuel rod is still around 90% perfectly good Uranium. The technology for Nuclear Fuel Reprocessing has been around since the very beginning. The only reason we're not doing it large scale is because it happens to be the same process used to make enriched materials for nuclear weapons, which scares people shitless.

Also the problem is you will need robotics as this is some serious radioactive shit in those spent rods. Since we are on the Thorium run, how about collecting that Cesium-137 and turn that shit into some mobile batteries.

[Eagleon]

Also the problem is you will need robotics as this is some serious radioactive shit in those spent rods. Since we are on the Thorium run, how about collecting that Cesium-137 and turn that shit into some mobile batteries.

Spoiler: Warning: Robots (click to show/hide)

Oh look. Robotics, everywhere in industry, with scads of professionals waiting to repurpose them. Problem solved.

And how do you think they get the waste to the dump site? We have ways to transport the stuff as it is. Reprocessing would cut waste decay time dramatically (by removing and using long HL plutonium), so that not only would we be dumping less, the stuff we'd be dumping would be dramatically less hazardous over time. More, we can use the non-fissible radioisotopes in medicine and other places. Granted the demand there might be quickly saturated, but that's a good thing, right? It's not a simple proposition to build to recycle, but it's certainly better than dumping the baby with the bathwater like we do now.

RE: Lake Michigan. This makes me sad, and just when I was starting to brave swimming in it. Oak Creek is practically next door - I think I've seen the plant they're talking about. So no more Guess I'll have to move to the coast if I want my waves.

[Tellemurius]

Lol i didn't mean it couldn't be done just are processes will be done longer with bots and they need to be controlled by humans.

[Eagleon]

Lol i didn't mean it couldn't be done just are processes will be done longer with bots and they need to be controlled by humans.

I think you misunderstand the entire point of robotics =P But ok.

Mostly I was being snarky because I don't think it's a real issue - the processes to recycle the waste use chemical and heat-based solvents, meaning big vats (or many smaller vats for the later stages, eheh) of radioactive slurry being treated with heat and chemicals at a safe distance. You might need a lot of extra shielding and some serious consideration to what will happen/what needs to be done if a vat of the stuff tips over for some ungodly reason (oops, where'd that fault line come from?), but most likely conveyer belts and single-actuation stages could do the bulk of the work, if I'm understanding correctly. We've had plans for it for decades, and France has done it for a while, proliferation issues are just getting in the way.

[Tellemurius]

France, their current shielding requires at least 10 inches of steel between man and spent fuel and requires cameras to view it. Hell they are the only pioneers (that we know) fiddling with this, think France is finally making a comeback.

[Bdthemag]

This is what you get when you let lesser states like Wisconsin control the great lakes. Send letters to your Congresspeople telling them to give all the lakes to Minnesota! Avoid this sorta shit again!

YES WISCONSIN, SURRENDER YOUR PUNY LAKES TO THE GREAT STATE OF MINNESOTA.

[RedWarrior0]

You may have quantity, but we have quality, and a good chunk of quantity. Our lakes are, dare I say, Superior to yours.

Also, the hidden upside in this is that things may end up such that we don't have to deal with the infestation of Asian Carp...

Another thing: this is a coincidence that people are discussing nuclear power and the fact that it has fairly small probability to go bad on the same day that I read on Cracked about how much our brains fail at probability.

[Bdthemag]

Looks like my plans to escape the zombie apocalypse by crossing Lake Michigan will have to be postponed...

[RedWarrior0]

What, by the carp that can grow to a hundred pounds and sometimes leap from the ground, hitting boaters?

Or by the shiteload of coal?

[Bdthemag]

What, by the carp that can grow to a hundred pounds and sometimes leap from the ground, hitting boaters?

Or by the shiteload of coal?

Both.

[Cthulhu]

I'm actually doing a report on nuclear power and why it's way better than fossil fuels (Though I'll gladly see it go away once we have the crazy future sources like hydrogen and fusion), and I'm mentioning this event.  I think it's sort of like the planes/automobiles thing.  When a car crashes and kills five people, you get five minutes on the local news.  When a plane crashes and kills a hundred people, you'll be hearing about it for weeks.  During those weeks several times more people will die in motor accidents than died in the plane crash.  People have shitty risk analysis skills so they'll be terrified of flying despite being much more likely to die in a car accident.  Likewise, accidents with fossil fuel happen all the time (Not to mention the constant emission of horrible shit into the atmosphere), but everyone's afraid of nuclear power plants because of a few (Admittedly huge) accidents.  Their perception of the risk is way off.

[nenjin]

I look at like this. Fossil fuel accidents are more likely to occur, but in the long-term cause less permanent damage. (Then again...there's the Coal Seam Fire in Penn. You should be sure to mention that one.)

Nuclear power, the incidence of accidents are way lower. But when they do occur, they're far more catastrophic and have a larger impact on the environment and people's psychology. Because when you get down to it, radioactive fallout is far, far scarier than any oil spill, fouled air or poisoned land in the minds of humans.