'Radiation' moving west across Europe?
- Thread starter sandbender
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Until there's an accident or the stored radioactive waste & spent nuclear fuel leak.
Fair point. But even though there have been bad accidents, there has still been less radioactivity released accidentally than we release deliberately from our fossil fuel plants.
And there's no carbon dioxide released from nuclear plant at all.
Tell me Mr. Ged.....are you in any way connected to the Nuclear industry ?.............or are you just in favour of nuclear.?
The training and "responsible experience" for my professional engineering qualification was gained while working at the then United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority, at Harwell, in the late 1970s and early 1980s. I worked primarily on safety and security systems. Unfortunately for my career the government decided to stop building nuclear reactors, so I got out and moved into nuclear medicine for a few years. I have not been in any way connected with the nuclear industry since the mid-1980s.
I am strongly in favour of nuclear power. It is much less damaging to the environment than burning fossil fuels. It works when the sun doesn't shine, and when the wind isn't blowing.
The main downside is that it's a bit more expensive, but we have to live with that. As Graucho once said, it's better than the alternative.
That's part of the bias. Do we go with the conventional means of production which we know WILL produce a smaller level of radiation (and other environmental pollution); or do we go nuclear which MAY produce massive amounts of radiation. In the end it's really not a simple choice.
FWIW I'm still undecided.
I blame the stockpiling of Brazil nuts for christmas.
According to QI a pocketful of the blighters will set off the leak alarms in a nuclear facility
According to QI a pocketful of the blighters will set off the leak alarms in a nuclear facility
I'm a professional environmentalist, and I’m firmly in support of nuclear power- as are many environmentalists. Some arguments have been pointed out, but to those I would add that the burning of fossil fuels creates atmospheric emissions responsible for the hastening the deaths of thousands every year, and global warming will (when the food belts shift) be responsible for hundreds of thousands (or even millions) of deaths annually. A Chernobyl per year would be better.
The nuclear argument is so emotive, stopping to equate things to numbers helps put things into perspective from my mind.
And until all power in the UK comes from nuclear sources, you won't find me driving an electric car!
The nuclear argument is so emotive, stopping to equate things to numbers helps put things into perspective from my mind.
And until all power in the UK comes from nuclear sources, you won't find me driving an electric car!
I blame the stockpiling of Brazil nuts for christmas.
According to QI a pocketful of the blighters will set off the leak alarms in a nuclear facility
That's a bit of an exaggeration, and I should know because I used to design the equipment, but Brazil nuts, like bananas are of course to be rich in potassium.
About one-eightieth of one percent of all the potassium on the planet is radioactive. This includes the potassium in you and me. There are many natural sources of radiation, but this one natural source alone accounts for about half of the radiation dose that most people will receive in their lifetimes.
There's been a kind of irreverent fun poked at the nuclear doom-mongers in the form of the Banana Equivalent Dose:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_equivalent_dose
It's a light-hearted and not particularly relevant way of trying to put things in perspective.
It doesn't seem to have worked.
