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Re: FYI: http://spectrum.ieee.org/energy/nuclear/nuclear-fuel-from-the-sea

Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2012 2:18 pm
by ab0032
Steven, we are not in overshoot. You have listened too much to Malthusians. Dont believe them.
As you probably know, the key to food and all the rest is energy, it can turn around entropy.
And we have abundant energy through nuclear power, more than we can currently use. We will have to be creative to find ways to use all this energy that is just waiting for us to be used.
This whole thinking that we should save energy is all wrong. If we wanted to we could heat out the open window with nuclear made electricity without harming nature. With a good and clean conscience.

Re: FYI: http://spectrum.ieee.org/energy/nuclear/nuclear-fuel-from-the-sea

Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2012 7:45 am
by Chris Bradley
The problem I see is that the whole basis of society is fundamentally based on money (rather than money being a tool to assist bartering). In turn, it is no longer based on fair bartering but instead is based on banking and financial government that is predicated on continuous growth.

Continuous and everlasting growth is what the whole of the modern world's finances are based on, but it is obviously flawed.

If someone solves fusion right now, that can feed power into the organs of industry at low cost and no bad side-effects, all that it would serve to do at the moment is help extend the impossible model of everlasting industrial growth. That needs to be 'solved' before fusion power (if it is possible at all) will really make the difference it should end up making.

I reckon this could be the reason that we've never detected a signal from an extra-terrestrial species - not because technological species are rare, but simply that they can only be sustained for 200 years or so - which is probably longer than it takes for the signal just to get here, by which time they'll have reverted back to 'medieval' living off the land as we are likely to do. That way we'll always miss each other's signals while we're capable of replying!

We need 100% nuclear power right now so that fast-breeders have time to take off. We need to preserve fossil-fuel supplies, essential chemical feedstock that is simply being burned - crazy - and we need to develop fusion energy to replace the fast-breeders over time, enough to comfortably avoid getting anywhere near running out of fissionable materials.

Re: FYI: http://spectrum.ieee.org/energy/nuclear/nuclear-fuel-from-the-sea

Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2012 9:29 am
by Frank Sanns
Most of the civilization of the planet has lived without nuclear or fossil fuel energy. Those energies are very recent developments in only the past couple hundred years. The dependence on them though has risen steadily. If a little is good then more it better thinking prevails.

We have a bucket that is being filled with energy mostly from fossil fuels and nuclear. There is a hole in the bottom of the bucket. The smaller the hole the less energy is needed to keep the bucket full. If the bottom of the bucket is removed and energy is used wastefully and without regard then the energy supply need approaches infinity. Shall we all have our own dedicated 100 MW nuclear reactor in each of our back yards? Energy alone is not going to give us a better life style or a chance to travel to the stars. Energy is just a commodity that we have learned to depend on. While it should be available to all on the planet, it needs to be introduced in an intelligent manner so it is appreciated and used judiciously and not gluttonously.

There will not be just one solution to the energy on the planet. If we fast forward ahead 100 years when fossil fuels are not ubiquitous what will we do for energy? My guess is that we will be very efficient in our use and enjoy the same lifestyle that the ancient Egyptians had and that we now have no matter what the source and quantity of the energy will be. How quickly that transition occurs will be a key factor in the amount of chaos that may ensue. Slow being good, fast due to crisis being bad.

Frank Sanns

Re: FYI: http://spectrum.ieee.org/energy/nuclear/nuclear-fuel-from-the-sea

Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2012 9:59 pm
by Doug Browning
I saw an article, probably in Sci Am, a couple of years ago that analyzed the amount of energy per $ of GDP in western civilization and the US in particular. Energy per $ GDP was steadily rising and it was due to higher technology. So any crunch in energy supply is going to crush the West first. Rather alarming.

On the other hand, one only has to look at some new technology like Dr Norbert Mueller's Wave Disc Generator at Michigan State to realize that inexpensive 100 MPG cars could easily be the reality today if there weren't so much "inertia" holding the auto industry back. I suspect that once energy starts to become scarce, technology development will begin to respond to the challenge. Energy has been so cheap historically that we have developed wastefull technology all along without any concern. Diffusion pumps are a case in point, only a few $ more material and they can use 1/4 the energy. Just look at all the rental housing and business buildings that were built as cheap as possible for the landlord with the renter be da_ned by high heating/cooling costs.

Re: FYI: http://spectrum.ieee.org/energy/nuclear/nuclear-fuel-from-the-sea

Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2012 11:58 pm
by Steven Sesselmann
Don,

Humans don't behave rationally...,as energy becomes more expensive I predict the rich will use more of it.., just look around!

Global warming and diminishing oil supply is now common knowledge, yet cars are getting bigger, it is a show of wealth to park a massive SUV in your driveway.

Indoor skiing in Saudi Arabia is on the agenda for sure, if it doesn't already exist...!

Steven

[edit]
....sorry it already exists http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeMcIKnPLdA


Re: FYI: http://spectrum.ieee.org/energy/nuclear/nuclear-fuel-from-the-sea

Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2012 9:57 am
by Doug Browning
By the Saudi's own estimates, their growing internal consumption of oil will eclipse their production by 2030. For that reason they are currently soliciting bids for a massive nuclearization of their economy. Mexico has already become an oil importer. North Sea oil, poof.

Then we have Fermi's paradox, where the evidence for extra-terrestrial civilizations should be obvious in the heavens, yet nothing whatsoever appears in the sky. I would suggest that the SETI people are looking for the wrong signals. They should be looking for dead radioactive planets. Earth is setting an example.

The perception of SUVs as wealth is auto destructive in the long run. As the oil supply diminishes, their image will progressively become one of a mentally deficient driver wasting precious fuel. The addition of heavy armor to SUVs from paranoid fears will then drag their fuel economy down so badly as to unreliably make the next refueling stop. These people will be doing a lot of walking in 100+ temps with body armor on, while 100+ MPG carbon fiber vehicles whiz by, unconcerned.