Someone's listening!

http://www.smh.com.au/news/Business/Rudd-govt-good-news-for-geothermals/2007/11/29/1196037035464.html

However if the Rudd Government are serious about staying beyond 2010 then the $50 million for Petratherm's 5 geothermal drilling projects must be upgraded to 90% of the $500million energy fund. This should entail hot rock geothermal drilling projects in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane for starters.

If that spending went well then the need for a nuclear bridge could be reexmined.

However a Stern warning. Petrol prices could be $4-5/litre by 2010, with crippling effects on the $A and social cohesion in this country. If so I can promise all the goldilocks on this forum that Australia WILL go nuclear .. or perish beginning with an abrupt dismantling of Federalism as fuel shortages make it impossible for any prime minister to control state governments with foreign allegiances.

ITS ALL THERMODYNAMICS .. "ENERGY = ORDER".

“This should entail hot rock geothermal drilling projects in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane for starters.” (Kaep).

The thermodynamics are up the creek without a paddle for those sites, unless Geoscience Australia and such-like could do with a bit of expert help. The same sort of help needed by the scientifically literate who have grave disquiet about so many aspects of the nuclear industry.

Sylvia argued the requirements for BHPB's Olympic Dam uranium mine expansion, claiming 40MW compared to what I'd (they'd) stated (400MW and 162Ml/day water):
"With Olympic Dam already the state's biggest consumer of electricity, the proposed expansion would more than triple its power demand to about 400 megawatts."
BHP snubs SA carbon reductions
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22838774-5005200,00.html

And the latest on the troubled nuclear industry France:

France imports 'record levels' of power on nuclear outages
26/11/2007 : Platts

France imported "massive" levels of power to make up for a shortfall in nuclear power production in the country during October and the start of November, according to a report Monday.

The report in French daily Les Echos quotes Dominique Maillard,
chairman of the French grid manager RTE, as saying state power company
EDF is being forced to import "record levels" of power.

Output is down because technical problems at several nuclear power plants have prolonged periods of maintenance, leaving some reactors offline for longer than scheduled periods, the paper said.

A recent fall in temperatures to below seasonal norms has made this situation worse, it added. Over the year, the availability of France's nuclear power reactors is set to fall to 80%, "its lowest level for eight years," the report said.

Already in October, France increased its imports of power by 143% and reduced its exports by 21%, and "the scenario is likely to repeat itself often this winter," according to Les Echos.

According to the report, EDF's biggest headache concerns the cleaning of steam generators. The company has had problems with reactors at the Bugey, Chinon, Cruas, Paluel and Saint-Alban nuclear power plants, the paper said.

Some 13% of France's total nuclear power generating capacity is
currently off-line, according to last available information from EDF on Friday. Seven reactors representing 7,900 MW from a total nameplate generating capacity of 62,720 MW were stopped in the week to November
23, according to information from EDF.

Neither RTE nor EDF were available immediately Monday to comment on the report.

"As the background rate of radiation has not increased over the last 30 years, attributing these cancers to nuclear power is extremely tenuous."

Shadow

If humans were only being exposed to background radiation, we would not be having this debate.

Make no bones about it, man has contaminated this planet with massive amounts of anthropogenic radiation, causing irreversible health and environmental destruction.

This destruction is not short lived, it cannot be "cured" and the fact that it is still mandatory for farmers in particular areas in Wales, to test every one of their livestock for radiation from the fall-out from Chernobyl and destroy them where necessary, reveals the heinous impacts and the transboundary nature of man-made releases of radiation.

"Because of man's activities, background radiation exposure is gradually increasing as greater quantities of naturally ocurring radioactive materials are being released into the biosphere (for example, through uranium mining).

"We have added significantly to the unavoidable radiation exposure of all people on earth because of fallout from nuclear weapons testing and nuclear power plant discharges, particularly in the case of a large-scale accident like Chernobyl.

"The medical profession has also added to our average radiation exposure through the use of x-rays.

"In addition, small quantities of medical and industrial radioisotopes (man-made radioactive substances used for "tracers" or therapeutic purposes) often end up in soil, water or air.

"Although the term "background radiation" is not meant to include bomb fallout, reactor discharges, medical exposures or environmental contamination from radioisotopes, it is nevertheless a fact that people all over the world are being exposed to increasing doses of radiation because of these factors." http://www.ccnr.org/nfb_uranium_3.html#K.5.

Depleted Uranium:

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/133581_du04.html

Low-level Radiation:

http://news-service.stanford.edu/pr/2005/pr-abrams-102605.html

For pro-nukes to continue recommending a massive increase in uranium or thorium mining, to supply fuel for over 2 thousand nuclear reactors world-wide, reveals a consortium of extremely radical geriatrics who have little respect for their fellow humans or for the planet on which they reside.

And poor old Atomic John is no doubt licking his wounds and pondering on his shattered dream of nuclear energy for the people of this nation!

Oh KAEP,

*Methanol*!

From *CO2*, the new vital energy feedstock!

Slowly I begin to comprehend.

Recipe:

Burn coal.

Extract pure CO2 from the flue gas. (How exactly?)

Make heat by splitting atomic nuclei (stir up radioactive minerals, concentrate fissile ones, pack into marbles, combine, stand back).

Make electricity from heat by boiling water.

Make hydrogen (and oxygen) from water, heat and electricity by high-temperature electrolysis.

Note that steam reformation of hydrocarbon fuel produces hydrogen at a fraction of the cost of HTE. The intermediate Water Gas Shift reaction makes CO2+H2 from CO+H2O.

Make carbon monoxide (plus water) with the *reverse* Water Gas Shift reaction from hydrogen and pure CO2 in the presence of a dessicant.

Make neuro-toxic CH3OH by combining CO over a catalyst with more hard-won electrolytic hydrogen.

Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

You purify combustion exhaust, then reconstitute it with concentrated thermal and electrical energy. Plants do the same thing with ambient CO2 and sunlight.

You are beginning to look seriously THERMODYNAMICALLY challenged.

(And why on earth *methanol*, when Fischer-Tropsch would provide familiar alkanes from CO? What's a BMP, btw?)

You'll need a long drill to reach 400-degree rock beneath Sydney.

KAEP, I don't think you would recognise thermodynamic efficiency if it bit you on the bum.

Shadow Minister,

If it's worthwhile wiring several million houses with capacity for 20kW or more of appliances most of them will never use (maybe they turn on a third 2400W heater, four nights a year), isn't it worthwhile reticulating a few hundred 3MW wind turbines at Warwick and Toowoomba for the sake of 1MW "average" power?

And if wiring is justified to tens of thousands of 400W highway lamps for night-time-only use, isn't it also worthwhile reticulating a bunch of 1500MW solar thermal plants with overnight heat storage hard by Moree, Longreach and Bourke for 24-hour baseload, prolonged country-wide overcasts possibly excepted?

None of these places lacks gigawatts of existing HVAC power transimission capacity. Converting to DC could quadruple the capacity of existing cables while *reducing* line losses.

Sylvia's "100% backup" claim was at least plausible; these new objections to intermittency are imaginary.

Dickie...

Well said, above.

This site and collection of resources will remain and will be included in the National Archives. The name may be soon updated:
http://www.VoteNuclearFree.net

“I do not like this word bomb. It is not a bomb; it is a device which is exploding.”
- Jacques Le Blanc – French Ambassador to New Zealand (describing France’s nuclear tests).