banking services chronicle coaching

 banking services chronicle coaching

banking services chronicle coaching published this article   As James Kunstler points out in his intriguing book The Long Emergency one of our best options out of these dilemmas is to do an Apollo Project type effort to develop additional new nuclear energy capability. As it turns out it just may be the greenest viable alternate we have. The U.S. currently produces about 20% of its electrical power from nuclear power.  The advantages are that there are no greenhouse emissions into the atmosphere no visual pollution it is cost relatively cost effective quiet and we have sufficient supply of uranium here at home for the foreseeable future to provide for a major portion of our energy needs.   Historically at least the problem with nuclear energy has been primarily two fold.  First the China Syndrome problem of a meltdown of a reactor which could release a large amount of radioactivity and second what do we do with nuclear waste material that has a halflife of over 25000 years  The perception of these two significant obstacles might doom a new nuclear drive and stand in the way of an energyindependent United States. However there are new technologies in this field that like the cavalry have come to our rescue and none too soon.   First there is a new class of nuclear reactors that have their nuclear fuel so structured that they cannot do a melt down.  Turn off the cooling to this new nuclear reactor and it only gets a bit hotter.  No big deal. Turn the cooling back on and it runs more efficiently.  Okay one down.  But what about all that radioactive spent reactor fuel   Lets see if we can put some perspective on it.  If you gathered all the spent nuclear fuel in this country under one roof it would fill a typical high school gym. Not too unmanageable.  Moreover the spent fuel is encapsulated in super strong glass beads which in turn are embedded into hardened concrete inside steel drums.  This makes the waste product transportable and is designed to withstand the elements for 10000 years.  Nevertheless even in its tomb it is still relativity radioactive.  Most of these drums are stored in water as radiation cannot penetrate more than about 3 feet of water. However no one seems anxious to have it in their back yards.   A political hot potato to be sure. But while our politicians dont have the answer the earth does.  The answer lies in the bottom of the Marianas Trench in the Pacific.  It is the deepest place in the ocean over seven miles and one of the fastest moving subduction plates on earth.  If the drums of waste were placed in the bottom of the trench they would within a few hundred years be swallowed up into the bowels of the earth and blend into the earths core where heat and pressure caused in part by radioactive substances contained within the earth rendered insignificant. Given the current geopolitical situation which only seems to be working to our disadvantage limited resources for cheap fossil fuels not to mention the environmental impacts we are starting to experience it is time we take drastic measures to get us off our fossil fuel addition.  Lets hope we are not too late. banking services chronicle coaching