THE TIME IS NOW

[Blizzard]

Everyone,

We need to start calling our elected officals in D.C. and telling them what we want, from expanding our Nuclear plants to making ethonal from sugar cane instead of corn. Rememberthey work for us not some lobbyist. It doesnt matter what age you are, for those of you who cant vote your voice can still be heard and will be. We the People are to be in control of this Country, so lets take control.

[AirGoya]

uuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

[discoteka]

Originally Posted by AirGoya

uuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

X2

[Blizzard]

Sorry just a scrabbled rant

[Myka]

Well, you're right. We need to expand our nuclear power plants to supply energy to the plug in hybrids that are on their way. Liberals see "nuclear energy" as a dirty word though. So, they don't know how they will power their "green" vehicles. The current politicians are smart enough to know this. So, for example, you won't catch John McCain saying we need to expand nuclear energy because that would not be a popular thing to say. Even if it's the right thing to do. E100 vehicles from sugar would be great and most people know that Brazil has been doing this for almost 3 decades. But, again, it won't likely happen because that's not what the popular vote wants. The liberals want control, that's what its always been about. They don't want a solution, they want a problem to bitch about.

[DGthe3]

Pre-warning to all.

Political debates can often get heated on the internet, this site is no exception. Speak your points, provide personal opinions, but do not attack others for their opinion. Thank you

[Roflmao]

Fission is good, fusion is better, develop that stuff instead yes? Just speaking from a perspective of someone who is looking directly at a nuclear waste dump in the backyard, possibly, at Yucca Mountain.

P.S. dont you need specific conditions to grow sugar cane?

[TAG UR IT]

Originally Posted by Blizzard

Everyone,

We need to start calling our elected officals in D.C. and telling them what we want, from expanding our Nuclear plants to making ethonal from sugar cane instead of corn. Rememberthey work for us not some lobbyist. It doesnt matter what age you are, for those of you who cant vote your voice can still be heard and will be. We the People are to be in control of this Country, so lets take control.

I got what you are saying and completely agree! The people have the power to change the country...and that's the way it should be.

I sure hope that whoever is elected pres does a darn good job. I'm getting tired of the "poor economy" and continued bitching that there is no money for raises, etc. And I think it's high time we called in some debts from some of the countries that owe us umpteen billion dollars. Let's put back into our economy, right? Hrm....reimbursement would be a great way to start!

[Chevyrocker]

not gonna touch this one with a 10 foot pole

[DGthe3]

Originally Posted by Roflmao

Fission is good, fusion is better, develop that stuff instead yes? Just speaking from a perspective of someone who is looking directly at a nuclear waste dump in the backyard, possibly, at Yucca Mountain.

P.S. dont you need specific conditions to grow sugar cane?

Fusion is better than fission, in both the physical and in the metaphysical -why destroy when you can create (perhaps this is proof that good is superior over evil . . . whoa I went waaaaaay to deep there, moving on). Fusion is just 25 years away now. They said that 25 years ago though. Possibly 25 years before that as well. But there are prototype reactors that exist now, which couldn't be said in the 80's. The problem is that no material known to man can withstand the temperatures generated by nuclear fusion. The challenge is to literally contain a star after all. But once it works and gives a net electrical output, I think the worlds energy problems will be solved.

In the mean time, microwave plants might be a better option. Send giant solar pannels into orbit and then beam the energy down to earth. This is much easier than contained a fusion reaction. Japan is going to launch a proof of concept in the near future. There are 2 chalenges with this. 1) making it cost effective to get the solar panels up there. 2) making sure that the mirco wave beam doesn't become humanity's first death ray. These can both be tackled in the forseable future.

[Roflmao]

Originally Posted by DGthe3

Fusion is better than fission, in both the physical and in the metaphysical -why destroy when you can create (perhaps this is proof that good is superior over evil . . . whoa I went waaaaaay to deep there, moving on). Fusion is just 25 years away now. They said that 25 years ago though. Possibly 25 years before that as well. But there are prototype reactors that exist now, which couldn't be said in the 80's. The problem is that no material known to man can withstand the temperatures generated by nuclear fusion. The challenge is to literally contain a star after all. But once it works and gives a net electrical output, I think the worlds energy problems will be solved.

In the mean time, microwave plants might be a better option. Send giant solar pannels into orbit and then beam the energy down to earth. This is much easier than contained a fusion reaction. Japan is going to launch a proof of concept in the near future. There are 2 chalenges with this. 1) making it cost effective to get the solar panels up there. 2) making sure that the mirco wave beam doesn't become humanity's first death ray. These can both be tackled in the forseable future.

Yeah microwave technology is cool, I'm just not sold on the efficiency of solar panels and the transfer of microwaves and then the possible effects it has on the environment (think about birds and stuff flying through those microwave beams, dude haha), at least thats how I understand it works? To me the end all solution is fusion, its much cleaner than anything we got and produces exponentially more power than anything we got as well. I remember reading things of how electromagnets were being used to try to contain the reactions (which were lasting something like 10 seconds?) instead of finding actual materials to withstand the heat, since a magnetic force can push everything far enough away to make the materials we do have able to withstand the heat, and that they were coming quite close, in scientific terms, to getting it to work. I would love to be working on stuff like that, I just can't go to school for that long.... bleh. Anyways, people vote for fusion, it worked in SimCity2000 and it can work for us too?!

[DGthe3]

Originally Posted by Roflmao

Yeah microwave technology is cool, I'm just not sold on the efficiency of solar panels and the transfer of microwaves and then the possible effects it has on the environment (think about birds and stuff flying through those microwave beams, dude haha), at least thats how I understand it works? To me the end all solution is fusion, its much cleaner than anything we got and produces exponentially more power than anything we got as well. I remember reading things of how electromagnets were being used to try to contain the reactions (which were lasting something like 10 seconds?) instead of finding actual materials to withstand the heat, since a magnetic force can push everything far enough away to make the materials we do have able to withstand the heat, and that they were coming quite close, in scientific terms, to getting it to work. I would love to be working on stuff like that, I just can't go to school for that long.... bleh. Anyways, people vote for fusion, it worked in SimCity2000 and it can work for us too?!

The premise for microwave power is basically a laser beam of microwave energy, as opposed to visible light. And while it might fry a few birds, every power plant that we make has some sort of detrimental effect on those poor creatures. Hydroelectric floods their homes, they get zapped by transmisison lines, someone has probably found that birds that nest at nuclear plants are mutated or sterile or something, wind turbines chop them up, they get cooked by solar thermal plants, and it just goes on.

As for the efficiency of solar panels in space, they work extremely well up there. For one thing they can be oriented towards the sun all day long making maximum use of the power. No light is difused in the atmosphere. Its said that they can collect up to 10x more power every day than a similar area of solar panels on earth.

As for the fusion reactors, yes they do use electromagnetic levitation to suspend the plasma. But that can only do so much. A fusion reactor would not generate nearly as much heat as the sun, but it would be generating the same temperatures (think of heat as flow rate from a hose, temperature as the pressure). So it would need to be on the order of millions of degrees. Unless you can levitate that plasma several miles away, its going to need something more than levitation. Thats where cold fusion comes in, but that's something that I know practically nothing about.

Oh, and I recomend going to school for this stuff -unless you are at a point in life where that is not practical. School is only 8 months at a time, and the time put in will pay off eventually. And if you don't want to go into nuclear phyiscs, thats fine. Take something like energy engineering. Little less exotic, but you would be designing things to get rid of nasty, disgusting coal power (clean coal is a concept up there with civil war, friendly fire and microsoft works, the two words should never be used together). There are other routes to go as well but you get the idea.

hmm, I seem to have been rambling.

[Badger]

Fission is good but I personally would rather go huntin

[Mr. Wyndham]

Originally Posted by Myka

Liberals see "nuclear energy" as a dirty word though. So, they don't know how they will power their "green" vehicles. The current politicians are smart enough to know this. So, for example, you won't catch John McCain saying we need to expand nuclear energy because that would not be a popular thing to say. Even if it's the right thing to do. E100 vehicles from sugar would be great and most people know that Brazil has been doing this for almost 3 decades. But, again, it won't likely happen because that's not what the popular vote wants. The liberals want control, that's what its always been about. They don't want a solution, they want a problem to bitch about.

...You mind laying off the use of "Liberal" and the "democrats are evil" comments, please? It's not very accurate, or kind.


fwiw, though, I don't think we'll see many E100 vehicles around here, because I've heard/read that it's difficult to start them here in the colder climates. But getting any sort of Ethanol infrastructure up and running would be nice. I have yet to see a single E85 pump around here. But I passed 2 going down the western border of Pennsylvania.

(Oh, and McCain IS saying we should expand nuclear power. He wants to construct 100 new plants...45 of them by 2030)