Quote:
Originally Posted by Raptor
And as for energy, it will most likely have to be nuclear in the future for the baseload production. Renewable can play a part but it just doesn't have the energy density that's going to be needed in a world that has both an increasing population and an increasing quality of life. Fusion would be almost perfect but there's no real way of knowing if that will be ready before or after the depletion of fossil fuels.
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The problem with nuclear power (as in fission to heat water, then electricity generated from the steam) is that it's just another temporary solution. Right now, the United States' power production is only about 20% from that method. Even so,
each year, each reactor generates 25 tons of spent nuclear fuel that takes hundreds of years to become safe again. My biggest criticism about it is that I don't think the U.S. has the backbone to replace natural gas and coal based electricity with it because of the immense financial cost (both for actual construction and storage) as well as the fact that stupid motherfucking people think that nuclear power is the same thing as nuclear weapons. Even France, who gets over 70% of their power from nuclear reactors, admits that it will be in trouble a solution for nuclear waste is not found soon. If people don't start considering it soon, I guarantee we won't have the money to do it when oil and food prices sky-rocket.
Nuclear fusion really is the only way to support, as well as allow for growth, our society enough to use depleting fossil fuels into the future. But like I said, that's only half the problem.
I'm not saying that humanity is doneskee, I just think it's a shame that billions of people are going to die because we can't stop sweeping this under the rug and put our heads together.
But anyway. What can we, as society as well as individuals, do when shit
does hit the fan?