AGW Watch

[DiscoStu]

Fast breeders are the last thing you want... no one has yet built a successful example... the one at Dounray has spread highly active particles all over the place... the sodium cooled ones are prone to catching fire if the coolant leaks... all in all, tomorrow's technology if it can be made to work.

There was an interesting article about the Candu reactor (heavy water moderated) which can apparently burn the plutonium created in the fuel rods.

Or so it said.

Fusion is the real answer, but that's as far away as ever... permanently 10 years in the future.

Come on, hu-mans, pull yer fingers out or you'll be really stuffed in 50 years time.

Care to share some alien technology?

[TimberWolf]

The Government should have started building two dozen fast breeder reactors years ago. Probably in years to come, this dawdling and indecision will be seen as their biggest failure and there's no doubt we'll all suffer..

Maybe quite a bit more than two dozen nuclear power stations since electrical energy forms just a small part (27% I think) of our total energy consumption. Nuclear supplies 19% of our energy and around 5% of the total. Even increases in the 'efficiency' of food production is linked to subsidises from oil in the form of fertiliser. We use around 300 GW total energy I think, which would be around 300 nuclear power stations at a guess. Or a land area the size of Wales covered in wind turbines.

Australia look to be sitting pretty. They have huge natural resources in the form of Uranium, Thorium and solar. And they have a small population relative to land area.

[DimPrawn]

The answer is to use Natural Gas, Coal and Oil. There's fooking loads of it and it's cheap.

What about Carbon I hear you cry? WGAS, it has minimal if any effect on the climate as has been demostrated over the last 10 years.

HTH

[TimberWolf]

The answer is to use Natural Gas, Coal and Oil. There's fooking loads of it and it's cheap.

What about Carbon I hear you cry? WGAS, it has minimal if any effect on the climate as has been demostrated over the last 10 years.

HTH

We'd be relying on importing our energy. We used up all our easy to get at coal a century ago and our oil reserves more recently. We once had as much coal as Saudi Arabia has oil, and we shipped this all over the world. I suspect much of our brilliance of a century ago was more due to exploiting those mineral riches than our great British brains.

[Gordon Brown]

We'd be relying on importing our energy. We used up all our easy to get at coal a century ago and our oil reserves more recently. We once had as much coal as Saudi Arabia has oil, and we shipped this all over the world. I suspect much of our brilliance of a century ago was more due to exploiting those mineral riches than our great British brains.

Not a problem. We make excellent Weapons of Mass Destruction which we sell to anyone with cash, and then buy energy from terrorist states. It's how the world works.

[Diver]

Couldn't we do this and kill two birds with one stone.

Reduce methane emissions, and run engines on it

[TimberWolf]

Not a problem. We make excellent Weapons of Mass Destruction which we sell to anyone with cash, and then buy energy from terrorist states. It's how the world works.

It's how the world works at the moment. But oil is a finite resource and consumption is increasing. We'd be better off having our own energy supplies (and being an exporter if possible) even if it's not the cheapest energy around today.

[Mailman]

Latest climate change prediction from IPCC:

World temperatures could rise by between 1.1 and 6.4 °C (2.0 and 11.5 °F) during the 21st century

IF they are going to use the word COULD, then surely the range should start at ZERO?

How can you say something could happen and then give a specific range?

Thats just like saying guru could know what he is talking about when the chances of that happening are 0%

Mailman

[sasguru]

IF they are going to use the word COULD, then surely the range should start at ZERO?

How can you say something could happen and then give a specific range?

Thats just like saying guru could know what he is talking about when the chances of that happening are 0%

Mailman

Look up the statistical concept of confidence intervals, cretin.
Although I can tell you in advance you won't have the brain-power to comprehend the idea

[ace00]

Islington based outrage!

Climate inaction 'costing lives'

Oxfam says rich nations' carbon footprint are putting lives at risk
Failure to take urgent action to curb climate change is effectively violating the human rights of people in the poorest nations, an aid charity warns.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7605927.stm

They must love this round the dinner tables of Islington