🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <C0Hr1r.AzC@efi.com> chungdan@leland.stanford.edu writes:
>     Not only do I ask about electricity (I posted yesterday), also
>about nuclear energy.  They say electricity is less polluting than
>fossil fuels, but who do most electricity come from, especially what
>some people suggest for cars?  Also, if you say that nuclear energy
>is less polluting, have you counted all radiation for all times,
>from the first mining of the radioactive mineral to the very last
>instance (millions of years ago) when the radioactivity dies away, and
>this includes the managing of nuclear waste?

1. With a fleet of electric cars that would recharge during off-peak hours 
(night), the price for electricity would drop, due to plants running at
full capacity all the time (no power cycling).

2. When calculating radiation exposure, you must first look at what the
radiation dose will be if you leave all of that material in the ground.
The avaerage annual dose from natural radiation (cosmic rays, radon, etc)
is 200-300 mrem (varies widely depending on where you live). Extracting
the uranium, processing it, fissioning it, and burying it adds 1-2 mrem
per year to your dose, at most. 

3. This 1-2 mrem of addition dose can be compared to medical x-rays          
(~100 mrem), a trip on an airplane (~3 mrem), or living in a brick house
for a year (~7 mrem).

Check out Bernard Cohen's book for comparison of the radiation given off
between the nuclear power cycle and burning coal.

Tino
-- 
     "Here are the young men, the weight on their shoulders..." - J.D.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
             Purdue University School of Nuclear Engineering
----------------------------------------------------------------------------