Seems to me the only possible solution to solving the CO2 emissions problem is going to nuclear power and electric cars. Albeit partial there are other sources of CO2 and other pollutants of concern.
Don't know enough yet about electric cars, but, I have learned quite a bit about nuclear power. What surprises me... (well, if one follows the money, maybe not), is how the USA wastes so much of the power potential of nuclear.
This is a nuclear FUEL assembly commonly found in many nuclear power reactors around the world.
Notice it ISN’T the slimy, oozing, fluorescent green goop that many might want you to believe. It gets put into the reactor with other fuel assemblies, and literally just sits there for several years always making heat, to boil water, to make steam, to drive a turbine generator and make electricity.
There are no CO2 emissions in this entire process because “nothing” is burned. It just literally sits there producing heat to boil water, 24 hours each day, seven days a week to make steam that in turn is used make electricity and can do that on average 90-91% of the time.
It isn’t dependent on when the wind blows or whether the sun is shining or not, and it doesn’t need battery backup to store electricity when Mother Nature decides not to play nicely.
Now here is the part the average citizen may not fully realize......................
When that assembly is removed from the reactor, it has only used about 3-4% of it’s potential heat producing ability. It could be reused over, and over, and over again for DECADES” to make heat, if it weren’t for “politics” ($$$$$$)….. but that’s an entirely different topic.
Reuse of the fuel assembly material has been occurring for years in other countries, just not here in our country. So what happens if it’s not reconstituted to be able to reused again? Well, it’s just removed from the reactor, allowed to cool down, and then put in a protective can with other fuel assemblies.
Then they all just SIT THERE.
The total volume taken up by all the nuclear power plant fuel assemblies from around the world and ever since the very first nuclear plants started; if they were put in just one location would be about size of a football field. These used assemblies don’t get put into landfills. They don’t leak slime or toxic materials into the aquifer or surface water sources. They don’t screw up the environment.
They just sit there in a protective can.
Read that again!
