fscrig75 said:
Oh when you brought up coal I thought thats what you were talking about, didn't mean to change the subject.
Interesting stuff on the Thermal Solar.
Yes there have been break throughs in solar cells, they don't store energy. They create the energy. Or something like that, ha ha.
I'm a big fan of solar, the sun is always shinning in El Paso, I just wish all states would offer tax rebates for using it, and then the electric companies should give better rates for the power you sell back to them that you don't use.
I'm also a big fan of Nuclear power, but again yes there is no good solution for storage of the waste. Aren't they building some huge hole in the groung out in Nevada? Thought I saw a show about that once. I grew up real close to TMI and yea you have to worry about it, but you need electricity.
On second thought it might make sense to go Nuclear, then when we all started glowing in the dark that would solve the lighting problem for sure!
arty:
Yes, they have been working on the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste depository spending billions of dollars for about 20 years now, but now everyone that has really looked at the underlying geology seems to be saying it is built on top of a dangerous fault, an earthquake waiting to happen that would expose the underground water aquafer that supplys I think, California (IIRC) with drinking water to nuclear contamination. The Democrats and Republicans all admit it is a big government screw up that both parties are to blame for, which is why they don't talk about it much, LOL, that will never see the light of day, meaning it will never get used, permited or commisioned as it currently stands, but we go on working on building it anyway.
The Russians have hundreds of rusting leaking nuke subs, with thousands of Nuke bombs setting in them sitting on their coast somewhere rusting into the ocean ( I forget where they are), and no money to clean up or stop the leaking radiation. The UK, British Islands Used to toss their nuclear waste in steel drums offshore in the Atlantic.
If you want to know why Nuke plants are bad idea read up on Chernoble, Three Mile Island, and the South Texas Nuclear Project (cost 20 times what it was suppose to cost, and the rate payers got stuck with paying for the (Halliburton, then Brown & Root) cost over runs. It was done at a cost plus rate because inflation was out of control here when they built it and bid it.
Those are some of the skeletons I know of. No doubt there are others.
The US Navy and France have apparently been succcesful in using nuclear energy safely.
