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The Physics of the Hydrogen Economy
Spy der Mann writes "A Physics Today article entitled The Hydrogen Economy explores the possibility of using hydrogen as an energy source. The article explores the current methods, limitations, and the need for more research. For those wanting to point out the Hindenburg incident, the article doesn't talk about gaseous hydrogen only, but also about hydrogen fuel cells. My favorite quote: 'The natural world began forming its own hydrogen economy 3 billion years ago, when it developed photosynthesis to convert CO2, water, and sunlight into hydrogen and oxygen'. Interesting read for eco-fans."
Nuclear is NOT an alternative energy source. It is a very dirty and dangerous power source. Anyone that believes that nuclear power is clean, cheap and safe has been brainwashed by the well-funded nuclear industry's public relations arm.
Radiation is a carcinogen -- it causes mutations to your DNA and the vast majority of genetic mutations are harmful. Radiation causes cancer, it causes birth defects, miscarriages and many other biological problems. Genetic damage lasts forever, because it is passed on from one generation to another. We're killing our kids with nuclear power.
There is no good solution to the problem of nuclear waste. The nuclear industry and government have promised solutions to the problem since the very beginning of the nuclear power industry. Spent fuel rods are extremely dangerous (a few minutes of unshielded exposure would mean an almost certain death) and have to be isolated from the environment for hundreds of thousands of years.
The best solution that they've come up with is tunneling into Yucca Mountain and dumping it there, despite the fact that the site does not meet the original geological requirements for safe radioactive waste disposal. Despite the fact that the site is riddled with earthquake faults and has 2 inactive volcanos within 10 miles of Yucca Mountain. I don't know about you, but I sure don't like the idea of dumping 77,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste in an unstable geological area. Instead of searching for better solutions industry has bribed and strong-armed congress into just weakening their requirements for nuclear waste disposal.
They want to dump it at Yucca Mountain, because obviously no one wants it in their backyard and they know that the State of Nevada isn't strong enough to fight it off. Even worse yet they want to dump the nuclear waste on Western Shoshone Territory, which makes it a blatant case of environmental racism.
It's very backwards in thinking to talk about building new nuclear reactors, when the Nuclear Regulatory Commission isn't even doing a good enough job of regulating nuclear plant security with the existing line of nuclear reactors. Wackenhut Corp should not be testing it's own security forces. Plant security should be tested by an independent 3rd party. There is nothing in place to protect nuclear reactors from an aircraft or marine attack. After the tragic 9/11 attacks, it was revealed by the mainstream media that Al-Qaeda had considered striking nuclear targets. What part of that doesn't the Bush Administration understand? At a time when we are all very concerned about our national security, proposing to build new nuclear reactors goes against the concept of homeland security.
Not in America, in America it is FREEDOM that is SHIT
FRA: STFU GTFO