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From: ignatz@ihuxx.UUCP (Dave Ihnat, Chicago, IL)
Newsgroups: net.followup,net.politics
Subject: Re: Re: Lockport Blast: safety of oil vs nuclear power
Message-ID: <798@ihuxx.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 3-Aug-84 00:12:06 EDT
Article-I.D.: ihuxx.798
Posted: Fri Aug  3 00:12:06 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 29-Jul-84 00:05:38 EDT
References: <338@tellab1.UUCP> <1588@druxv.UUCP> <651@teltone.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL
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	...
	But I'll bet nuclear is put against large coal and oil plants instead
	of the real winners, decentralized solar, biogas, and natural gas.
	...

Hmmm.  Let me know how to power a blast furnace from decentralized solar.

Frankly, the problem is that heavy industry needs *large* quantities of
high-grade energy.  None of the alternate sources can provide that.
And if we're going to pull the rest of the planet above subsistence level 
living, then we need heavy industry.  (I *firmly* refuse to lower my
lifestyle, so the only alternative is to raise everyone else's.)

Unfortunately, the same problem applies to central urban areas--you
have to find some place to put those bleedin' collectors, and covering
2/3 of Manhattan or the Chicago Loop isn't going to work.

The extremely large biomass converters also have their pollution problems;
and that gas has to be converted to electricity at some point, to be
generally usable.  And natural gas, while clean and relatively
abundant, falls in the same category as petroleum: it's a finite
resource.

Everyone has their own axe to grind, and I'll agree that nuclear
power, as implemented by the powers that be, is far from a desirable
legacy to our kids.  (At least WE put containments around the
beasts--the Soviets don't believe in them!!)  But I think it's high
time that all of us who love our home (i.e., this amazing planet we
have the luck to live on) agree that the important thing is to stop
fouling our own nest.  Would you put your trash incinerator in the
living room?  Then why have a blast furnace just a few miles away from
residential homes?  To do this sanely, we have to get out of our
closed ecosystem.  How?  (You knew it had to come to this.)

Leave the planet.  Get the stinky, messy, sloppy stuff out where you
can REALLY use solar, on a large scale.  Get it where nuclear power
plants are an intelligent and elegant solution.  Get out where there
are plentiful raw materials.  GO ORBITAL.

I won't go on a tirade justifying this stance here; it belongs in
net.space.  (Of course, there, it's the converted preaching to the
converted...:-))  But I hope that enough people take enough time out
from laughing at this "Sci-Fi" idea to examine the economics,
engineering, and logistics long enough to think...

	Dave "I'd take a job as janitor on the Shuttle" Ihnat
	ihuxx!ignatz