Nuclear power

The uninformed often cite nuclear power as the way to go. And why do they say it's the way to go? That's because nuclear power produces very low carbon emissions, therefore we save the earth, therefore it's good. So very wrong! Nuclear power produces 2 major problems. The first is heat. Nuclear fission produces so much heat which gets transferred to water which is used to cool the reactor. So you get lots and lots of hot water which is dumped where? Into the sea, rivers, lakes etc, and trust me, hot water pollutes and kills wildlife. And not only does it just kill the wildlife nearby, but it screws up the salinity and temperature gradient for a larger part of the water body its dumped into.

What is the second problem? Well, that's nuclear waste. Nuclear waste can be used to make nuclar weapons, so that's one thing you have to deal with. Secondly, it takes thousands or millions of years to disintegrate. So how? Just dump into the ground lah! Yah the ang mohs have been trying to dump nuclear waste under a mountain in Nevada, and they have so much problems with that. There is even a whole ship load of nuclear waste from the US that is doing a world tour because nobody wants to be responsible for it. Just this week there is an article in the Economist bout some scientists who discovered a way to shorten the life of nuclear waste to 100+ years and its supposed to be a big deal! 100+ years is still a pretty long time!

I think fuel cells are the way to go. That's probably the cleanest fuel around, though it costs a bomb. And all that production of hydrogen probably has some side effect. What process is used to make hydrogen? Not so sure, but I recall learning in secondary school that it was the Haber process? Haber process also produces ammonia, is that good or bad? Seems like every new scientific process has many side effects that we may not realise in the short term. Guess that's just life....