Nell GreenfieldboyceThe photos of this nuclear-powered cruise ship from the 1960’s are wild—it is like a perfectly preserved time capsule, with atom-themed light fixtures and tableware. A small wooden cube illustrates the amount of uranium fuel needed to circumnavigate the globe over a dozen times.
Resuna
3mind@nellgreenfieldboyce Demonstrating the civil use of nuclear energy, it also showed quite well the main problem of nuclear energy in general: „…despite its efficiency, Savannah was never economically viable. It required special fuel-handling facilities to load and unload its nuclear core. And decommissioning has taken decades and cost far more than it could have ever made moving cargo or people.“
Including all relevant secondary costs, nuclear is *never* economically viable.
Including all relevant secondary costs, nuclear is *never* economically viable.
Bo Jacobs@nellgreenfieldboyce The only thing missing from the story, which is very good, is to include where the spent nuclear fuel is, and what the plan is to "contain" it for millennia. This will far outlive the ship and its design goodies.
Rich Stein (he/him)@bojacobs @nellgreenfieldboyce
Sixties began as an era of endless optimism. Were repositories for nuclear waste even considered? Seriously, there was so much positive futurism, were challenges recognized/considered?
Fortunately, now, with the intervening decades of additional scientific research AND smart public policy analysis AND thoughtful legislation, we've solved the problem. 🙃
Aglaia89 🏳️⚧️@RichStein @bojacobs @nellgreenfieldboyce Back in the day, they dreamed of an endless fuel cycle.
Recycling the uranium and Plutonium in nuclear reprocessing plants. Disposing only the high active waste and even this waste was planned to be processed to radiologic sources for medical and industrial use. But it has proven to be impossible without a huge ecological impact and release of radionuclides.
This dream lived till the '80 of the last century. And there are still people think of this.
@Aglaia89 @RichStein @nellgreenfieldboyce the dream may not be true but they are still selling it to get subsidies and support for SMRs
Polychrome 
@bojacobs @Aglaia89 @RichStein @nellgreenfieldboyce didn't they recently work out that you can safely store spent nuclear fuel by digging really deep below ground where future civilizations won't accidentally get to it without knowing what they're dealing with?
@bojacobs @Aglaia89 @nellgreenfieldboyce
FYI, "The Pulse" podcast from our local NPR station re. nuclear waste (w/ a cameo by new, portable, "unsinkable" reactor). As a kid growing up, I fished a lot of the ocean off Atlantic City, w/ my Dad. We were always curious about "restricted areas" noted on maritime charts. Now I know a little more 😰
https://whyy.org/episodes/buried-secrets-buried-waste/
Ha! Ha! Hazards Of Past Low-Level Radioactive Waste Ocean Dumping" Oceanhttps://www.gao.gov/assets/emd-82-9.pdf
NEO//LIX 🔊@nellgreenfieldboyce Whoa, awesome, I love it! 😍 Thanks for the link!
NotMaddie!@nellgreenfieldboyce What a story and the photos!!
North Easton 
@nellgreenfieldboyce That is amazing.
Hegelian Princess@nellgreenfieldboyce that orange couch