Power-full questions

[bluegargantua]

Hey,

Two questions for the energy production crowd:

1.) How long do nuclear fuel rods last? This is kind of a vague question I know, but what I'm getting at is this: more and more people are boosting nuclear energy as an energy solution. Fine. But Uranium isn't exactly the most common element in the world. If we switched over to a heavy nuclear base, then we're going to start gobbling up uranium and it's just as susceptible to running out as oil is (if not more so). My impression, is that nuclear fuel lasts for a good long while before it's too depleted to be useful, but I'm hazy on it. So what's a good estimate for how long a fuel rod will last in a modern plant? If you have data on how long nuclear fuel will last in more exotic new-fangled reactor types (like pebble-bed) feel free to chime in, but I'm mostly interested in how it works now.

2.) In all this talk about alternative energy, I've always thought that geothermal has gotten short shrift. The planet is hot and it's going to stay that way for awhile and it seems more reliable than wind or solar. It seems like an easy no-brainer to push hard on geothermal. So I'm curious as to what the hold up is. Is it mostly politics? Is it just really hard figuring out how to drill deeply enough to set one up? Are there other reasons?

later
Tom

Comments

[trom.livejournal.com]

Well we looked at geothermal for our house (appx 1300sq ft) and all the estimates were in the 30-40K range and that would get the air to 55^F which is huge, but we'd still need some sort of additional mini-furnace on top of that. If/when it becomes more cost effective (most of the cost is drilling and installation of the ground loop), we'll reinvestigate it.

[bluegargantua]

This is more on an industrial-scale kinda deal where we hope to power neighborhoods and towns rather than individual homes. But an interesting data point.

later
Tom

[z-gryphon.livejournal.com]

To get enough heat to make enough steam to generate electricity on an industrial scale, you have to go unfeasibly deep in most places. There are exceptions - Iceland, for instance - but in, say, upstate New York it's not really workable right now.

[bluegargantua]

Yeah, that's what I thought, it's more a drilling/materials issue.

huh
Tom