Tesla Foul-Up Causes Global Shortage of Cylindrical Batteries

Yeah I was really just talking about Nuclear Reactors as they are now. I know Thorium improves so many things.

Chas said:
Actually the worst of it is the non-fuel waste. But that's a tiny percentage of the total production.
The spent fuel rods themselves are only mildly VERY radioactive. This is why they'll be radioactive for thousands of years.
You could, once it's thermally cooled off, hold a spent rod in your gloved hand with no ill effect.
The reason they're sealed in casks is actual CHEMICAL contamination.

There ARE other technologies out there (Liquid Fuel Thorium) that work on a different nuclear cycle. And most of the fuel waste they produce is REALLY radioactive, but VERY short-lived.

Also, by design, the reactor has a default state of "off". If you somehow get an uncontrolled reaction, lose power, whatever, the supercooled plug to the reactor vessel melts and boom. The fuel drains into a dump tank and away from the reaction mass. Fission stops.

And unlike solid fuel reactors, you keep "cooking" the fuel and leeching off the byproducts.

Also, when it comes time to decommission a reactor vessel, you disconnect it and pull the entire vessel out of a concrete pit. You could, conceivably, drop a new reactor vessel into place, hook it up and continue pumping out power.
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WorldExclusive said:
Well, soon they will understand that part manufacturing has to be outsourced. All the big car companies understand you can't do it all by yourself.
The moment they loosen their grip on in-house production, quality will increase and production times will decrease.

Tesla has to decide if they want to be a battery/power company or transportation company. They can only be efficient at one.
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This is a dead line of thinking, thank god.
 
c3k said:
One of the longest half-lives of any mineral is that of granite. Yes, it's radioactive and has a far longer half-live than, say, plutonium. "That which burns bright, burns fast," is applicable.

There is a lot of public misunderstanding about nuclear power. Chernobyl and Fukeshima have not helped. At some point, incompetent design and/or operation has to be recognized and corrected.
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Granite is radioactive, or elements frequently found in granite are radioactive?
 
Lizard Testes said:
Granite is radioactive, or elements frequently found in granite are radioactive?
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Granite itself isn't radioactive. But granite can contain radioactive elements. Most of the time the amount is so low it's not an issue. There can be decay to radon, but even an indifferently ventilated building won't ever experience a problem.

However, there are a couple exotic varieties of granite with much higher radiation levels (as they're probably situated near/in larger deposits of radioactive materials.
 
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