G'day all, nothing like a good debate, I hear no argument, DULL, but I do detect a lack of thought on your part in the whole subject of what you are investing in.
Expanding your logic that JB, Areva, Cameco know how to handle it, then does that mean we should hand licensing of pokies to Tatts, or liquor laws to Fosters, how about forgetting to scrutinize drug trials in favour of a belief in the honesty of Glaxo or Pfizer?
It's always the "real experts", especally in science, that can do the most damage DULL, amateurs don't come close in destructive potential.
Oh, and why don't you leave your investing to a "real expert"? Why resign thought and questioning just because its science?
Parmenio, the French sure are working hard on the compaction issue, they have more waste than all but the USSR & USA and nowhere near as big a country to dump it in (don't forget no one so far wants anyone else's waste).
You have to be quite careful what you understand when you read words like "Burnup" or "incineration" in connection to rad waste management. These words are used with very special meanings in the nuclear industry. If you really want to know where French rad waste treatment is at, try googling "Dossier 2005 Argile" or "Andra" or have a mooch around hear,
http://www.nea.fr/html/pub/ret.cgi?div=RWM
Like headbanger said only thing viable (still potentially mind you), is deep geo repositories like Yukka Mt, not commissioned yet...lots of grumbling whether the Mountain is really very stable after all, French and rest of OECD all in same boat, got waste, not sure where to put it!
headbanger,
"The pace of technological development is so rapid that I don't think it will be long before a better method emerges",...
Been thinking a similar thing about cancer treatment....which ones going to come first silver bullet for cancer or radioactive waste? I still wouldn't recommend getting cancer, no matter how optimistic the chances of a cure sometime in the future. Its the bird in the hand that counts. Precautionary Principle is as valid a planning criteria as inter-generational equity.
The technology you spoke of (spallation with high energy beam, usually neutrons to create shorter lived isotopes, is being thought about, they BEGAN thinking about it in the late 30's early 40's and aren't that much further advanced in thinking today. Now CERN's new accelerator is up and running, they'll have some higher energy beams to play with to obtain the data they need to progress the models. Still very much models at this point, very little practical happening. You might like to read this though
Its a bit heavy, but, you may pick up a tip for a commodity that could explode in demand and price,....begins with T. At least do a bit of research on it and keep your ears open. Uni of Sydney doing some work on it. Think sea container sized reactors, very little rad waste, churning out unlimited desalinated sea water all around the coast.
The cost of overcoming earths gravity for a kg of mass is enormous, 10's of thousands of dollars per kilo. We are generating thousands of tonnes of rad waste per year right now. Who's gonna pick up the tab for sending it out past Lagrangian, thats the point ;-). Unless we invent a new revolutionary propulsion system; but that doesn't sound like we are getting closer to conquering the mountain of toxic and radioactive waste, does it?
Fusion, works great in the sun; containing the plasma in a torus or Tokamak at 100 million kelvin on earth, on the banks of the Thames whilst deriving more energy out than you put in, priceless.
Its not a panacea. The fusion process will also generate lots of radioactive waste,...the whole fusion reactor vessel for starter or didn't the silly journalist tell you that when he harped on about the wonders of fusion.
Who's going to get the rights for the first Helium 3 mine on the moon. Cos there sure ain't enough on earth for a fusion industry, and what sources we do have are in the USA. Perhaps they will be able to rebirth the Yank empire after all on the back of heavy Helium! Nah, haven't got enough of the stuff, they're doomed but gonna be dangerous for many many years with all those nukes!!! Bit like the Ruskies used to be, broke but deadly dangerous. Only the yanks don't have the oil or gas resources to pull them back from the abyss. Bill Gates, Steve Jobs mark twos will soon be coming from and staying in Chindia so no hope there.
Can you imagine a BHPRIOCVRD Pty Ltd Lunar Mining Division. Mind boggles!
Anyway, this place is good for a general over view of good and evil. http://technology.newscientist.com/channel/tech/nuclear
When we can do something the humble Daisey can do, convert photonic energy into the potential energy of chemical bonds in large molecules, building from bottom up, then our immediately pressing problems will have been solved.
And if we get bored mimicking photosynthesis, there are a whole host of prokaryotes with weird and wonderful energy systems we could try and copy. Bio-mimickery its the only sensible solution really. Until we get really really smart that is.
I rate blind design derived from the ultimate resource - evolution, the necessity for continuous existence,and the successful practice of those necessities, learnt over 3.8 billion years of sun up, sun down experiment time.
In our arrogance we think we can come up with alternative systems of subsistance, instead of just fitting in and copying systems honed to perfection. We are simply delusional. Lets master the fundamental basics of life first, then we can choose if we need the hard arse engineering or whether it just looks crude and unnecessary.
We need to get everything going around in a circle, like nature. There is no such thing as waste, waste in nature is called a resource by something else every time. Know thats smart!!!
Life creates conditions conducesive to support further life. We haven't quite worked that out at a meaningful level, though the glimmer of dawns early light is starting to weep in.
Check out Janine Benyus, or see her here
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/18
Shes absolutely ace, and right on the money.
Have a thoughtful weekend all.
Yanks & DOW are well up overnight. Metals Down, BHP NYSE slightly up, FTSE up, BLT and Rio down in london. Must be thinking overbought with metal down. Pdn down on .TO, Monday open + -, whos cares long as we are all still here.
DULL little secret I'm a JB fan really, thats why he's got a bit of my piggy bank.
PDN Price at posting:
0.0¢ Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held
(20min delay)