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2008-08-20 Iraq

Iraq signs CTBT - now when will Iran sign?

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Posted by 3dc 2008-08-20 09:30|| || Front Page|| [1 views ] Top

#1 When will we?

Posted by bigjim-ky 2008-08-20 11:18|| 2008-08-20 11:18|| Front Page Top

#2 Something the US could do for Iraq that would be safe, relatively inexpensive, and very useful, would be to build them half a dozen pebble bed reactors.

Pebble bed reactors have nuclear fuel in hard ceramic balls at a fixed distance from each other. The fuel cannot be reprocessed to make weapons grade fuel, and it has no appreciable waste other than the balls themselves, when depleted.

It doesn't use water, instead inert gas turns the turbines directly, that does not itself become radioactive, in case there is a breach of the reactor. It produces a fixed amount of electricity for a known number of years. It takes a much smaller amount of land than a conventional reactor.

When depleted, the balls are dumped down a deep vertical shaft beneath the reactor, and new balls are put in their place.

Even if the high tension lines taking the electricity away from the plant are knocked down, the electricity produced by the generators is just grounded in large heat sinks and harmlessly dissipated.

A half dozen such plants would provide perhaps half the energy needs of Iraq for the next 20 years, giving them plenty of time to augment, or even replace their petroleum based energy production.

Posted by Anonymoose 2008-08-20 11:35|| 2008-08-20 11:35|| Front Page Top

#3 Anonymoose
We could build ourselves a few.

Posted by 3dc 2008-08-20 13:42|| 2008-08-20 13:42|| Front Page Top

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