More Rain = Worst drought

[Solly]

The global-warming led drought in the (south-east) UK has been replaced by a glut of rain-bearing mild south-westerly winds, brought to you by global warming.

[azzaman333]

Global Warming my ass, its that bastard El Nino screwing us over.

[Berzerker]

when will el nino become SOP for the environment? I understand an el nino occurs when water in the e pacific near the equator is slightly warmer, what happens when we get slightly warmer? Constant el nino conditions or do warmer conditions elsewhere counter el nino?

[Berzerker]

for the record, we here in the plains states like el nino

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Traianvs


Currently our dependency world wide on nuclear plants is very low, percentagewise I mean. If we were to rely more on nuclear plants we'd have to build thousands more, and uranium will consequently be depleted soon enough just like oil resources will be in the next century or so.

Even if we, wrongly, assume that uranium is the only fissile material we could use then our reserves of uranium are virtually unlimited. If we both to recycle then the amount of uranium out there would last us virtually forever.

[Traianvs]

Originally posted by Oerdin


Even if we, wrongly, assume that uranium is the only fissile material we could use then our reserves of uranium are virtually unlimited. If we both to recycle then the amount of uranium out there would last us virtually forever.

If that were really the case, then I don't see why that aspect is never put forward in the debate (I assume anti-climate change activists to adress that advantage, but it's hardly ever being told).

Don't know that much about it, that's why I think this issue is really something that should be decided by scientific experts on the matter

[Solly]

Originally posted by Berzerker
for the record, we here in the plains states like el nino

if it's what's causing our endless wind and rain over the last 6 weeks, I like it too.

[Straybow]

Originally posted by Traianvs
What exactly are U238 breeders? In layman's terms

As described above, they convert U238 into Pu239. They do this by exposing the U238 to neutron radiation with the proper energy characteristics. U238 absorbs a neutron, emits an electron, and becomes Pu239.

Uranium naturally occurs as 99.3% U238 and 0.7% U235. Only U235 is useful in reactors and weapons. We must separate the U235 to a high concentration for reactor fuel. The byproduct is "depleted uranium" (almost pure U238).

For every ton of reactor fuel made and used in the last 50 years we have nearly 100 tons of depleted uranium left over.

[Hmmm, looks like I need to fix my earlier post...]

[Dinner]

That's why breeder reactors are so useful. They take that U238 and turn it into something we can reburn in our regular reactors.

[Zkribbler]

Q: Isn't U238 what is currently being used the the gattling cannons of the A-10 Warthogs to put the "armor piercing" in their armor-piercing shells?

[Provost Harrison]

The very stuff

[Straybow]

It puts the pyrokinetic explosive in the armor piercing shells. It burns like magnesium, which is why there's so much fear about uranium dust in the combat areas.

The Bradley's 25mm cannon doesn't have enough KE to have that effect, but the GAU-8 and the Abrams do.

[trev]

A long detour from a rain and drought thread

[Solly]

Originally posted by trev
A long detour from a rain and drought thread

Very!

[trev]

After the detour, the trolling begins.