Asteroid Miner’s Recent Comments

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  #1 source of CO2 is COAL fired power plants

  How do coal fired power plants get ahead of transportation [cars
  and other vehicles] in carbon emissions?   Gasoline, diesel fuel,
  etc. are half hydrogen.   For example, octane is C8H18.   To figure
  out what fraction of  the energy is from burning the carbon, you
  have to look up the heat of formation of carbon dioxide and the
  heat of formation of water.   It takes 1 carbon to make one CO2,
  but it takes 2 hydrogens to make 1 H2O.   You can do the
  arithmetic and apportion the energy between the carbon and the
  hydrogen.   You have to subtract the energy required to break
  down the octane into atoms.   It is easier to remove the hydrogens
  than it is to separate the carbons, so the energy subtracted gets
  apportioned too.  
     Coal is almost pure carbon, except for the URANIUM,
  ARSENIC, LEAD, MERCURY, Antimony, Cobalt, Nickel,
  Copper, Selenium, Barium, Fluorine, Silver, Beryllium, Iron,
  Sulfur, Boron, Titanium, Cadmium, Magnesium, Calcium,
  Manganese, Vanadium, Chlorine, Aluminum, Chromium,
  Molybdenum and Zinc that are coal's impurities.   Even though
  transportation uses more energy, coal fired power plants put more
  CO2 into the air.

     Transportation isn't even the second largest CO2 emitter.  
  Industrial processes are.   The largest CO2 emitter of the industrial
  processes is concrete making even though the energy used is less.  
  The first step in concrete making is heating limestone [calcium
  carbonate] to drive off the carbon dioxide to make calcium oxide.  
  Coal is burned to make the heat, but the limestone is the greater
  source of CO2.   Other industrial processes include steel making,
  metal casting, etc.

     The easiest way to make the biggest reduction in CO2 emissions
  is to convert all coal fired power plants to nuclear.   So get over
  your paranoid fears of all things nuclear and get it done.On Researchers find corn ethanol, switchgrass could worsen global warming posted 1 year, 9 months ago 111 Responses

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  Extinction of Homo Sapiens

  October 2006 Scientific American

  "EARTH SCIENCE
  Impact from the Deep
  Strangling heat and gases emanating from the earth and sea, not
  asteroids, most likely caused several ancient mass extinctions.
  Could the same killer-greenhouse conditions build once again?
  By Peter D. Ward
  downloaded from:
  http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=00037A5D-A938- ...
  ....................Most of the article omitted......................
  But with atmospheric carbon climbing at an annual rate of 2 ppm
  and expected to accelerate to 3 ppm, levels could approach 900
  ppm by the end of the next century, and conditions that bring
  about the beginnings of ocean anoxia may be in place.   How soon
  after that could there be a new greenhouse extinction?   That is
  something our society should never find out."

  Press Release
  Pennsylvania State University
  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
  Monday, Nov. 3, 2003
  downloaded from:
  http://www.geosociety.org/meetings/2003/prPennStateKump.h ...
  "In the end-Permian, as the levels of atmospheric oxygen fell and
  the levels of hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide rose, the upper
  levels of the oceans could have become rich in hydrogen sulfide
  catastrophically. This would kill most of the oceanic plants and
  animals. The hydrogen sulfide dispersing in the atmosphere would
  kill most terrestrial life."   That extinction would include humans.

  www.astrobio.net is a NASA web zine.   See:

  http://www.astrobio.net/news/modules.php?op=modload&n ...

  http://www.astrobio.net/news/modules.php?op=modload&n ...

  http://www.astrobio.net/news/article2509.html

  http://astrobio.net/news/modules.php?op=modload&name= ...

  These articles agree with the first 2.   They all say 6 degrees C or
  1000 parts per million CO2 is the extinction point.   The human race goes extinct.

  The global warming is already 1 degree Farenheit.   11 degrees
  Farenheit is about 6 degrees Celsius.   The book "Six Degrees" by
  Mark Lynas agrees.   If the global warming is 6 degrees
  centigrade, we humans go extinct.   See:
  http://www.marklynas.org/2007/4/23/six-steps-to-hell-summ ...On Edwards puts the coal issue into the Dem debate posted 1 year, 10 months ago 20 Responses

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  Coal contains URANIUM

     Reference:
  OUR NUCLEAR FUTURE:
  THE PATH OF SELECTIVE IGNORANCE
  by Alex Gabbard
  Oak Ridge National Laboratory
  Oak Ridge, TN
  Selections from the 19th Annual Conference
  SOUTHERN FUTURE SOCIETY
  March 14,15,16, 1996
  Nashville, Tennessee

  Published by the
  SOUTHERN FUTURE SOCIETY
  1996
  Edited by Jack D. Arters, Ed.D.
  Conference Director
  The truth is, all natural rocks contain most natural elements.   Coal
  is a rock.   The average concentration of uranium in coal is 1 or 2
  parts per million.   Illinois coal contains up to 103 parts per
  million uranium.   A 1000 million watt coal fired power plant
  burns 4 million tons of coal each year.   If you multiply 4 million
  tons by 1 part per million, you get 4 tons of uranium.   Most of
  that is U238.   About .7% is U235.   4 tons = 8000 pounds.   8000
  pounds times .7% = 56 pounds of U235.   An average 1 billion
  watt coal fired power plant puts out 56 to 112 pounds of U235
  every year.   There are only 2 places the uranium can go: Up the
  stack or into the cinders.   Since a reactor full fuel load is around
  11 tons of 2% U235 and 98% U238, and one load lasts about 10
  years, and what one coal fired power plant puts into the air and
  cinders fully fuels a nuclear power plant.
  Compare 4 Million tons per year with 1.1 tons per year.   1.1
  divided by 4 Million = 2.75 E -7 = .000000275 =.0000275%.  
  Remember that only 2% of that is U235.   The nuclear power
  plant needs ~44 pounds of U235 per year.   The coal fired power
  plant burns coal by the trainload.   The nuclear power plant
  consumes U235 in such small quantities yearly that you could
  carry that much weight in a briefcase.
     U238 can be bred into Plutonium and Thorium can be bred into
  Uranium.   We can fuel our nuclear power plants for
  CENTURIES just by extracting uranium and thorium from coal
  cinders and smoke.

     Coal is almost pure carbon, except for the URANIUM,
  ARSENIC, LEAD, MERCURY, Antimony, Cobalt, Nickel,
  Copper, Selenium, Barium, Fluorine, Silver, Beryllium, Iron,
  Sulfur, Boron, Titanium, Cadmium, Magnesium, Calcium,
  Manganese, Vanadium, Chlorine, Aluminum, Chromium,
  Molybdenum and Zinc that are coal's impurities.   Coal smoke and
  cinders are commercially viable ORE for the above elements.

  Chinese industrial grade coal is sometimes stolen by peasants for
  cooking.   The result is that the whole family dies of arsenic
  poisoning because Chinese industrial grade coal contains large
  amounts of arsenic.  Coal varies a lot.   You have to analyze it not
  only mine by mine but even lump by lump.
  On Edwards puts the coal issue into the Dem debate posted 1 year, 10 months ago 20 Responses

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  CO2 Sequestration Worse than Yucca Mountain

  Al Gore's Live Earth Pledge has a fatal flaw: "the capacity
  to safely trap and store the CO2."   There is no safe way to
  confine trillions of tons of CO2 at high pressure for ever.  
  For Ever is a lot longer than the 100000 years that people
  want nuclear "waste" to be stored.   The CO2 WILL
  leak out and suffocate millions of people.   CO2 is denser
  than air and displaces air at ground level.   CO2 has caused
  suffocation in Africa.   See:
  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/1155057.stm    

  "Cameroon's 'killer lake' degassed"
  "More than 1,700 people died after deadly gases spewed
  from Lake Nyos 15 years ago. "
  "In August 1986, the lake released a cloud of carbon
  dioxide which hugged the ground and flowed down
  surrounding valleys to suffocate thousands of local villagers
  and animals.

  The rare phenomenon also occurred at Lake Monoun in the
  same volcanic zone two years earlier killing 34 people. "

  The CO2 storage facilities proposed by Al Gore, besides
  being prone to leak, will be a target for terrorists.      A
  terrorist has only to cause a leak to kill more people than a
  nuclear bomb would.   Leaks are very easy to cause in high
  pressure containers.   CO2 storage is a silent disaster
  waiting to happen.      

  The pledge Should read: "I will learn enough about nuclear
  physics so that I will no longer be paranoid about nuclear
  power.   I will advocate the replacement of coal fired power
  plants with the newest nuclear power plant designs."

      I [Asteroid Miner] have no financial or other interest in
  nuclear power and no connection with the nuclear power
  industry.

  It is HOT CO2 that goes up smolestacks.   Being hot it is
  less dense so it goes up and disperses.   Stored CO2 is cool.  
  A gas gets colder as it leaks out from high pressure to low
  pressure.   That is the secret of air conditioning.   CO2 at
  the same temperature as air is denser than air because CO2
  is a heavier molecule than N2 or O2.   The cold CO2 will
  stick to the ground and suffocate people and other animals.  
  No other gas is required to explain the deaths in Cameroon.  
  Here in the US, more CO2 will leak out into areas with
  more people, so the death toll could be in the millions.On Edwards puts the coal issue into the Dem debate posted 1 year, 10 months ago 20 Responses

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  Recycle nuclear fuel

  Yucca Mountain contains an enormous supply of nuclear fuel that
  should not be wasted.
  We don't recycle nuclear fuel because spent fuel is valuable and
  people steal it.   The place it went that it wasn't supposed to go to
  is Israel.   This happened in a small town near Pittsburgh, PA circa
  1970.   A company called Numec was in the business of
  reprocessing nuclear fuel.   I almost took a job there, designing a
  nuclear battery for a heart pacemaker.   [A nuclear battery would
  have the advantage of lasting many times as long as any other
  battery, eliminating many surgeries to replace batteries.]   Numec
  did NOT have a reactor.   Numec "lost" half a ton of enriched
  uranium.   It wound up in Israel.   The Israelis have fueled both
  their nuclear power plants and their nuclear weapons by stealing
  nuclear "waste."   It could work for any other country, such as Iran
  or the United States.   It is only when you don't have access to
  nuclear "waste" that you have to do the difficult process of
  enriching uranium, unless you have a Canadian "CANDU"
  reactor or a British Magnox reactor, both of which run on
  unenriched uranium.  
  Numec is no longer in business.   The reprocessing of nuclear fuel
  in the US stopped.   That was the only politically possible solution
  at that time, given that private corporations did the reprocessing.  
  My solution would be to reprocess the fuel at a Government
  Owned Government Operated [GOGO] facility.   At a GOGO
  plant, bureaucracy and the multiplicity of ethnicity and religion
  would disable the transportation of uranium to Israel or to any
  unauthorized place.   Nothing heavier than a secret would get out.On Edwards puts the coal issue into the Dem debate posted 1 year, 10 months ago 20 Responses