Nuclear Power at home?

[shovelingtom]

I heard about a South African company manufacturing basically the same thing, only a lot smaller back around 2000 or 2001. Their target buyer was the off grid billionaire or private island dweller. If I recall correctly they went out of business due to poor sales (just about every other option is cheaper for that market) and worries after the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.

I hope these guys have better luck!

[iiipopes]

Hmm. Seems to be the ultimate way to "go green" - environmentally aware and glowing at night!

[SRanney]

Nuclear power seems to be a siren song. "Clean" and long-lasting, it is offered as a solution to dirty coal-fired power plants and environmentally unfriendly hydropower dams. While I've been lured by it from time to time, I think that before we start putting reactors (even small ones) in every small town, we really need to figure out what to do with the waste. Burying it isn't going to make it go away; shooting it into space is just making it someone else's problem. Rather than think short-term energy independence, I'd prefer our country be a leader to the world and think sustainability and invest in long-term energy products that will be truly clean.

If engineers can make nuclear waste harmless, I'd be a proponent of building more reactors. Unfortunately, I don't think that's going to happen any time soon.

Steven

[MikeMason]

Dramatically huge amounts of fuel to get the stuff out of the atmosphere is the biggest problem I see.

[TMurphy]

Wade, didn't Superman IV teach you anything??? When you start tossing things like garbage and nuclear weapons into the sun, you get this:

[MikeMason]

How do you propose getting the garbage from the ground to the very high earth orbit.Gravity is a noncompromising bitch...(I've got first hand experience ).

[tubaguy9]

After reading the elephant's post, (I didn't quote it because it's too long) I wonder what we truly know about stars. For example, if we sent our garbage to the sun, along with nuclear waste, would a possible reaction happen in space? At the least, it would likely cause a nuclear reaction, since the sun is basically a constantly exploding H-bomb. Along with that, if that explosion went off near Mercury, would it destroy Mercury, and if so, would it throw off the gravitational pull that we have and end life as we know it?
I dunno. It's just an educated guess...Just my $.02 worth.

[Uncle Buck]

At the least, it would likely cause a nuclear reaction, since the sun is basically a constantly exploding H-bomb. Along with that, if that explosion went off near Mercury, would it destroy Mercury, and if so, would it throw off the gravitational pull that we have and end life as we know it?

[Todd S. Malicoate]

How do you propose getting the garbage from the ground to the very high earth orbit.Gravity is a noncompromising bitch...(I've got first hand experience ).

Tethers. Google MXER for more information. This technology is now being developed and may be practical in 10 years or so.

Getting a "garbage scow" into low earth orbit wouldn't be terribly difficult or require a huge amount of fuel. Present-day aircraft already get very near the altitude that would be necessary for a tether-assist to high orbit. Minimal thrusters would be required at that point to get a scow aimed toward the Sun for efficient, clean annihilation. The problem with this solution is volume...an aircraft can't be loaded with a lot of waste or tow a very large container into low orbit. Too many trips would be required to make a dent in the planet's waste.

A better idea for getting the trash to low orbit would be a processing station in geosynchronous low-Earth orbit attached to the earth by means of a tether. A large transport "donut" could be loaded with waste and use magnetism as a means of propulsion to pull the entire waste-filled donut up to the station. There, the donut is sucked clean, the waste is wrapped with a plastic shell, and the "waste ball" is ejected where it waits for pick-up to high orbit. Another station in high orbit catches the ball and redirects it toward the Sun with enough force to be sucked in by the Sun's gravitational pull. Simple.

...if we sent our garbage to the sun, along with nuclear waste, would a possible reaction happen in space? At the least, it would likely cause a nuclear reaction, since the sun is basically a constantly exploding H-bomb. Along with that, if that explosion went off near Mercury, would it destroy Mercury, and if so, would it throw off the gravitational pull that we have and end life as we know it?

No reaction of any significance would happen. Throwing waste into the Sun and worrying about a reaction is analogous to throwing a stone in the ocean on a beach and worrying about disrupting the tides. Any waste we shot into the Sun would not (even "at the least") cause a nuclear reaction...said waste would melt away easily within the upper chromosphere (temperatures as high as 10,000 Kelvin!) and couldn't possibly penetrate to the Sun's core, where nuclear fusion occurs. No explosion, no danger to Mercury (which is, by the way, 30-45 million miles away from the Sun), and no effect on the gravitational pulls of the solar system.

This is actually a very good idea, Wade...got any money we can pool for a start-up company, say in 2018 or so?

[SplatterTone]

I generally keep my nuclear waste at the back of the lot along with the air conditioner parts, empty freon bottles, waste motor oil, chlordane, dead animals, and, of course, the soylent green.

On a practical note, the nuclear material came out of the ground. I've never quite understood why it can't be put back into the ground.