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   Nell Greenfieldboyce (nellgreenfieldboyce@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 30-Jun-2023 21:55:31 JST Nell Greenfieldboyce

   The photos of this nuclear-powered cruise ship from the 1960’s are wild—it is like a perfectly preserved time capsule, with atom-themed light fixtures and tableware. A small wooden cube illustrates the amount of uranium fuel needed to circumnavigate the globe over a dozen times.

   #nuclear #atom #cruise #energy

   https://www.npr.org/2023/06/23/1182973358/step-aboard-the-nuclear-powered-passenger-ship-of-tomorrow-from-1959

   • Embed this notice
     Polychrome :blabcat: (polychrome@poly.cybre.city)'s status on Friday, 30-Jun-2023 22:00:18 JST Polychrome :blabcat:

     in reply to

     • Bo Jacobs
     • Rich Stein (he/him)
     • Aglaia89 🏳️‍⚧️ :verified:
     @bojacobs @Aglaia89 @RichStein @nellgreenfieldboyce didn't they recently work out that you can safely store spent nuclear fuel by digging really deep below ground where future civilizations won't accidentally get to it without knowing what they're dealing with?
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     Bo Jacobs (bojacobs@hcommons.social)'s status on Friday, 30-Jun-2023 22:00:19 JST Bo Jacobs

     in reply to

     • Rich Stein (he/him)
     • Aglaia89 🏳️‍⚧️ :verified:

     @Aglaia89 @RichStein @nellgreenfieldboyce the dream may not be true but they are still selling it to get subsidies and support for SMRs

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     Aglaia89 🏳️‍⚧️ :verified: (aglaia89@norden.social)'s status on Friday, 30-Jun-2023 22:00:26 JST Aglaia89 🏳️‍⚧️ :verified:

     in reply to

     • Bo Jacobs
     • Rich Stein (he/him)

     @RichStein @bojacobs @nellgreenfieldboyce Back in the day, they dreamed of an endless fuel cycle.
     Recycling the uranium and Plutonium in nuclear reprocessing plants. Disposing only the high active waste and even this waste was planned to be processed to radiologic sources for medical and industrial use. But it has proven to be impossible without a huge ecological impact and release of radionuclides.

     This dream lived till the '80 of the last century. And there are still people think of this.

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     Bo Jacobs (bojacobs@hcommons.social)'s status on Friday, 30-Jun-2023 22:00:27 JST Bo Jacobs

     in reply to

     @nellgreenfieldboyce The only thing missing from the story, which is very good, is to include where the spent nuclear fuel is, and what the plan is to "contain" it for millennia. This will far outlive the ship and its design goodies.

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     Rich Stein (he/him) (richstein@econtwitter.net)'s status on Friday, 30-Jun-2023 22:00:27 JST Rich Stein (he/him)

     in reply to

     • Bo Jacobs

     @bojacobs @nellgreenfieldboyce
     Sixties began as an era of endless optimism. Were repositories for nuclear waste even considered? Seriously, there was so much positive futurism, were challenges recognized/considered?

     Fortunately, now, with the intervening decades of additional scientific research AND smart public policy analysis AND thoughtful legislation, we've solved the problem. 🙃