Hi Roy! :-)

 RJT> I'm all for that (also was moderator of "HOMEPOWER" echo before I 
 RJT> let it lapse :-),  but hydro is pretty limited in terms of possible 
 RJT> sites,  and solar is only really effective in semitropical to 
 RJT> tropical areas,  not so much further north.
Yes, that's a problem, although it is still possible to use solar power in
northern areas. Not as the main supply, obviously. What could be possible
would be to use solar power (where it's effective) to produce hydrogenium
from water and then ship that elsewhere for use in fuel cells. Pretty old
idea, would require some infrastructure to be in place.

 RJT> I suspect wind needs better sites too,  at least to some extent.
We have quite a lot of that here, in northern Germany.

 RJT> And the real problem with most of this stuff is the initial
 RJT> investment, so "encourage" all too often means
"subsidize" because
 RJT> they don't make a whole lot of economic sense at the present time.
Yes, but it makes sense to do so from both a security (hey, a nuclear plant
is even a "nice" target for a terrorist attack) and an ecological
point of view. I personally wouldn't mind paying a few extra bucks. Most of
the people around here probably wouldn't like the idea too much, though.

 RJT> That's the single biggest problem I have with nukes,  and it's lots 
 RJT> longer than hundreds of years,  though the hotter stuff is 
 RJT> relatively short-lived.
Yep, and there's no good solution yet. You can't even fire it into the sun
because you don't want to risk the rocket failing and waste material
getting dumped all over the place.

 RJT> Civilization is one,  and it's actually been considered what sort of 
 RJT> steps might be taken to ensure the integrity of storage if 
 RJT> civilization were to fall.
I somehow suspect those steps are expensive, expensive enough so that
they're not taken.

 RJT> It's not the fuel supply as much as the byproducts that concern me.
Agreed.

 RJT> This is true,  though they probably got a good deal more expensive 
 RJT> in the process.
Yeah, likely, though there are (in Germany) huge fines that the owner of
the plant would have to pay if his facility were to produce more air
pollution than allowed by government regulations - huge enough so that
buying and installing the necessary air filter technology makes sense
economically, too.

Ciao
Pascal

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