Wyoming has a novel approach to keep their coal industry alive

[cubby]

Wind and Solar require minimal maintenance. Nowhere close to being able to absorb all those laid off workers.

Geothermal power plants do require roughly the same number of workers as coal power plants. The tricky part is that the State will need to come into agreement with the Federal government which owned half of the land in Wyoming. The parts which are ideal for geothermal plants.

Interestingly, NASA came up with a plan to prevent the Yellowstone Super Volcano from erupting, and a "side benefit" is providing geothermal energy. The two articles I've read don't give any timeline for the project, but it sure as hell is interesting. One person suggested that doing this will all 20 of the world's super volcanos would provide all the energy needed for the world.

Summary Article (not a great source, but easy to read)
Full article

[Lynarii]

ROFL - Link? Source? Data? Give us something...reminder - your word isn't a source, in case that was confusing.


(1)How long did we think those containers would last when they were built in 1945? Do you know?

(2)We do have room for more waste - you're lying again.

(3)Have there been any modern leaks from recently constructed short term storage locations?

Let us know when you're ready to provide information rather than your stream of conscious gaslighting. We all can't wait to see the 2 year plan on bringing geothermal power to Wyoming using Yellowstone.

Some notes on this. The leaking container is holding liquid uranium hexafluoride. This is one of the worst ways possible to store the waste for any length of time because (while it is a very useful material actually) it is extremely corrosive. Our nuclear waste plan is storing powerful acids in metal containers and wondering what could go wrong with this plan! We have the technology and capability to turn uranium hexafluoride into a MUCH more stable and easily stored uranium oxide form, and it'd cost probably about half a billion dollars to convert ALL of the DUF6 in the US to a significantly safer solid oxide.

That's right. For about 5% of what was spent on Trump's border wall, we could have taken a major step (and in fairness it is just a step, uranium oxide is safer to store, but we'd still have to actually do so) on the road to cleaning up the nuclear waste in the US. And we didn't, and we won't, because we dumb.

[cubby]

Some notes on this. The leaking container is holding liquid uranium hexafluoride. This is one of the worst ways possible to store the waste for any length of time because (while it is a very useful material actually) it is extremely corrosive. Our nuclear waste plan is storing powerful acids in metal containers and wondering what could go wrong with this plan! We have the technology and capability to turn uranium hexafluoride into a MUCH more stable and easily stored uranium oxide form, and it'd cost probably about half a billion dollars to convert ALL of the DUF6 in the US to a significantly safer solid oxide.

That's right. For about 5% of what was spent on Trump's border wall, we could have taken a major step (and in fairness it is just a step, uranium oxide is safer to store, but we'd still have to actually do so) on the road to cleaning up the nuclear waste in the US. And we didn't, and we won't, because we dumb.

Interesting. I figured whatever we came up with at the time we first discovered this material was probably improved upon. I love the chemistry behind changing dangerously corrosive and radioactive material into something easier to deal with.

[Theodarzna]

Wind is an option in term of clean energy. The problem is what to do with all those shuttered power plant and coal mine laid off workers.

A good mix of Nuclear and Geo will create either jobs directly at these places or jobs via the ecosystem that emerges around these jobs. So do both, but obviously Geo is kind of limited to one area of the state. Nuclear is also solid. Plus for other coal producing states that have little access to say an active caldera, its a good option.

[cubby]

A good mix of Nuclear and Geo will create either jobs directly at these places or jobs via the ecosystem that emerges around these jobs. So do both, but obviously Geo is kind of limited to one area of the state. Nuclear is also solid. Plus for other coal producing states that have little access to say an active caldera, its a good option.

Geo is almost out of the question, given the realities of how long it will to build, despite @Vegas82's perported 2-year plan (/snort!). Nuclear is as well. The real shift should be to wind and solar, even if that won't replace all the lost jobs. Let's be honest, not everyone coming out of coal will transition to Green anyway.

[Draco-Onis]

Geo is almost out of the question, given the realities of how long it will to build, despite @Vegas82's perported 2-year plan (/snort!). Nuclear is as well. The real shift should be to wind and solar, even if that won't replace all the lost jobs. Let's be honest, not everyone coming out of coal will transition to Green anyway.

I agree people are being short sighted by thinking they can stay in the same industry what this country is way past due needed is a federal on the job training program. Heck our entire shitty education systems needs to be redone but that's a longer conversation.

[cubby]

I agree people are being short sighted by thinking they can stay in the same industry what this country is way past due needed is a federal on the job training program. Heck our entire shitty education systems needs to be redone but that's a longer conversation.

Agreed - on all three points. The United States has so many resources that are just being pissed away by the boomer and gop asshats.

[Fugus]

If people really are going to go into hypothetical stuff, they really need to stop talking about "Storing the Nuclear Waste" as that is stupid to do now and even stupider to do in any hypothetical that is talked about if they are actually getting for any real improvement or goal of viability.

Scratch "Store the Nuclear Waste" and replace with "Recycle the Nuclear Waste".

Also, I believe this thread has been derailed onto this topic longer than it ever actually talked about Wyoming's screwed up idea....

[Felya]

I agree people are being short sighted by thinking they can stay in the same industry what this country is way past due needed is a federal on the job training program. Heck our entire shitty education systems needs to be redone but that's a longer conversation.

The sad truth is that we already had this conversation... we don’t need to do it again.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dewey