Who will rule with Mutti

[Khendraja'aro]

Everyone knows that's the reason nuclear energy is going to stop being used in Germany. And not because of the threat of a massive earthquake and tsunami.

Actually, it is at least part of the reason. My parents live 10 km from a "intermediary" storage site where the government has received quite a bit of flak due to the fact that this former salt mine is unstable and they knew about it.

So, now there's a 30 years operation in progress to get this stuff out before it poisons the ground water.

And of course there's the Wendland and the perpetual protests against the Castor transports - another "intermediary" storage site.

Not to mention the fact that the search for a "final" storage site is quite a bit of a hot potatoe going around on the federal level - absolutely no one wants to be the guy who has to say to his voters that he gave the green light for such a site in their district.

There's quite a bit of politics going on that you don't know about, Loki, so don't try to be a smartass when you have only half the facts, my dear.

[Dreadnaught]

In Europe we only worry about tsunamis of muslims!

Actually, it is at least part of the reason. My parents live 10 km from a "intermediary" storage site where the government has received quite a bit of flak due to the fact that this former salt mine is unstable and they knew about it.

So, now there's a 30 years operation in progress to get this stuff out before it poisons the ground water.

And of course there's the Wendland and the perpetual protests against the Castor transports - another "intermediary" storage site.

Not to mention the fact that the search for a "final" storage site is quite a bit of a hot potatoe going around on the federal level - absolutely no one wants to be the guy who has to say to his voters that he gave the green light for such a site in their district.

There's quite a bit of politics going on that you don't know about, Loki, so don't try to be a smartass when you have only half the facts, my dear.

It seems a bit silly to complain that there's no way to store the material when there are protests over the mere transport of spent fissile material to storage sites.

We have the same problems in the US, and we have enormous deserts and mountains to bury this stuff in! It's a sign of immaturity and short-sightedness among our (and your) environmentalists.

[Flixy]

Even in the USA you've got no really viable long term solution though. Just the fact that you have big mountains and deserts doesn't mean the place is suitable - it really is nasty stuff.

[Khendraja'aro]

We have the same problems in the US, and we have enormous deserts and mountains to bury this stuff in! It's a sign of immaturity and short-sightedness among our (and your) environmentalists.

Right. And you're absolutely certain that those areas are stable? Please remember, we're talking about geologically non-negligible timespans here. Some of that stuff has half-lives that are measured in hundreds of thousands of years.

I mean, there's a lot of stuff we still don't know about the Earth. Up till some years ago, they thought that salt mines were the shit regarding long-time storage of radioactive stuff.

And suddenly there's water creeping in from somewhere and they don't know why and from where. And where that water goes.

Are you absolutely certain that your precious mountains and deserts are that stable? Please remember, we're talking about millions of years before you can safely approach those isotopes.

[GGT]

So? Which solution did you come up with in the meantime to deal with the waste? Keep in mind, your solution either has to get rid of the waste in a safe manner or be able to contain it for several millenia.

What makes you think America gives a shit about anything long-term? We have mountains and deserts, millions of acres of land to waste use. And we have tons of carbon fossil fuels just waiting to be exploited extracted. You can't expect an Exceptional Nation like the US, with our vast land mass and economic clout, to consider smaller or land-locked nations as anything but importers of energy -- and potential buyers of whatever we're selling, now can you?

[Hazir]

Any white smoke yet? I think it's going to be a grand coalition again?

[earthJoker]

I think the biggest news this week was that the CDU-Green coalition isn't out of the race yet. But maybe they are just used to keep up the pressure to the SPD.

[Wraith]

So? Which solution did you come up with in the meantime to deal with the waste? Keep in mind, your solution either has to get rid of the waste in a safe manner or be able to contain it for several millenia.

I think we had a pretty damn good solution. Unfortunately, legislators decided they preferred irrational philosophical objections to safe permanent nuclear storage.

Right. And you're absolutely certain that those areas are stable? Please remember, we're talking about geologically non-negligible timespans here. Some of that stuff has half-lives that are measured in hundreds of thousands of years.

Yucca Mountain was planned out for the next million years. It's often been called the most studied piece of real estate in the world. Experts are as certain as they could possibly be that it's stable and safe.

[Dreadnaught]

Even in the USA you've got no really viable long term solution though. Just the fact that you have big mountains and deserts doesn't mean the place is suitable - it really is nasty stuff.

Right. And you're absolutely certain that those areas are stable? Please remember, we're talking about geologically non-negligible timespans here. Some of that stuff has half-lives that are measured in hundreds of thousands of years.

I mean, there's a lot of stuff we still don't know about the Earth. Up till some years ago, they thought that salt mines were the shit regarding long-time storage of radioactive stuff.

And suddenly there's water creeping in from somewhere and they don't know why and from where. And where that water goes.

Are you absolutely certain that your precious mountains and deserts are that stable? Please remember, we're talking about millions of years before you can safely approach those isotopes.

Our solution is viable, just being held up by silly regional politics. I candidly prefer burying the waste under a mountain to increasing amounts of carbon and methane being released in the atmosphere.

[Khendraja'aro]

I'm not really convinced that simply burying the stuff is a good idea.

Not to mention that the footprint of nuclear fuel isn't all that great - uranium mines are pretty nasty places to be.