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Author
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Topic: Does Fallouts storyline seem "too real?"
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rad-x
Vault Citizen
Member # 86
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posted November 08, 2003 03:40
Coal reserves are estimated at their rate of use NOW, not the rate we will need in the future.To be honest, I have enough hope in our own human ingenuity that we will not run around killing each other. EDIT: Excuse me? Bad Arse Game? Fallout? [ November 08, 2003: Message edited by: rad-x ] -------------------- As I gaze up at the night sky in my own fair time, I look back down and see the devastation. This post-nuclear world. It's terrible. But at least we got Nuka-Cola, warm and flat, the drink of the post-apocalyptic civiliztion. Generation Next!
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Posts: 466 | From: Glasgow, Scotland | Registered: Nov 2002
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Slurrydevil
Vault Champion
Member # 11
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posted November 11, 2003 05:48
lol, i wouldnt exactly call what happened in Chernobyl negligible! Thousands of people were killed, more died over the years. Children are born deformed regularly and a massive area around the plant, including a whole city is uninhabitable. And even kilometres away they have to wash the streets twice a day every day to stop radioactive dust settling on everything. And people are still contracting leukemia, lung, brain and lymphatic cancers for no obvious reason apart from radioactive residue.
Ok im not saying coal power is better, it isnt, but Nuclear power is only effective if safetly protocol is obsessively observed. And if there were nuclear plants everywhere (more so than now) some of them would be poorly run and old, as chernobyl plant was. And it was only a SMALL plant.-------------------- What is new is always evil, being that which wants to conquer and overthrow the old boundary markers and the old pieties; and only what is old is good. The good men are in all ages those who dig the old thoughts, digging deep and getting them to bear fruit - the farmers of the spirit. But eventually all land is depleted, and the ploughshare of evil must come again and again. - Nietzsche
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Posts: 950 | From: Perth West Australia | Registered: Jun 2002
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Ratty
Wandering Champion
Member # 138
Member Rated:
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posted November 11, 2003 08:31
Eh, Chernobyl incident happened because of outdated technology, inadequate safety protocols and human error. Notice that an accident of such proportions never happened in highly developed western countries.Unfortunately, alternative power sources (solar, geothermal, hydro etc.) are useless. You see, most important aspect of every form of energy is its density. Hydroenergy has an extremely low density because it results from gravitational force, the weakest force in the universe. Solar energy also has low density, because most of the solar radiation that reaches Earth gets absorbed in the atmosphere or dissipated and turned into anergy (energy which can't be utilized) once it hits the environment. Geothermal energy can't be utilized because in order to drill close enough to Earth's core to absorb it, you would have to spend more energy than you would gain. Energy of nuclear fission, on the other hand, results from electromagnetic force, second strongest force in the universe. Nuclear energy is by far the densest type of energy known to humanity. For example, if you burn 1 kg of wood, you get 1 kWh of useable energy. By burning 1 kg of coal, you get 3 kWh of energy. Combusting 1 kg of oil will produce 4 kWh of energy. Now get this: a fission of 1 kg of plutonium produces 6 MILLION kWh of energy! And bear in mind that even energy you get from coal or oil is far more dense than energy you can gain from any of the "alternative" power sources! Because it takes so little radioactive fuel to produce huge quantities of energy, it's obvious that amount of hazardous waste produced by nuclear power plants is almost negligible when compared to waste produced by thermal power plants, and ecological damage caused by a nuclear plant is far lesser than damage caused by hydroplants (which destroy entire ecosystems by obstructing the river flow and creating accumulative lakes). Disposal of such waste shouldn't be a problem, it can always be dumped in isolated compounds or in the ocean (ocean can absorb huge levels of radiation) or launched into space. -------------------- Yesterday we obeyed kings and bent our necks before emperors.
But today we kneel only to truth, follow only beauty, and obey only love.
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Posts: 158 | Registered: Oct 2003
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Slurrydevil
Vault Champion
Member # 11
Member Rated:
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posted November 12, 2003 04:27
Yes yes but bear in mind that the western nations are a minority. If proliferation opf nuclear power plants occured there would be thousands of poorly run, outdated and dangerous plants, increasing the risk enormously.You are right about the power benefits of nuclear energy, thats why everybody was so excited about this great new source of energy in the 50's. But after a few accidents, people got complacent so most countries largely fell back on traditional sources such as coal and gas. But the other thing you gotta remember is that alternative power sources like solar can be set up so that each individual house generates its own power, unlike any other source. It may be inefficient for generating enough power for a grid but it is great used supplementally and on a small scale.
The biggest problem at the moment is probably cars however. At the moment very few people in populous nations such as China and India own cars, but as their standard of living and prosperity increases, they will all start buying more cars and suddenly there will be so many gasoline vehicles releasing carbon dioxide and many other goodies into the atmosphere we will be faced with chaos. Thats why hydrogen powered cars are so important. Nuclear power may be a good source of energy but uranium is no more renewable than coal or gas and there is much less of it. In the end we would still use it up, the best we would do is buy ourselves a couple of hundred years. To solve our pollution problems permanantly we need something efficient, powerful and renewable. At the moment there aren't really any alternative sources up to the job, but one day there will be. -------------------- What is new is always evil, being that which wants to conquer and overthrow the old boundary markers and the old pieties; and only what is old is good. The good men are in all ages those who dig the old thoughts, digging deep and getting them to bear fruit - the farmers of the spirit. But eventually all land is depleted, and the ploughshare of evil must come again and again. - Nietzsche
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Posts: 950 | From: Perth West Australia | Registered: Jun 2002
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Ratty
Wandering Champion
Member # 138
Member Rated:
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posted November 13, 2003 12:47
Errr, no. You see, 97.3% of uranium in the nature is U-238 and the rest is U-235, because throughout Earth's geological history U-235 constantly decayed into U-238. Only U-235 is active enough to fuel a nuclear chain reaction and release energy in the process. However, during the nuclear fission of U-235, U-238 turns into plutonium Pu-239, and plutonium has even better energetic properties than U-235! Obviously, amount of fuel for fission processes is virtually unlimited, and this is assuming we never utilize fusion reactions. Truth is, once we discover a way to control the process of nuclear fusion, humanity will never have to worry about energy again.Your are right about hydrogen-powered cars, though. I hate the idea of my car blowing up and releasing radiation in open road. "Can I borrow your car, dad? Mine had a nuclear meltdown."  -------------------- Yesterday we obeyed kings and bent our necks before emperors.
But today we kneel only to truth, follow only beauty, and obey only love.
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Posts: 158 | Registered: Oct 2003
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Danoth Dragon God
Wandering Hero
Member # 148
Member Rated:
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posted November 13, 2003 13:24
JESUS CHRISTE!!! YOU PEOPLE WRITE A LOT!!! I truth there are many things that are alternative to nuclear, oil and coal powers, such as hydro electric, which will never run out, Solar, which unless we really screw up the atmosphere will never run out, Geo thermal which will not run out for hundreds of years. Also, Fallouts main appeal is the possability for it to happen. In fact, ever since playing Fallout i have been assembeling a group to survive post nuclear wars. We will thrive in the wastelands!!!! For more info on this email me!-------------------- HAHAHAHA! Your lord of chaos has come, feel my wrath and tremble!!! For the Earth will burn with a fiery light and be purifyed and the corruption of the light will be cleansed with darkness
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Posts: 259 | From: Windsor, CA | Registered: Nov 2003
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rad-x
Vault Citizen
Member # 86
Member Rated:
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posted November 24, 2003 14:26
Futurama is brilliant. Got Season One Box Set...But anyway, they actually recycle their garbage as food... not a bad idea when you compare it to Abe's Oddysee.  As for cars, did anyone see the Lexus in Minority Report? That would work for me. As for fuel however, well I'm not sure. It would be good to use water. That would be brilliant. -------------------- As I gaze up at the night sky in my own fair time, I look back down and see the devastation. This post-nuclear world. It's terrible. But at least we got Nuka-Cola, warm and flat, the drink of the post-apocalyptic civiliztion. Generation Next!
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Posts: 466 | From: Glasgow, Scotland | Registered: Nov 2002
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posted November 08, 2003 11:35
![[Cool]](graemlins/icon20.gif)
