Fun Stuff > CHATTER
the Chevy Volt (and other "plug-in" cars)
Vendetagainst:
Yellowcaking!
nobo:
In some ways it has. However, the area has been mostly reclaimed by nature. And animals that were long gone to the area have begun to flourish because of the absence of people. The fallout decayed before it could reach groundwater. I think its a place that will eventually return back to normal. Its a shame this happened in the U.S.S.R where people were expendable.
Vendetagainst:
Enormous amounts of radioactive "lava" still remain buried beneath the plant though, with no way of removing them and no idea on how long they will remain contained.
est:
The area being "reclaimed by nature" doesn't really mean much. Nature is fucking stupid. Animals will go back into a radioactive zone but that doesn't mean it's safe to do so. And it becoming usable again some day doesn't change that the area's been unusable for over 20 years and killed a bunch of people.
Also, electric/hybrid cars are a pretty cool idea but what are we going to beef up our electricity infrastructure with once everyone is charging their cars every night? Aren't most plants coal or oil burning anyway?
ViolentDove:
--- Quote from: KvP on 11 Aug 2008, 17:27 ---Or maybe it's all smoke, like this guy assumes. There are a lot of maybes with this. The kind of lithium-ion batteries needed to run these cars are thoroughly untested and pretty much entirely theoretical at this point. They don't know how long they'll last. They don't know how much they'll cost. They're being invented at the same time the car is being developed. Toyota's on record as saying they don't think it can be done.
--- End quote ---
Apparently existing hybrid cars can be converted to plug-in, without the need for more advanced batteries. Here is an article describing the process.
However!
As pointed out already, you'd need a source of electricity other than coal, otherwise it's not really solving much.
I'm of the opinion that biodiesel is the way to go. Biodiesel allows current diesel model cars to be used with very small conversion costs (i think it's a few new filters, and that's about it), rather than buying a whole new car. The algal bio-reactors thing was brought up here recently, and I still think it's got a lot of potential. Firstly, the algal cultures can be used to recycle CO2 emissions from power plants and such, and secondly, oils can be extracted from the algae, with yields a factor of ten over current oil and ethanol crops. And, because it's cutured in closed tanks on industrial land, you're not competing with food crops for space on fertile land.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version