Nuclear doesn't have much to do with oil - posted by Paul Dietz - 2004/4/10 23:10:29
Nuclear power won't do much to displace oil in the near term. Oil is mostly used (in the US) for transportation, not fixed power generation. It would be replaced by synfuels from coal or gas, and by conservation (notice all the market interest in hybrid drivetrains.)

- posted by Lorand Bruhacs - 2004/4/19 17:17:53
But you could use nuclear power to generate synthetic fuels such as methanol...

Carlo..Rubia.. - posted by John Evans E.E. - 2004/6/24 02:42:27
Rubbia's Nuclear plants and others can provide heat needed in gasoline production and refining and can reduce the use of oil and especially gas that are now used in power generation to produce liquid fuels for transportation. Coal, water or gas and Nuclear heat can easily produce liquid fuels for transportation. Electric cars are just as effective in traffic jams as are gasoline ones, and most trips people take can be done electrically. Micro hybrids with very small engines can supply emergency power for slightly over the range trips. Large quantities of oil are used in the U.S. to generate electricity, but even larger amounts of natural gas are used to generate electricity. It is relatively easy for current refineries to add a natural gas input to their refining stream to produce more gasoline. The high hydrogen content of the natural gas can be used to convert low hydrogen content heavy oils into liquid gasoline molecules of various types. Also natural gas can be converted to Methanol with a larger loss of the energy content. Natural gas can also be converted to toluene or ethanol. Ethanol offers the best properties of easy storage, low emissions, low spillage polution, and long driving range of most automobile fuels either it or methanol can be used in any fuel injected car with care in selecting pumps and pipes. Brazil has long required cars burning pure Ethanol which also can be produced at the expense of starving more people from corn, potatoes, and all other grains. Ethanol can also be produced from waste paper at some expense as can sugar. John Evans E.E. P.S. Bananas and all other good foods have always been radioacive, and are half as radioactive now as the were two billion years ago.