Is nuclear power organic?

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I'm wondering whether nuclear power is more or less organic than say, coal fired, gas fired, solar or hydro?

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Type: Discussion • Score: 8 • Views: 2,878 • Replies: 14

[+3] - DrewDad - 12/01/2009Define "organic". "Organic chemistry" generally means chemistry with hydrocarbons. In that sense, the answer is "no." Nuclear power has nothing to do with...
[+3] - dyslexia - 12/01/2009I mean "organic" the same way everyone else means "organic" a vague but nebulous term denoting nothing meaningful except on the price tag.
[+3] - engineer - 12/01/2009If it uses free range uranium, then you can count it, but if the fuel comes from a breeder reactor, then no way.

@dyslexia,

more or less organic
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@dyslexia,

Wouldn't burning off methane gas be technically the most organic form of energy production? Just askin'....

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@dyslexia,

Define "organic".

"Organic chemistry" generally means chemistry with hydrocarbons. In that sense, the answer is "no." Nuclear power has nothing to do with hydrocarbons.

If by "organic" you mean "green" or "good for the environment", then the answer is "it depends on your point of view". Do you prefer soot as your pollutant, or do you prefer to store nuclear waste indefinitely?

Nuclear power is dependable and safe, if that is what you are asking.

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@DrewDad,

I mean "organic" the same way everyone else means "organic" a vague but nebulous term denoting nothing meaningful except on the price tag.

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@dyslexia,

I'm too busy counting my carbon offsets.

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@dyslexia,

If it uses free range uranium, then you can count it, but if the fuel comes from a breeder reactor, then no way.

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@tsarstepan,

tsarstepan wrote:

Wouldn't burning off methane gas be technically the most organic form of energy production? Just askin'....

Brilliant! If the concern is greenhouse gases, methane is a much stronger greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. We could go from worse to merely bad, and methane is the primary constituant of natural gas. Let's put those cows to work.

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Yeah the chemical definition of "organic" is chemistry involving hydrocarbons. Nuclear power uses Uranium 238 of which about 5-7% of it is Uranium 235 so no it's not an organic process. If you're talking from an environmental point of view, nuclear power is by far the cleanest power available today. The amount of radioactive waste produced is tiny compared to the amount of energy you get from the process, for example, the energy obtained from producing about a large mug full of waste can power an average household for 400 years or so.

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@Tom-a-tom,

Not to comment, but coal plants happen to release far more radiation into the local environment then nuclear plants in the form of radon gas if memory serve me correctly.

Second, it is only because our politicians like to play games that we had not as yet open a long term national storage facility for nuclear waste as there is no safety or engineering problems stopping us from doing so.

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@BillRM,

This is very true, once again showing how good nuclear power really is Smile

I was very pleased to find out that we are about to start building some new nuclear power stations here in the UK! France currently gets about 75-78% of all it's power from nuclear power stations and I don't know if you've ever been there but if you do go, you'll notice how clean the air is... it's really something!

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@dyslexia,

dyslexia wrote:

I mean "organic" the same way everyone else means "organic" a vague but nebulous term denoting nothing meaningful except on the price tag.

That's not what it means to everyone else. The word organic refers to any substance containing carbon, and particularly to hydrocarbons. It can also refer to a substance which was once part of a living organism.

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@Brandon9000,

I'm guessing someone else in your family does the grocery shopping.

1 Reply

@DrewDad,

DrewDad wrote:

I'm guessing someone else in your family does the grocery shopping.

From the Wikipedia:

Quote:

An organic compound is any member of a large class of chemical compounds whose molecules contain carbon. For historical reasons discussed below, a few types of compounds such as carbonates, simple oxides of carbon and cyanides, as well as the allotropes of carbon, are considered inorganic. The division between "organic" and "inorganic" carbon compounds while "useful in organizing the vast subject of chemistry...is somewhat arbitrary".

at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_compound

and:

Quote:

Organic matter (or organic material) is matter that has come from a once-living organism; is capable of decay, or the product of decay; or is composed of organic compounds. The definition of organic matter varies upon the subject it is being used for.

at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_matter

I had said:

Brandon9000 wrote:

The word organic refers to any substance containing carbon, and particularly to hydrocarbons. It can also refer to a substance which was once part of a living organism.

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@Brandon9000,

Yes, but he didn't say "organic compound", did he?

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Is nuclear power organic?

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