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Friday, June 15, 2012

Technology:

Geothermal Energy: Pros and Cons 
(Triple Pundit)

(Courtesy Eyeline-imagery:
Flickr Creative Commons)   
The core of the Earth, some 4,000 miles beneath its surface, is a fiery morass of superheated gas and molten rock which exists at roughly 7200 degrees Fahrenheit. That temperature is maintained by the decay of radioactive particles located within the Earth’s core. Technically, one could say that geothermal power is a form of nuclear power, though with far different implications from nuclear power as we know it, since these reactions occur in a containment vessel with walls thousands of miles thick. Even so, we still get things like uranium and radon gas, seeping up to the surface.