Carnival of Space week 53 is up at spacecynic
Colony Worlds talks about whether Mercury is better than Mars for colonization
Centauri Dreams talks about life propogating through the interstellar space via microbes.
There are several other articles at the carnival of Space week 53 is up at spacecynic
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Energy plant life is typically about 40-60 years.
So spending $400-1200 million on the lower for the natural gas options. would save about 26,000 people over 40 years. About $26,000-77000 per person.
For the 2.4 billion option of a new nuclear plant it would be 150,000 per person.
This does not include offsetting the costs with any carbon tax savings or from reduced people getting sick and the medical costs. It does not count less pollution (like acid rain) for less property and agriculture crop damage.
I believe that getting rid of air and water pollution (the mercury and arsenic etc…) pays for itself from reduced business costs from people being out sick or in hospital.
Coal plants also use over 1 million tons of coal each per year. This costs a fair bit of oil to move by rail and puts wear and tear and the rail which must get maintained.
So I think there is positive returns from eliminating coal usage. (medical and business savings)
What is the capital cost of saving 700 people a year?
Could that capital be deployed where there is a greater return?