What was being done with the radioactive material before we obtained/used it?
Ron, before the uranium is refined and concentrated, it is simply lying around in rocks and mountains, but so widely scattered that it is not considered harmful.
Perhaps you are thinking that it could be de-concentrated? Mix the spent fuel back in with the original rocks and scatter it back into the uranium mines? That would approximatley double the total cost of nuclear power, making it more costly than most other sources. I can see tree-huggers rioting outside the mines where the spent fuel is being returned. They will be able to prove that it is going to harm the breeding habits of ****roaches that have started living in the mines.
As I said when you look at ALL the costs, there are no free energy lunches.
Hydrogen is dangerous because it is explosive in air, flammable, odorless, colorless, and invisible to the human eye. Hydrogen leaks and hydrogen fumes could not be detected by Bubba while having a smoke at the hydrogen filling station. We know from my previous poll that people DO have smokes while filling up. Why would anyone expect that to change with hydrogen fuel? How can a hydrogen tank be kept safe during a vehicle crash? Remember the "exploding gas tanks" of the Ford Pinto and the Chevrolet truck? Can you imagine being in a crash with a hydrogen-fueled vehicle? I know, they are going to develop solid hydrogen fuel. I am not holding my breath.
Does anyone out there think that people are getting smarter? I would argue that due to poor breeding habbits, health care for the weak, and government subsidies that allow survivial of the undesirables, that the average Joe Blow is dumber and physically weaker than 50 years ago. Until about 1935 in the US, it was "survival of the fittest, every man for himself", and each generation got stronger and smarter. Now it is the opposite and each decade sees more dumb, slovenly, immoral, drunk, drugged, unfocused people. At least my personal observations and experiences say that is the case, unfortunately for the world. Don't misunderstand, I am soft-hearted and would be the last person that would want to see dumb people die of neglect. I am merely making an observation here.
I suppose some good computer programmer could write an extrapolation program that calculates how long it will be before people become so dumb that the whole civilization collapses. It has happened before (ancient Rome comes to mind), but the survivors picked up and started over again.