Sky-High Radiation Found in Fukushima Fish

[caraher]

54. Getting the physics and math right does matter...

and it doesn't require relying on the assertions of people who try argument from authority in an anonymous forum.

Cambridge physicist David MacKay has a wonderful, free, not-at-all condescending guide to energy options called "Sustainable Energy without the hot air." It's written from the perspective of the UK (and includes five different energy plans) but the kind of reasoning used and the physics are universal. He's also very clear about his assumptions, non of which are unreasonable but many of which are certainly open to question. And the math involved is really just arithmetic.

Even better, there are some online tools that let you play around with various scenarios (again, for the UK) based on this kind of analysis. (I'm not aware of a version for the US.) One is a simplified version while the other is much more detailed (but harder to use). There are assumptions embedded in all these tools that are very much open to question, but they all have the virtue of letting one "test drive" whether one's pet scenarios really could add up.