T. A. Gardner
Serial Thread Killer
You don't know what you're talking about. One of the things I was trained in in the military was Nuclear Biological and Chemical (NBC) control. Radiation tends to make the things around them radioactive. When I was in the military I heard a story about a bit of a nuclear accident they had in the reaction chamber of one of our subs. To get rid of the radiation, they had to go into the reaction chamber and take a surface grinder to all the surfaces. Also, radiation can seep into ground water or anything else.
Then your instructors were idiots or you're a liar. The only way something can become radioactive that isn't already is to let it be exposed to a neutron flux. That's it. Alpha, beta, and gamma radiation won't make an object radioactive that isn't, only neutrons.
I don't know who told you that story either, but it's complete bullshit. I went through the US Navy nuclear power program (class 8003 NEC 3384). That would never have been allowed to be done and there's no reason to do it.
So, you don't know shit about things radioactive.
Here's a sidebar: Long lived radioactive isotopes are either alpha or beta emitters. They are only a danger if you breathe or eat them. Clothing stops both and even your skin is protection against alpha (a ionized helium atom). Gamma is whole body, but with long-lived radio isotopes it generally is less of a problem than a sunny day.
Nothing you said in that drivel makes a nickel's worth of difference. If the panels were FREE solar would still be too expensive. We don't need coal. Nuclear and natural gas work fine and minimize pollution.As for solar panels, they aren't that expensive. And it can take anywhere from 1 to 4 years for them to produce the power that it took to create them to begin with. That is everything from mining the materials they are made of to the finished product. And as of right now, their useful life expectancy is 30 to 40 years. (The technology is improving all the time) At 30 years, that means that you would be getting 26 years of absolutely free energy. FREE! No cost. No pollution. No plowing off the tops of mountains to get at coal seems. No long term radiation from nuclear power plants, etc.
That sunlight is "free" makes no difference either. The question is: Where does the power come from when the sun isn't shining? You didn't answer that, and that is the crux of the problem.