A certain man came from a land faraway, to visit some relatives that he had been told about.  He quite enjoyed his trip and marveled at all the wonders and goings on in this new place.  (The relative he spent most of his time with is a distant cousin from on his Dad’s side.  He’s an electrical engineer who knows a thing or two about power.)

 

“What’s that?”  The certain man pointed to some rather strange looking buildings.

 

“Oh, that’s a nuclear power plant.  It makes electricity.”

 

“How?”

 

“Well, first we have to excavate the radioactive material from underground.  Then that radioactive material is made into “rods” that are used to boil water that creates the steam needed to turn the turbines, which in turn, create the electricity.”

 

The certain man seemed confused.  “And how long do these radioactive rods last?”

 

“Oh, about 5 years or so.  That is, until they become depleted.”

 

“That’s when they’re safe to be around?”

 

“Oh, no.  That won’t happen for another hundred thousand years or so. Give or take a millennium.”  The engineer nervously smiled.  “Depleted means, they won’t boil water anymore.”

 

“Oh.”

 

Then after a little more sightseeing, the inquisitive visitor pointed to another set of rather strange looking structures. 

 

“Oh, they’re smoke stacks.  They help get all the coal smoke way up in the air so the people won’t have to breathe so much of it.”

 

“Coal smoke?”

 

“Yeh, it’s not good to breathe.”

 

“So, you burn this coal.”  The man deduced. “And where does this coal come from?”

 

 “Well, like the nuclear material, it too, comes from underground.  We dig up thousands of tons a day.  Then that coal is transported, mostly by train, to all the coal-powered plants.  Then it’s burned to generate the heat that’s needed to boil the water to create the steam that’s needed to turn the turbines that create the electricity.”  He seemed out of breath.  That was a lot to say.

 

“Hmmm.”  The certain man seemed even more perplexed.  “Are there other power plants than those that use coal and radioactivity?”

 

“Yes, we also have some that use petroleum oil to burn, thus heating up the water and creating the steam that’s needed to turn the turbines, that….”

 

“Create the electricity.”

 

“Exactly.  We drill for that underground, too.  And we’ve even gotten so good that we can go way deep down, under the oceans, to find more.  Then, of course, that crude has to be refined before it can be burned.”  The engineer’s mind wandered over a wasteland of obvious secrets.

 

“Do you have any power plants that use any of the natural resources you have around you?  Like the atmosphere or the wind or water or the sun?”  This visitor was beginning to have his doubts about what he was told back home.

 

“Oh yeh, but they aren’t anywhere near efficient or cost effective enough for us to use on a large scale basis.  Money is pretty important.”  He offered as a weak excuse. 

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“Fascinating.  Let me see if I have heard you correctly.  Among the resources that your country uses, are materials that are deadly to everything alive.  And those materials are then used to boil water to turn the turbines that create the electricity that everyone uses?”  He was still in doubt of the words springing from his own lips. “And this is because other less lethal methods are just too expensive?”

 

“Yep, but it seems a bit silly when you put it like that.” 

 

The certain man felt the need to offer another perspection.  “Look, since you are so fond of going below the surface of the Earth to solve your energy problems, why not consider this…?” He touched his relative on the shoulder.

 

“Why not drill holes down to the superheated mass of magma located just below the mantle and tap into all that superheat that would surely rise up your “heatwells” and boil the water that will create the steam that would turn your turbines and generate so much electricity that everyone could have it for free?”

 

The certain man paused for a moment.  “And you would no longer be polluting your environment, destroying everything in the process, just to operate those things that you’ve created to allow you to see what you’re doing in the dark.”