Xref: utzoo sci.energy:3730 sci.electronics:16734 sci.physics:16227
Path: utzoo!utgpu!cunews!software.mitel.com!grayt
From: grayt@Software.Mitel.COM (Tom Gray)
Newsgroups: sci.energy,sci.electronics,sci.physics
Subject: Re: solar cells
Message-ID: <5899@healey>
Date: 4 Jan 91 13:49:10 GMT
References: <1991Jan3.072059.20842@loop.uucp>
Organization: Mitel. Kanata (Ontario). Canada.
Lines: 40

In article <1991Jan3.072059.20842@loop.uucp> keithl@loop.uucp (Keith Lofstrom;;;628-3645) writes:
>>|  Solar power: no digging, no processing, energy is converted from 
>>|sunlight, no remains.
>
>Most solar cells are made with processes that are similar to those used to
>make integrated circuits.  A big IC fab turns out on the order of a million
>wafers a year, and turns out tens of thousands of gallons of liquid toxic waste
>and hundreds of thousands of cubic feet of gaseous waste in the process.  
>A million 6 inch wafers is about 20,000 square meters.
>

>Safety?  Ever see the results of a fab fire?  A co-worker had a wall clock 
>that had barely survived a silane fire.  Interesting Salvadore Dali effect.
>When I was with my former employer, we had building evacuations about twice
>a year.  Rule of thumb:  safety costs money.  As prices go down, safety may
>go down, too.  Imagine hundreds of fab fires a year...
>

I once walked into a colourless odourless cloud of poison gas while in a
hallway at the fab plant of a former employer. There was an interesting
Salvadore Dali effect on my lungs as I walked 10 feet into it and
stumbled 10 feet out of it. It was colourless and odourless the only
indication I had was that I couldn't breathe. Anyway the afternoon spent
outsde on the lawn with the other 1000 workers in the building were
interesting.

 Strange but if this had happened with a nuclear material the newspapers
and electronic media would have been full of warnings of calamity.
The residential area next to the facility would have been evacuated.
But since it was only a cloud of poisonous gas the incident passed without
comment.
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