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So in light of the current situation in Japan do you think it will set us back even farther or will common sense prevail. I say full steam ahead on building Nuculer plants. We have wasted enough years already for no reason.
Really?
C'mon..."full steam ahead?"
I'm not saying that we should abandon nuclear energy, but we'd damn sure better make sure that we're taking some serious precautions.
But i realize that being pro-active isn't the American way. No....we'd rather put off what we should be doing now. Then disaster strikes, kills a bunch of people, and then we do what we're REALLY good at doing: building memorials to the victims of said disaster.
Then of course, we'll do the right thing after all that happens. But not before because that might actually cost someone some money. And God forbid we allow THAT to happen.
You go Nukes, but this event shows you that the sites should be away from earthquake areas and if that area needs power from a facility, have it delivered over a long line going far away if need be.
If there can be an 800 mile Alaskan pipeline, why not a nuke plant with some way to send the power long distances away?
Get that handled and we are golden IMO.
all power from a nuke plant does in fact go to other areas. the nuke plant I work at gives all of its power to colorado, utah and part of wyoming.
I'm not saying that we should abandon nuclear energy, but we'd damn sure better make sure that we're taking some serious precautions.
But i realize that being pro-active isn't the American way. No....we'd rather put off what we should be doing now. Then disaster strikes, kills a bunch of people, and then we do what we're REALLY good at doing: building memorials to the victims of said disaster.
Then of course, we'll do the right thing after all that happens. But not before because that might actually cost someone some money. And God forbid we allow THAT to happen.
Actually I base my opinion on facts and statistics, the reason we have had a moratorium on Nuclear power plants for Decades was based on emotion and political Hyperbole. When you look at the "worst" disasters we have had .....3 Mile Island, Chernobyl, it just does not warrant the fear mongering and hysteria about Nuclear Power Plants. The silver lining of this mess in Japan, I believe, will be that after all the wall to wall coverage and hysteria and the nonstop talk of a "Meltdown" at the end of the day, when the reality shows that there was relatively little to no adverse affects from radiation caused by what will now be the biggest baddest Nuclear accident in History, People will start to turn a deaf ear to all the fear-mongering and understand that in reality Nuke Plants are just not that scary!
Now that we've had an oil spill and an overblown (so far at least) nuclear situation, we'll have to go back to horse-drawn carriages, but that's probably not nice to horses.
Nuclear power is a sucker bet. Expensive to build, and dangerous as hell.
Doesn't anyone ask why we can power an Ipad for 10 hours with a battery no bigger than 2 packs of cigarettes, but we can't seem to scale that technology up to the point where it can support a home for 12-14 hours when the sun is not out, and do it cheaply?
You CAN power your home with solar these days. For about $30k you can cover the average residential usage on pure sun power.
Because, big energy wants it that way. They brainwash you into believing coal and nuclear are your only options. So you sit here debating about this as if these are the only two options out there. They're not. Wake up.
Last edited by HomeWurkin; 03-15-2011 at 09:19 AM..
Reason: spelling
Actually I base my opinion on facts and statistics, the reason we have had a moratorium on Nuclear power plants for Decades was based on emotion and political Hyperbole. When you look at the "worst" disasters we have had .....3 Mile Island, Chernobyl, it just does not warrant the fear mongering and hysteria about Nuclear Power Plants. The silver lining of this mess in Japan, I believe, will be that after all the wall to wall coverage and hysteria and the nonstop talk of a "Meltdown" at the end of the day, when the reality shows that there was relatively little to no adverse affects from radiation caused by what will now be the biggest baddest Nuclear accident in History, People will start to turn a deaf ear to all the fear-mongering and understand that in reality Nuke Plants are just not that scary!
Yea, well you go on believing what you will. I don't buy it. Your theory will take years to prove anyway. And you also have the luxury of stating your opinion from here. You wouldn't be so damn cavalier if you were in Japan.
why not just shoot the nuclear waste into the sun since it is just a giant nuclear reaction anyways then problem solved
A really IGNORANT idea.
First off, sending something into space is HORRENDOUSLY expensive and nuclear waste is generally VERY VERY HEAVY.
Secondly, despite all our precautions, rocket launches DO go wrong from time to time - requiring the vehicle be detonated to avoid it falling on something or someone - and a cargo of nuclear waste being detonated and thus spread into the atmosphere would be a FAR WORSE nightmare than what we are seeing now.
I find myself agreeing with Silas77. If I may post an essay I just wrote for the Green forum I presdent this comment.
I was really annoyed by the look on Wolf Blitzer’s face and body language when he was "reporting" the news (?) about the Japanese nuclear power plant problems. He looked both ignorant and terrified. Newsmen should not be either.
Should nuclear plants be "banned" because of this extraordinary event? No and for the same reason we do not ban busses even though an accident near NYC killed 15 people in one crash last weekend. These reactors have been damaged by the lack of cooling water and by the substitute of borated seawater for the normal cooling water. Because of this they have not “melted down” and are not as damaged as the Three Mile Island reactor. The radiation release is not sufficient to cause any damage to the local residents and IMHO the evacuation nothing more than an unwarranted panic reaction.
I would like to see the US adopt one of the new Tier Four designs that have been developed over the last 30 years or so. These include the “pebble bed” high temperature gas cooled reactor that does not use water but helium to cool the core and can generate high “quality” steam to drive electric generators or industrial processes. These reactors can also use less or unenriched fuel in the primary reaction and generate more fissionable material than they actually use. This new material can be separated out and included into new fuel pellets to be reacted in the original or other reactors to produce an inexhaustible amount of energy. These reactors can also be fueled with concentrated u-235 and exhausted plutonium from nuclear weapons programs.
The principal opposition to this technology is the conventional carbon fuel suppliers like coal and oil that would, particularly coal, lose a substantial part of its market. It only takes a pound of fissile material to supply as much heat as thousands of tons of coal. Also the coal is not reusable after it is burned. That is not quite true. Uranium ore is often associated with coal for geological reasons. Some of this Uranium is mined and burned with the coal in conventional electric power plants. By controlling the fly ash that the uranium becomes part of when the coal is burned this uranium becomes recoverable from the ash piles of many existing power plants.
If we are to keep our existing energy consumption levels and expand this to the rest of the world we will need much more nuclear power. I suggest we start building the entire system of fuel production, reactor operation and fuel recovery now instead of later.
. So you sit here debating about this as if these are the only two options out there. They're not. Wake up.
Well that part you are right about......we should be open to every and all things and let them sink or swim on their own.....I'll let you answer to the guy in WA state who wants his 30g back for the solar system you sold him on though.
Yea, well you go on believing what you will. I don't buy it. Your theory will take years to prove anyway. And you also have the luxury of stating your opinion from here. You wouldn't be so damn cavalier if you were in Japan.
My theory? It has been thirty years since 3 Mile Island, that was a complete meltdown! What exactly are we waiting for?
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