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Old 05-06-2019, 03:28 PM
 
4,195 posts, read 1,586,339 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by thecoalman View Post
The biggest drawback for either of these sources is you are subject to whims of Mother Nature.
i believe the mining needed to extract the rare earth elements used in solar panels in under reported as china has toxic lakes of sludge from mining it...and the proposed thorium reactors are much smaller that the huge ones we now have enabling less reliance on the "grid"
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Old 05-06-2019, 03:33 PM
 
33,387 posts, read 34,671,842 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by thecoalman View Post
The biggest drawback for either of these sources is you are subject to whims of Mother Nature.

solar panels are getting more efficient, so even with lower solar energy reaching the panels, they still make power. those big wind turbines need a minimum amount of wind to turn the blades.


where wind power is at its most efficient in with small wind generators, ones that can augment the power required to run a house or small business. two or three small, efficient wind turbines can power a house, and be unobtrusive at the same time.


there will come a time when solar panels will be efficient enough to generate electricity just from the energy that is reflected off the moon. how soon i have no idea.
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Old 05-06-2019, 03:34 PM
 
4,195 posts, read 1,586,339 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mircea View Post
Time indeed.



Fukushima was a fluke and the reactor design was not at issue.

Any moron that builds a nuclear reactor in a flood plain that has been known for 2,000 years to be subject to flooding from tsunamis and typhoons deserves to be taken out and shot.

If they wanted to build a reactor there, they should have built it off the ground, with at least two-stories of space below it to bar any damage from flooding.



Thorium is good. There's another experimental reactor design that uses reactor waste. All the waste you as a tax-payer pay to store in Utah and Nevada and elsewhere would power the entire US for the next four centuries, even when accounting for increased electrical demand over those centuries.
bean counters trying to save cost that's what fukishima was...how without regulation do you eliminate one of capitalism basic tenets...capitalist will tell you regulations are the devil and ALL money must go to shareholders and maybe 2 cents trickle-down to the workforce. Fukushima and the challenger accident are both examples of the business side over-ruling the engineering side
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Old 05-06-2019, 03:40 PM
 
Location: New York
2,486 posts, read 816,937 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Suburban_Guy View Post

HELL YES IT'S TIME!






The latest gen reactors are not the reactors of our grandparents. These things run on their own waste and are very safe.


Straight from MIT:
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/6...limate-change/
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Old 05-06-2019, 04:38 PM
 
20,956 posts, read 8,587,397 times
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It ain't going to happen...I've heard this conversation for many many decades, including from many of the top "green" figures......but it's not likely to happen anyway.

Cost and Insurance are still issues...of course, cost includes insurance...but also included R&D, construction and eventual dismantle of the plant.

As far as "business and bean counters over engineering" - that's how profits are made. If they figured all the costs truly involved in doing it right, the electric would be so expensive that economics would not allow it.

The only reason the old plants made it was government R&D, government backing, etc.....

I hope that - all of a sudden - the crew here doesn't trust Government to intrude in every aspect of the market and force a direction that doesn't make any sense! It's one thing to help along a fledging industry, quite another to have to make our electric generation the responsibility of Big Gubment.
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Old 05-06-2019, 04:41 PM
 
46,823 posts, read 25,751,383 times
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I'm game.
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Old 05-06-2019, 04:58 PM
 
Location: Atlanta, GA
14,834 posts, read 7,360,699 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mircea View Post
Fukushima was a fluke and the reactor design was not at issue.

Any moron that builds a nuclear reactor in a flood plain that has been known for 2,000 years to be subject to flooding from tsunamis and typhoons deserves to be taken out and shot.

If they wanted to build a reactor there, they should have built it off the ground, with at least two-stories of space below it to bar any damage from flooding.
The reactor design was one of a set of compounding issues that led to the meltdown. The construction location and lack of flood mitigation was another.
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Old 05-06-2019, 05:20 PM
 
4,195 posts, read 1,586,339 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by craigiri View Post
It ain't going to happen...I've heard this conversation for many many decades, including from many of the top "green" figures......but it's not likely to happen anyway.

Cost and Insurance are still issues...of course, cost includes insurance...but also included R&D, construction and eventual dismantle of the plant.

As far as "business and bean counters over engineering" - that's how profits are made. If they figured all the costs truly involved in doing it right, the electric would be so expensive that economics would not allow it.

The only reason the old plants made it was government R&D, government backing, etc.....

I hope that - all of a sudden - the crew here doesn't trust Government to intrude in every aspect of the market and force a direction that doesn't make any sense! It's one thing to help along a fledging industry, quite another to have to make our electric generation the responsibility of Big Gubment.

the thorium reactors were a side effect of all things a nuclear powered airplane project fro the fifties-sixties...all the research was going to be dumped as trash untill a few enterprising smart people became interested and saved it just in time...ALL this research was given to a highly placed Chinese official free of charge...if WE dont do this stuff the Chinese most assuredly will as they are now...


there was never much thought put into our 50yr old design the laboratory model was simply giant-sized and it is a very dangerous high pressure steam kettle...watch a video on the English type reactor (only made for bomb grade material) they miscalculated and used wood planes to shave off cooling fins lol


i cannot stress enough that this is a wholly different approach...it is my understanding now that we use thermal geysers and vents in limited locals..thorium is the heat source for these geo-thermal vents
when gasoline is 20$ a gallon perhaps the cost/benefit ration will look better
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Old 05-06-2019, 05:25 PM
 
29,958 posts, read 18,525,884 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Suburban_Guy View Post
Meanwhile, nuclear power plants are closing.

After 45 years, the Palo nuclear power plant (one of the most efficient) is closing.

Another gift brought to you by liberalism. Libs are so confused, they don't know whether they want high or low CO2, cheap or expensive energy, or renewable energy or not.

To paraphrase Monty Python and the "Dennis Moore" episode, "This climate change business is a bit more tricky than I thought"!

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesco.../#3c78788b7034
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Old 05-06-2019, 05:28 PM
 
20,956 posts, read 8,587,397 times
Reputation: 14048
Quote:
Originally Posted by elvis44102 View Post

i cannot stress enough that this is a wholly different approach...it is my understanding now that we use thermal geysers and vents in limited locals..thorium is the heat source for these geo-thermal vents
when gasoline is 20$ a gallon perhaps the cost/benefit ration will look better
Money will find it's way there - IF and when that happens. Any company that can build this stuff perfectly would have contracts from all over the world....for example, military bases in out-of-the-way places and stuff like that.

Silicon Valley (money and brains) would be all over it.

I'm not doubting the technology - just noting that the business, if it exists, must rest on the merits.

One could imagine tiny safe nuke generators running large airliners - cruise ships in the sky!
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