19 February 2009

Nuclear the Only Power Solution

...that is, if you want to consume at current rates and not devastate the environment and/or the economy. This blogger supports nuclear power and urban living as a green solution that could make America energy self sufficient. Biofuels, solar and wind's numbers don't add up, and the current path of coal and oil is destructive on many levels.

The Next Subprime Mortgage Meltdown

...Obama's $787-billion stimulus package will be steering us down the path California took in the 1980s and 1990s, leading up to the great California Electrical Shortage of 2000.....There is not one penny in the bill for the one form of energy that might give this country a future --nuclear power.

...windmills are producing almost no useful electricity and will become a huge drag on the economy -- just as biofuels have done nothing to reduce our dependence on foreign oil and have just led to hundreds of millions in wasted investments.

..."All these wind farms...only deliver electricity 20-30 percent of the time at best. Because they're so unpredictable, you can't shut anything else down...

...it's nice to watch those 45-story structures going round and round but don't count on them to produce any useful electricity.

...because of their vast land requirements (125 square miles to match the average coal or nuclear plant), they must be located far from population centers. ...you we have be rebuild the entire national grid in order to accommodate them....

... France, unlike the rest of the world, has not yet fallen into a recession. The reporter attributed this to France's high level of government employment, but a much more likely explanation is France's complete conversion to nuclear energy. With 80 percent of its electricity coming from nuclear and the rest from hydro, France pays the lowest electrical rates in Europe -- and has the lowest carbon emissions on top of that....
These windmills, located along mountaintops in West Virginia, were not moving much when I saw them last fall.

3 comments:

bsherm said...

I'm intrigued by the possibilities of wind power. The technology keeps improving, and as I understand it, those windmills do not have to rotate that fast to generate. I am especially intrigued by small-scale residential units. It's quite windy up on Prospect Hill.

That being said, I also doubt it is THE answer, because I don't think there is ONE answer. And Nuclear power has to be considered. It would be interesting to look at how France is managing their power stations. How are they managing the wastes?

5chw4r7z said...

There are smaller more efficient nuclear plants that can be built closer to where the need is, with technology that didn't exist in the 70s and 80s.
This would remove or shorten transmission lines that waste huge amounts of electricity.
We need more of these built sooner rather than later.
Just look at California, legislating itself to death with NIMBY prejudices.

CityKin said...

Found on the web:

"France reprocesses its own spent nuclear fuel. Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Japan also send, or have sent in the past, spent nuclear fuel to France for reprocessing. High-level reprocessed waste is vitrified (solidified) and stored at La Hague for several decades, where it awaits final geologic disposal.


Transporting radioactive waste

France has more than 30 years of experience transporting radioactive waste. Spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste are shipped by rail within France; trucks carry the materials over short distances. Five ships transport the material intercoastally. Spent nuclear fuel arrives at La Hague by train in specially designed rail cars, which are admitted without restriction into normal railway traffic.


Deep geologic disposal plans

A research program to study high-level radioactive waste disposal began with legislation enacted in 1991. The French Waste Management Research Act of December 1991 authorized 15-year studies of three management options for high-level or long half-life radioactive waste. They included separation and/or transmutation, long-term storage, and geologic disposal. One site under consideration for deep geologic disposal in clay is currently being studied. The French are also searching for a granite site to research."