Put Up Your Nukes

Nuclear power is the the only way to go. Solar and Wind power generation are both nice for the formation of new businesses and putting a lot of people to work throughout the country and I'm for the continued development in these areas, but they will never be able to supply the electrical energy requirements of the nation. New York City alone would need somewhere around 50,000 windmills just to handle todays useage. Where would they be installed?

Agree on the subject of nuclear power. David J. C. Mackay does a superb job of presenting the relative proportions of those numbers in his book "Sustainable Energy - without the hot air".

http://www.withouthotair.com/

Note the content of the entire book less a few coyrighted images from 3rd parties is on the web site in both HTML and downloadable .pdf form available for FREE!

The world's energy problems are not technical, they are political. Technical solutions will come. But it will be the lack of political solutions born largely of stubborn ignorance that will condemn millions to a sad and unnecessary fate that will have nothing to do with any actual safety limitations of nuclear power generated electricity.

Ed Weldon

Energy policy is indeed largely a political argument, but it is fueled by vast expenditures by petroleum, coal, and nuclear special interests. Nuclear makes no sense when viewed with all the externalities.

Setting the extremely difficult waste, terrorism and proliferation issues aside, and the fact that the nuclear technology base and advancements are largely dependent on continued development of nuclear weapons (which are deal killers in themselves), the world's supply of uranium is limited, located largely in countries we don't control, and difficult and expensive to extract and refine.

It's absolutely stupid to invest significant capital in any energy technology that does not use a renewable source.

The same $ that are suggested should be spent on new nuclear would yield much more net available energy if spent on improving energy efficiency and smart distribution... and would keep paying back long after uranium has run out or been priced out of reasonable range. Efficiency and conservation are the ultimate renewable strategies.

Add to this that the range of renewable resource possibilities is broad, the potential is huge not only to increase our energy security, but to keep energy $ working at home, and technologies such as waste to biodiesel have double benefits, and the renewable path is the only smart way to go.

Nuclear special interests? There aren't any of those left. They all went out of business. The Sierra club won.....the world lost.

Go read David J.C. Macay's book. It's free on line. It's all in ther numbers. Then come back and tell us what you'd rather have:

1. Coal with carbon dioxide sequestration, a totally unproven technology?

2. A major retreat in standards of living in the developed world?

3. Red skies from injection of sulphur dioxide into the stratosphere? (read the July-August issue of the Atlantic)

4. Nuclear power generation of electricity.

Ed Weldon

am still concerned about the spent fuel.... putting it in the ground for eons means that we will have to deal with it later.....i know that i would not want it near wherever i live....then the previous promblems have been human caused, " i did not see the needle on the gage go into the red zone, i was eating lunch and texting my (insert who ever you want to make my point)"....... then there is the terrorist problem......i have never known why the spent fuel can not be reduced to a non radio active atom, sorry i missed nuclear physics in "skool". it bothers me that we are not using more hydro electric power. clean, renewable, makes more recreational areas....... we need more water storage..... it pains me to see an ocean going tanker a week belly up to the pittsburg power plant and burn oil for power...... and i guess that happens all over the usa...... have just read a item in the news about a giant oil reserve that is not being tapped in montana, north dakota, canada........i do not consider myself an environmentalist...... but it is funny that some people have hijacked the word and use part of it to push their own adgenda while leaving me, and from the sound of it, most of the people that subscribe to this group to live in the rest of the word.......