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replacing coal power plants with nuclear power plants

UtahBill said:
Still don't know why anyone worrys about a nuclear disaster, which is highly unlikely in the USA....
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They probably said that in Chernobyl and they probably said that in Japan.


so what if a few hundred square miles are uninhabitable?
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Are all nuclear power plants in uninhabitable areas that are a few hundred square miles?
 
jamesrage said:
They probably said that in Chernobyl and they probably said that in Japan.



Are all nuclear power plants in uninhabitable areas that are a few hundred square miles?
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Yes, the Russians, and the Japanese are probably saying that it is unlikely in the USA.
TMI was bad, and nobody had to move away. Before TMI, redundancy meant having 2 instrument channels for every essential parameter measured.
After TMI, we went to 3 channels....
TMI would have been a minor incident if the operators had stood by and done nothing, instead they turned OFF the emergency cooling system, thinking it had actuated in error.
So far, only Chernobyl has been a major disaster. The Japanese situation will likely end up being serious, but not near the same as Chernobyl. After all, Hiroshima and Nagasaki were destroyed with atomic bombs, and they rebuilt the cities, people live there today.
 
Catawba said:
Back when I was in my Public Works career we had already implemented progressive water rates, where the more you used, the higher the rate. It really helped in conserving water which was critical at that time as we avoided the costly necessity of developing an additional water supply.

Why don't we do this already with electrical rates?
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Centralized capitalism fears independence and self-reliance.

We should be 'replacing' all centralized power generation and grids with unitized solutions, such as solar panels on the roof of every building -- isolating them, to a great extent, from the dependence and vulnerabilities of a interconnected grid (which could still be utilized for power sharing and emergency backup, but not greatly needed for everyday individual survival).

What would the venture capitalists (Wall Street) do if everyone suddenly had no pronounced daily need for oil and electricity? Given that sudden bankruptcy that they would experience, how would they then influence (purchase) the political process in Washington DC and state capitols across the nation?
 
jamesrage said:
They probably said that in Chernobyl and they probably said that in Japan.
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Yeah, good point, and isn't it lucky for the relevence of that argument all nuclear plants in the US are built with 1970's Soviet technology and are situated in areas prone to devastating earthquakes and vulnerable to huge tsunamis.
 
spud_meister said:
Yeah, good point, and isn't it lucky for the relevence of that argument all nuclear plants in the US are built with 1970's Soviet technology and are situated in areas prone to devastating earthquakes [1] and vulnerable to huge tsunamis [2].
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Diablo Canyon is: 1. located in California, 2. pretty much at sea level on the Pacific Ocean.

The company updated its plans and added structural supports designed to reinforce stability in case of earthquake. In September 1981, PG&E discovered that a single set of blueprints was used for these structural supports; workers were supposed to have reversed the plans when switching to the second reactor, but did not.[11] According to Charles Perrow, the result of the error was that "many parts were needlessly reinforced, while others, which should have been strengthened, were left untouched." [12] Nonetheless, on March 19, 1982 the Nuclear Regulatory Commission decided not to review its 1978 decision approving the plant's safety, despite these and other design errors.[13]

Diablo Canyon Power Plant - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Sleep well ;)
 
spud_meister said:
Yeah, good point, and isn't it lucky for the relevence of that argument all nuclear plants in the US are built with 1970's Soviet technology and are situated in areas prone to devastating earthquakes and vulnerable to huge tsunamis.
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WHAT? oh, wait, sarcasm, right?
Last one I worked at was 50 miles west of Phoenix. If we get a tsunami that far inland, we in deep doodoo......
 
Karl said:
Centralized capitalism fears independence and self-reliance.

We should be 'replacing' all centralized power generation and grids with unitized solutions, such as solar panels on the roof of every building -- isolating them, to a great extent, from the dependence and vulnerabilities of a interconnected grid (which could still be utilized for power sharing and emergency backup, but not greatly needed for everyday individual survival).

What would the venture capitalists (Wall Street) do if everyone suddenly had no pronounced daily need for oil and electricity? Given that sudden bankruptcy that they would experience, how would they then influence (purchase) the political process in Washington DC and state capitols across the nation?
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Makes perfect sense! That's the direction I'm taking. Getting ready to add a 1.5 KW solar panel system to my passive solar house to reduce my need for power from the grid even further.
 
Catawba said:
Makes perfect sense! That's the direction I'm taking. Getting ready to add a 1.5 KW solar panel system to my passive solar house to reduce my need for power from the grid even further.
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Friend who lives in NM came over to Phoenix last year to buy his system....says they were the cheapest panels around, forget the brand...
 
UtahBill said:
Friend who lives in NM came over to Phoenix last year to buy his system....says they were the cheapest panels around, forget the brand...
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Probably not Solyndra
rimshot.gif
 
Godzilla hasn't happened yet, and neither has The Day After Tomarrow. I'm not particulerly worried about it. I'm sure that when the time comes we will either evolve or perish.

In any event, I just love watching people clammer over electric cars and the arrogence in thinking they're better than everyone else because they supposidly care about the environment more....never realizing that their electric cars are powered by coal plants.
 
Jerry said:
In any event, I just love watching people clammer over electric cars and the arrogence in thinking they're better than everyone else because they supposidly care about the environment more....never realizing that their electric cars are powered by coal plants.
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Good point, but then again, why add to the problem with a gas burner?

In all honesty, I don't have an electric car. I can't afford one. I nearly broke my bank account getting the used car I have. But if I could, I would get an electric car. I expect in the coming years that will happen. I won't get one to be arrogant about it. I'll get one because I don't want my gas money going to the Saudis who will eventually give some of it to fund bombings in England or Spain. I don't like funding terrorists, and buying an electric car is a good way to boycott them.

I have pushed, and will continue to push, for alternative energy development so that eventually my electric car will not be electrically-charged by oil plants supplied by foreign oil or even coal. I'll be slitting the purse of murderers and cleaning the environment in one fell swoop. Owning an electric car isn't arrogant, it's practical.

If someone is arrogant because they own an EV, they're just arrogant. They would be arrogant about something else if they didn't have an EV. Ignore them and be happy that they're starting a good trend even if it isn't for the best reasons.
 
Jerry said:
Godzilla hasn't happened yet, and neither has The Day After Tomarrow. I'm not particulerly worried about it. I'm sure that when the time comes we will either evolve or perish.

In any event, I just love watching people clammer over electric cars and the arrogence in thinking they're better than everyone else because they supposidly care about the environment more....never realizing that their electric cars are powered by coal plants.
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It's still more efficient than the gas powered car. Power plants generate electricity better than a gas engine generates motive force.
 
Before jumping the gun to nuclear power there are other less risky alternatives.

Top 10 Countries Using Solar Power

We hear a lot about how Germany and Spain have increased solar energy greatly in recent years with supportive government policies. We also hear a lot about China’s big clean energy push. And, despite trouble getting the US federal government to do much for solar energy, we know that the US is still continuously moving forward on this front. But have you ever wondered which countries in the world have the most installed solar energy?
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Top 10 Countries Using Solar Power | One Block Off the Grid: The Smart New Way to Go Solar

Five US States Now Get 20% Of Their Electricity From Wind Power

With the calendar year winding down, very nearly everyone, this site included, are putting out their year-in-review content—and the American Wind Energy Association is no different. It's pretty easy to get down on US renewable energy policy if you're just paying attention to the nonsense coming out of legislators bought and paid for by the polluting class, but there were some truly great milestones in US wind power in 2011.
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Five US States Now Get 20% Of Their Electricity From Wind Power : TreeHugger
 
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UtahBill said:
Germany is doing a very good job at conserving and increasing efficiencies when using electricity, but I bet that they will end up buying power from their neighbors, or burning coal....
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I would bet they reverse their decision and end up keeping the nuclear plants.

Nuclear waste is always a concern, the company TerraPower has worked out a way to get more nuclear power from nuclear waste.
http://www.terrapower.com/Technology/TravelingWaveReactor.aspx
Huge amounts of depleted uranium, useless to today's reactors, already exist in stockpiles around the world. Stocks of this material grow as uranium is enriched for the refueling of conventional reactors. The TWR directly converts depleted uranium to usable fuel as it operates. As a result, this inexpensive but energy-rich fuel source could provide a global electricity supply that is, for all practical purposes, inexhaustible.
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EagleAye said:
I would bet they reverse their decision and end up keeping the nuclear plants.

Nuclear waste is always a concern, the company TerraPower has worked out a way to get more nuclear power from nuclear waste.
Traveling Wave Reactor
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Not nuclear wastes in the sense that most of us think.....certainly not "spent fuel".....
Depleted uranium is used to make projectiles for the military's weaponry. So, let's not confuse depleted uranium with spent fuel. DP is safe to handle, spent fuel will kill you.
 
UtahBill said:
solar and wind are not alternatives to coal, they are at best supplements....
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What if every home were equipped with a 10KW solar system? (or larger, depending on available roof space for the panels)
 
Karl said:
What if every home were equipped with a 10KW solar system? (or larger, depending on available roof space for the panels)
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when it is dark out, what then?
 
UtahBill said:
when it is dark out, what then?
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Then houses with solar panels wouldn't need power from the grid, thus reducing the need for coal. Isn't that the point in the first place?
 
UtahBill said:
when it is dark out, what then?
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Batteries. I was at a State Park in Nevada in 2005 that was completely off the grid, ran everything off their own solar system.
 
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