Nuclear Power Plants ... do we need them ?

[woody]

The issue is not do we need them - unfortunately thats a no brainer.

The issue is can we build them/monitor/run them with a responsible level of diligence?

Some countries will others wont. One of the issues is that currently to build and run properly the economics are questionable. This means short cuts will be made and there will be issues because of that.

Eventually we will have little choice but to use them.

Building them in high activity seismic areas is obviously pretty risky - but some countries do not have suitable sites so it is going to happen.

Also the designs such as used at Chernobyl are outdated and dangerous, however similar reactors still run and that is wrong. However the economics force governments to act irresponsibly.

[Draedan]

I saw the word power so I just had to Click it for Moar.
But I'm actually all for green and buying local if it wasn't so damn expensive.
And no I have not read any posts besides the op.

[Grey]

Why have this discussion?

We are given the power that those in control choose. They will always choose who pays them the most. Since ALL energy on earth originally comes from the sun, the only logical solution is to rely on solar power, and the technology is there, but not the funding: Current financial interests (the financial interests of the 0.001% of the world who make the descisions) are that Oil and Nukes are making them so rich that their great great great grandchildren will STILL whipe their asses on gold toilet tissue, and untill we have a truly egalitarian society with values like the emotional, physicall and mental wellbeing of its members and the comfort and sustainability of its livestyle, untill THEN, we are gonna keep nuking the planet and digging up dead dinosaurs from millions of years ago to run our cars and planes, so we can fly or drive to our holiday destinations, get there and worry about how much carbon we just burnt getting to a place where we can do exactly the same as we could at home...

[Teeth]

We need nuclear power plants. Sure we are creating the waste problem for a few hundreds of generations.By the time we have so much chemical waste that we have no idea were to put it this earth has already gone to hell. Our growing world population is eventually going to cause problems. In my opinion we should limit the amount of children per couple, otherwise nature or war will take care of overpopulation in a brutal fashion.

Why wine about a few more deaths caused by a couple of reactors when one war which eventually will be started when we keep relying on oil will kill hundreds of thousands or maybe more. Nuclear reactors are far more sturdy than the general population thinks, Chernobyl was crappy Eastern Bloc quality.

I think we have far greater things to worry about than chemical waste.

[Adam_Bomb]

If you guys think the Japanese power plants leaking radiation is bad, just wait till Godzilla is fighting some giant aardvark in downtown Toyko in a few days...

[EponiCo]

That made me laugh and sad at the same time.

He has a point, even if he says it somewhat comical.
We don't create radioactive material we just redistribute it. It's just a question if you believe the companies will store it secure enough that it doesn't get into your local water supply.

[Paul]

He does not have a point. There is a difference waste-wise if the nuclear fuel is converted over the course of millions of years widly spread within the earth through slow, natural processes or if big amounts of highly-enriched stuff is burned within a couple of years.

[EponiCo]

After they are burned they can be put into a deposit where they continue to convert in slow natural processes.
Waste-wise it's really only a problem of proper storage.
Accidents on a running plant like in Japan are something different.

[OOODIIINVALHALLAAAAAA]

Atomenergy can be replaced easy by alternative energy already.There is no true reason for atomenergy
except money.Sad but true.

Build all your  atomicplants in the Arctis....

[Wulzzz]

Well, then where's the problem with atomic waste anyway.Why do they even bother with trying to find safe ultimate storages places and store them in huge containers.
You just dig a bit, throw it in there and everything is alright.

[Brutal]

Why have this discussion?

We are given the power that those in control choose. They will always choose who pays them the most. Since ALL energy on earth originally comes from the sun, the only logical solution is to rely on solar power, and the technology is there, but not the funding: Current financial interests (the financial interests of the 0.001% of the world who make the descisions) are that Oil and Nukes are making them so rich that their great great great grandchildren will STILL whipe their asses on gold toilet tissue, and untill we have a truly egalitarian society with values like the emotional, physicall and mental wellbeing of its members and the comfort and sustainability of its livestyle, untill THEN, we are gonna keep nuking the planet and digging up dead dinosaurs from millions of years ago to run our cars and planes, so we can fly or drive to our holiday destinations, get there and worry about how much carbon we just burnt getting to a place where we can do exactly the same as we could at home...

The typical argument if we didn't turn to green energy it's because of oil money ...

I guess we're not using oil gas and nuclear because it's the most practical source of energy we have, but because some people make profit ? Yea right.

For exemple hydroelectricity is a very efficient source of (green) energy and everywhere it is possible it is developed to the maximum because it's cheap and efficient. Yet it doesn't give money to the oil industry does it ?  So why does it exist and why it is the only significant source of green energy ? (apart from biomass)

There are many country that have absolutely no interest in oil because they just don't have any and it cost them dearly to import it,  yet there is no country that produce most of it's energy with only solar panel and wind, mhh i wonder why ... 

Also living in a nation like italy, with a lot of energy request and really little fossil energy sources but no power plants (we shutted all down after cernobyl) i can say human life is possible without nuclear.

Dude we've been living without oil gaz and nuclear for like what 800 000 years and we lived with nuclear for 70 years oil 150years and coal 300 years. What we're living now is exceptional it's not the norm .

Yes human life is possible without modern energy, if we all live like peon and that was when earth population was 500 millions people 300 years back, now it's 7 000 millions not the same story.

For your argument that nuclear power plant consume lots of water, i say  yes they do just like a coal or gas plant. To make a turbine turn you need a cold and a hot source.

[Paul]

After they are burned they can be put into a deposit where they continue to convert in slow natural processes.
Waste-wise it's really only a problem of proper storage.
Accidents on a running plant like in Japan are something different.

That's the point. As far as I know noone has a viable, cost efficient solution for your "proper storage" yet. The approach now is to tempory put it somewhere and wait until we come up with a good way in the future. Here in Germany we had an huge scandal with an experimental permanent waste storage that failed(and was tried to kept hidden from the news) and we normally go chocolate chip cookie about security and safety. I don't even wanna now what went wrong and never surfaced to the news in less finical countries(basicly the rest of the world). 

[Grey]

Discussion is ridiculous. We dont NEED any electric power, we dont NEED to have light or internets. WE WANT to drive fast, microwave our food, fuck our wives on Carribean islands, and then watch the holiday home video on our 38 inch Plasma TV when we get back.

This takes power. Now, if we came at the need to power FROM SCRATCH, with the technology and knowledge of today, we would choose solar energy. Its efficient, current tech( on shoestring funding, imagine with real money) can harvest 40% of the energy that falls on each panel. Thats less than half. So if we funded solar power research, that figure could skyrocket. BUT: Its not finacially viable to the old industry: THEY RUN most countries. Im not trying to convince anyone of any CONSPIRACY THEORY, or something, but oil companies DO run most of the worlds goverments right now, and they do that by MONEY.

Brazil made the sensible descision: LETS KEEP OUR CORRUPTION LOCAL! They too have the issue of the power companies using their finacial weight to alter political movement, but at least its all local, since they grow their own fuel (Fuel which is cheaper and releases MORE energy than oil).

Since we live in a disgustingly warped world where imaginary numbers we invented called "money" seems to rule everyones actions, it isnt hard to see that we will all be oil dependant untill it finally runs out (production "peaked" over 2 years ago, there is next to none left in the ground, and what's left is the bottom layers, much sediment, very expensive to process), then the next ALREADY DEVELOPED BUT LIMITED FUEL will be put on sale, because thats how it works:

In the '70s a washing machine was developed that WOULD NOT BREAK DOWN. It was ideal, the perfect washing machine.

GE and Maytag BOUGHT THE PLANS, copyrighted the process, and destroyed the working models.

 WHY? Because if you sell someone something that will never need replacing, they will only buy ONE from you, sell them something that breaks every 2 yrs, and they will buy one every 2 years from you.

SAME WITH POWER COMPANIES: They are not interested in clean fuels, endless energy, or safety! MONEY, they want your MONEY, and if you will pay them for oil they will SELL you oil, it costs them less than a penny a barrel to process, and they MAKE over 100% of that back. They are making money hand over foot. Nuclear power is almost forever, AND someone is asking them to TAKE CARE?? NO, nuclear reactors are made the same way as any other power plant: As cheaply as possible to do the job. If it never breaks, you never get payed to fix it. Thats not good buisiness.

Hate to bring the real world in here with me, but wake up people, its not about what we ant, or whats best for us, its about what makes the most money for the guy at the top. Simple.  Now grow up, we need nuke power like we need cancer. The clean, green energy solutions already excist, as does the process to make fuel from hemp, 100% clean burning, produced from the ground, but we will NOT be allowed to use it untill the companies that OWN the copyrights LET us.

And guess who those companies are? YES, the same ones who sell us oil, build our nuke plants, and tell us to turn our heating up....

[Felagunda]

If only the gov would issue more permits to build Gas powered plants.  We have so much natural gas in the country (USA) it's retarded.  That is why the price is so low.  Every time we find a huge new reserve the price just goes lower too.  It burns cleaner that most anything with no waste and such.  It doesn't destroy mountain tops or poison streams and rivers like coal mining.

Even though I voted we I'm no hippie but we don't need Nuke power that is really a lie.  We do need it for the reason that right now in USA it makes 20% of our electricity. My father works for AEP and he talk about how stupid the gov is all the time.   My father is always telling me how in the summer time when the demand for power is up USA get very close to having multiple black outs due to lack of power.  It's all those AC running and believe me I live in LA it gets 105 here with 60-90% humidity being the norm it gets dangerously hot and we need our AC and fans.  The point is without that extra 20% power we get from nuke plants we'd have whole areas of the states in the summer without power.

The problem is that our government won't even issue the permits to build plants, coal (which is really shitty source imo), gas, or even more nuke.    Solar, Wind, Hydro, Waves, and geothermal or great sources if you wanna make yourself feel good on the inside about being green.  Really the only one of those that generates power on a large scale is the hydro when you dam up some large river like the Colorado.  Which is nice and clean and all but changes our planet in other ways that I really don't like.  Well Geothermal does too but of course you gotta build shit on a active hot spot so it's really limited  locations.

Anyway we really need to be investing in technology. I believe that  fuel cells are the future.   If only we could come up with a good bio fuel cell we'd be set for life.  Also in the next few years some company is coming out with new Solar that uses nano Technology to get power not only from the Solar rays to generate electricity but also from the heat.  The solar ray part was supposed to be about 250% of the best panels we have today but the real kicker to this tech was that they were getting electricity from heat alone meaning making power at night time!  They claimed the test showed that it was generating small amount of power from temps of 60 degrees F which imo is not hot.  Hell on a hot summer sunny and cloudless day my roof gets 125-135 now that is hot.  This company would make a great investment once it goes public but that might be another 3-5 years at the least.

[Felagunda]

Brazil made the sensible descision: LETS KEEP OUR CORRUPTION LOCAL! They too have the issue of the power companies using their finacial weight to alter political movement, but at least its all local, since they grow their own fuel (Fuel which is cheaper and releases MORE energy than oil).GE and Maytag BOUGHT THE PLANS, copyrighted the process, and destroyed the working models.And guess who those companies are? YES, the same ones who sell us oil, build our nuke plants, and tell us to turn our heating up....

You do realize that only 2% of USA power is produced by burning a petroleum product right?  Why you burn oil or gas made by oil when it's price is so unstable and high.  LoL reading that makes me wanna not read anything else you have said.

Also 40% from solar is a lie and laughable.  Right now the best ones in large use 28%.  Maybe you are talking about some technology that isn't actually being use but is developed and waiting to be built?

Also when we started useing ehtnalo from corn to add in our gas global prices on corn and all products made by it went about 80% in just the first year.  It's stablized now and fallen a bit but any time you use food to make engery it gonna effect prices around the world.  You must keep in mind that America Agri industy pretty much feeds the world we export so much food.