As I write this, another Japanese nuclear plant has suffered an explosion. News isn't in yet on how had it is. Apparently quite a few of their plants are in the middle of emergencies of varying severity.
My guess is that this will pretty much be the end of the nuclear power industry in most countries. People won't want to be near them. Insurance companies won't want to touch them. Politicians will certainly want to distance themselves from the industry.
Now there are some reactor designs that are a lot safer than the old existing plants. They are supposed to be inherently safe. The idea is that if anything goes wrong, the reaction automatically shuts off. I've no idea if the new designs are really as safe as they say they are. The old ones were supposed to be safe too. At one time, we were told the odds of a nuclear plant disaster were one in a million. Reality has proven otherwise.
Got iodine?
What are our options now? Nuclear power provides a significant part of the world's energy. Get used to grid power becoming progressively unreliable. If you want power you can count on, make it yourself.
-Sixbears
The Jon Swift Memorial 2024 Blog Roundup
13 minutes ago
Turn off the news it is voellshciesse!
ReplyDeleteyes there are safer reactor designs that cost more to construct and maintain; but as in most reactors are built to the lowest bid with parts designed to minimum specs maintained all by miminal costs... it is a wonder why more don't go bad.
ReplyDeleteand yet the maximum profit is extracted. bet none of the owners live within twenty miles of any said plant..
a real wonder indeed!
Wildflower
Actually there has been more total radiation released from coal fired power plants than from nuclear.
ReplyDeleteWith our current world population, we have very limited good choices.
ReplyDeleteMany of the oil producing countries are the ones who want the civilian use plants the most. Do you think they are a little concerned with running our of fuel?
To be honest, Yes. I have no problem with a nuke plant. For over 10 years I was a power plant operator. Granted, that was with a coal fired plant....but....I had a cousin that was aboard a nuke sub..no problems whatsoever. Bottom line...if corners are not cut, the proper materials used, the location of the plant is of paramount concern, operation is done correctly then there is no reason for worry. Can things still happen? Certainly. But all things considered..Nuclear power seems to be a lot better than these dang windmills. Fossil fuel plants..I have nothing against those either. As I said earlier...I operated turbines as well as boilers in a coal/oil/gas fired plant. All this talk about polution...talk about a tempest in a tea pot...geeze....get off it!!
ReplyDeleteIt's a hard choice "NOT"
ReplyDeleteEither we go on to Nuclear type power generators, or we go back to being cave men.
Fear of fire took a long time for cave man to deal with.
We have no choice, but to progress, or collapse.
As the situation continues to unfold, it'll become clear we can't do nuclear the way it's been done in the past.
ReplyDeleteNo need to go back to the caves. We can do better than this.
Well I sure don't like that nuclear and I don't think those solar panels should be allowed either, right out there in open view they don't look good at all with that sun reflecting off every which ways. And those oil tankers are really dangerous and should be outlawed same as burning of coal with all those fumes and such. What about that idea to get more natural gas by water fracking or some such...what is that going to do to our ground water? No sir all that should be outlawed and just when it seems like there may be a flicker of candle light at the end of the tunnel some group is wanting to build transmission lines through my viewscape for some hydro project or another.
ReplyDeleteLet the engineers design the next generation nuclear plants, not the money men. Go with one of the higher bidders not the bottom bid. Build them in safer locals ! Ie; your backyard ha ha
ReplyDeleteAs in Nevada, New Mexico or Arizona. Waste water could be used for agriculture, think winter time hydroponics.
Either we start thinking large today or dream about what could have been tomorrow.
Pro-nuclear here -- people fear what they don't understand. The powerplants failing in Japan are an old design, lets have some new ones built in the US for a change.
ReplyDelete