Comments (13) (Please sign in to comment)

1. 

   Nabuquduriuzhur said, over 2 years ago

   Get used to the outages. The windmills don’t like the cold, as a recent British article commented on. 10% efficiency this week, vs. the normal 30 or 40.

   Plus having to have enormous acreages and infrastructure to generate the power. 100+ times the steel, CO2, etc. of coal-generation, several hundred thousand times that of fission. (Manufacturing hundreds to thousands of 300’ windmills vs. one standard 800MW coal or 2500 MW nuclear power plant is very wasteful of steel, copper, coal/coke, petroleum, etc.)

   Spain wisely quit building them and went back to normal power. Italy made the decision to go nuclear. France exports 75% of it’s electricity and has no waste problem, due to breeder reactors and reprocessing the waste into new fuel rods— something Carter stopped and no Congress has ever seen fit to restart.
2. 

   Redhead55 said, over 2 years ago

   Quite right, Nabuquduriuzhur. France has the most efficient nuclear power system in the world.
3. 

   kreole said, over 2 years ago

   The US is kicking the can as it plods down the road of energy harnessing. Yes, nuclear energy is the ultimate solution……natural gas is good in the meantime for power plants while learning from France.
4. 

   kreole said, over 2 years ago

   What is Joan using for heat?
5. 

   gforgina said, over 2 years ago

   @kreole, squabbling kids generate lots of heat.
6. 

   Fairportfan2 said, over 2 years ago

   Nab: the problem with breeder reactors is that (as Carter knew,as a nuclear engineer himself) is that, unlike other reactors, they can go supercritical and explode.

   Not that i think any are ever likely to, but the simple fact that they can is more anti-nuclear ammunition than i want to give the neo-luddites.

   (Also, of course, they produce weapons-grade material as aprt of normal operation, which i’m not sure is a good idea.)
7. 

   lightenup said, over 2 years ago

   Misery loves company.

   Very interesting discussion going on here this morning…
8. 

   Lingeewhiz said, over 2 years ago

   Now they can squabble with the lights and heat on at least.
9. 

   AmariT said, over 2 years ago

   I’m sure the power is out in the whole neighborhood, not just their place. Otherwise they would have gone over to Joan’s house much sooner.
10. 

    vishooter said, over 2 years ago

    @Fairportfan2 - That’s impressive resume enhancement. Lt Carter dropped out of the Navy’s nuclear engineer training when his father died in 1953. That doesn’t make him a nuclear engineer.

    Reactors of any kind can’t make a nuclear explosion; they can only overheat and have steam burst out or the core melt.

    For an explanation of a Supercritical Breeder Reactor see wikipedia.
11. 

    skessa said, over 2 years ago

    Is that what they tell you over there? Well, it’s not true. Ever heard of a castor-transport, and the huge protests about them? What do you think those transports carry, sugar? No, they take the nuclear waste from the french reactors to eastern Europe, where they get buried, in the hope it won’t leak into the ground and water while we’re still alive - it will happen to our children, and who cares about that as long as money’s to be earned now… There’s no such thing as a “clean” nuclear plant. They all produce huge amounts of insanely toxic waste that no one has any use for except maybe terrorists, and that no one can do anything about or make it disappear.
12. 

    dalbino83 said, over 2 years ago

    http://tinyurl.com/ye7ccq2

    See the chart on the second page of the article, comparing uranium to thorium - a thorium reactor takes up much less space, is very inexpensive by comparison, produces less waste, and the waste can’t be turned into weapons. Sounds like a very promising technology!
13. 

    DAZZ said, over 2 years ago

    The more I hear of all the “progress”, the happier I am that I only have a decade or 2 remaining (at 73). I am not happy about the future of my kids and grandkids etc.
14. Refresh Comments.