Has Nuke power just nukedthefridge, worse than 3 Mile Island?

[DarthTom]

How many cities have had to be abandoned because a windmill broke down? Nuclear power isn't worth the risk when cleaner longer term alternatives are so readily available.

When you add in the fully loaded costs into all the of the existing sources and balance that against enviornmental factors I think it's clear that natural gas is the best choice over the next 50 - 60 years. It's estimated that with existing known reserves in the US we have a 60 year + supply and this isn't facotring in new finds and that fracking has produced new supplies.

As an aside, I think it's interesting to note that Germany is going to abandon nuclear power by 2022 but is the largest international manufactuerer of the plants internationally in the world.

E.ON is one of Germany's largest companies and exports nuclear power worldwide.

 

[gturner]

Liquid fluoride thorium reactors are almost certainly the way to go from almost any standpoint. Youtube has lots of presentations about them from Kirk Sorensen who left NASA to found Flibe energy.

 

[MacLeod]

How many cities have had to be abandoned because a windmill broke down? Nuclear power isn't worth the risk when cleaner longer term alternatives are so readily available.

When you add in the fully loaded costs into all the of the existing sources and balance that against enviornmental factors I think it's clear that natural gas is the best choice over the next 50 - 60 years. It's estimated that with existing known reserves in the US we have a 60 year + supply and this isn't facotring in new finds and that fracking has produced new supplies.

As an aside, I think it's interesting to note that Germany is going to abandon nuclear power by 2022 but is the largest international manufactuerer of the plants internationally in the world.

E.ON is one of Germany's largest companies and exports nuclear power worldwide.

So what enviromental factors are you willing to put up with, and what enviromental factors are you willing to burdurn our children with?

 

[gturner]

How many cities have had to be abandoned because a windmill broke down? Nuclear power isn't worth the risk when cleaner longer term alternatives are so readily available.

How many cities are powered by wind? Aside from the high-levelized grid cost of wind power, it's intermittent. If you tried to power a city entirely with windmills and the wind died, or if the windmills are hit with an ice storm, the city would go dark just when power was most needed. Thousands would die freezing in their homes, and soon gangs of warring bandits would form, preying on the weak and infirm. It would soon resemble Leningrad during the Nazi siege, and those who didn't make it out on foot (because they'd have no way to charge their little electric cars) would soon resort to cannibalism.

 

[Maurice]

Cannibalism? Exaggerate much?

 

[gturner]

Certainly not. Energy cannibalism even has a wiki. There's even a native term for the winter cannibals who depended on wind power, the windigo or windago, which:

.. is a demonic half-beast creature appearing in the legends of the Algonquian peoples along the Atlantic Coast and Great Lakes Region of both the United States and Canada. The creature or spirit could either possess humans or be a monster that had physically transformed from a person. It is particularly associated with cannibalism. The Algonquian believed those who indulged in eating human flesh were at particular risk; the legend appears to have reinforced the practice of cannibalism as a taboo. It is often described in Algonquian mythology as a balance of nature.

<snip>

They were strongly associated with the winter, the north, and coldness, as well as with famine and starvation.

Obviously the term is a reference to wind-power boosters, aka windagos, who end up gaunt and starving and develop a craving for human flesh. Back then, the native Americans didn't have coal, natural gas, or nuclear power and depended entirely upon renewables. Thus their constant fear of these "windigo" cannibals.

 

[USS Triumphant]

It would soon resemble Leningrad during the Nazi siege, and those who didn't make it out on foot (because they'd have no way to charge their little electric cars) would soon resort to cannibalism.

"Leningrad has lost all electrical power."

 

[scotpens]

Cannibalism? Exaggerate much?

Perhaps you're not familiar with gturner's sense of humor.