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Member (Idle past 4170 days) Posts: 990 From: Burlington, NC, USA Joined: |
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Author | Topic: Is nuclear power safe?? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
nwr Member Posts: 6409 From: Geneva, Illinois Joined: Member Rating: 5.3 |
If nuclear power save more lives than it costs, then I'd call it "safe" and give it the green light.
But, but, but ..."nuclear" sounds so much scarier than "carbon dioxide". Fundamentalism - the anti-American, anti-Christian branch of American Christianity
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Dr Adequate Member (Idle past 310 days) Posts: 16113 Joined: |
If nuclear power save more lives than it costs, then I'd call it "safe" and give it the green light. This is hardly new news, but yes. This is why people like me and Obama support it.
In my opinion, utilizing nuclear power is the only way we're going to move forward into the future. Well, not the only way. Look at Germany. But it is something that would help a lot.
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petrophysics1 Inactive Member
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NWR writes: But, but, but ..."nuclear" sounds so much scarier than "carbon dioxide". This is a real problem. A couple of years ago I got a couple of MRI's and was talking with my neurologist and mentioned that in the oil and gas industry we had a borehole geophysical log called the Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Log which worked on the same principle as an MRI. He had worked with the first MRI machines and said they also at the time called it Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Imaging but no one wanted to get near it or have it done so they changed the name to MRI (no one is afraid of magnets and resonance sounds like a nice thing from music). Maybe the name should be changed to Natural Fission Power Plant and everyone told these are designed completely different than old Nuclear Power Plants (not completely untrue).
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New Cat's Eye Inactive Member |
But, but, but ... "nuclear" sounds so much scarier than "carbon dioxide". Ahem:
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nwr Member Posts: 6409 From: Geneva, Illinois Joined: Member Rating: 5.3 |
Ahem:
Yes, I regretted not using "nukular" immediately after posting. NucularFundamentalism - the anti-American, anti-Christian branch of American Christianity
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ViperAce Junior Member (Idle past 4000 days) Posts: 6 From: Phoenix Joined: |
From what I know, nuclear power sounds like a good option. It has potential for life threatening accidents but if used properly it generates a lot of cost effective energy and creates very little greenhouse gas emissions, the main form of pollution that is a red flag for fossil fuel based energy.
It does generate harmful waste but this might be a good tradeoff compared to greenhouse gas emissions. If nuclear energy did become the dominate form of energy generation, a lot of work would have to be done in managing this waste.
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Pressie Member Posts: 2103 From: Pretoria, SA Joined: |
I completely agree with you, ViperAce.
In the end, at least in my country, what is needed would be to utilise all the potential sources of energy. It's an integration of sources. The future seems to be a combination of coal, nuclear, solar, wind, hydro,oil, gas; all of them. They all have advantages and disadvantages. Unfortunately we don't currently have a choice. Hopefully some technological breakthrough is on it's way. Wish governments would put a lot more money into research on this issue. Instead, in my country, the government uses a lot of the funds they generate from carbon tax on having things like extravagant, well-lit parties (energy from from both coal powered and nuclear power stations) held under disco balls. Then they switch off those lights to celebrate earth-day for an hour a year, using oil lamps while dancing in the dim light of another fossil fuel. Only a small amount of the total tax generated by the carbon tax goes into research of renewable , clean, safe, energy sources. Sigh. Edited by Pressie, : No reason given. Edited by Pressie, : No reason given. Edited by Pressie, : No reason given. Edited by Pressie, : No reason given.
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Taq Member Posts: 10067 Joined: Member Rating: 5.2
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From what I know, nuclear power sounds like a good option. It has potential for life threatening accidents but if used properly it generates a lot of cost effective energy and creates very little greenhouse gas emissions, the main form of pollution that is a red flag for fossil fuel based energy. It does generate harmful waste but this might be a good tradeoff compared to greenhouse gas emissions. If nuclear energy did become the dominate form of energy generation, a lot of work would have to be done in managing this waste. From what I have read and understood, new technology could make reactors much safer and they would also be able to use recycled nuclear waste which would cut down on the total radiation that has to be stored long term. For example, the design of pebble bed reactors makes meltdowns impossible. If the temperature gets too high the nuclear fission reactions shut down all on their own. Pebble-bed reactor - Wikipedia
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Rahvin Member Posts: 4042 Joined: Member Rating: 8.0
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How about a molten salt reactor?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molten_salt_reactor Or using Thorium instead of Uranium/Plutnium?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorium_fuel_cycle quote: The state of nuclear power generation is hobbled not by the laws of physics or the lack of capability, but solely by political nonsense spawning from irrational fear over the objectively safest power generation source currently known to man. The human understanding when it has once adopted an opinion (either as being the received opinion or as being agreeable to itself) draws all things else to support and agree with it. - Francis Bacon "There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs." - John Rogers A world that can be explained even with bad reasons is a familiar world. But, on the other hand, in a universe suddenly divested of illusions and lights, man feels an alien, a stranger. His exile is without remedy since he is deprived of the memory of a lost home or the hope of a promised land. This divorce between man and his life, the actor and his setting, is properly the feeling of absurdity. — Albert Camus "...the pious hope that by combining numerous little turds of variously tainted data, one can obtain a valuable result; but in fact, the outcome is merely a larger than average pile of shit." - Barash, David 1995.
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Taq Member Posts: 10067 Joined: Member Rating: 5.2 |
How about a molten salt reactor? Molten salt reactor - Wikipedia Or using Thorium instead of Uranium/Plutnium? Thorium fuel cycle - Wikipedia
Those are also great options. It is sad that we are still using 50 year old reactor technology.
The state of nuclear power generation is hobbled not by the laws of physics or the lack of capability, but solely by political nonsense spawning from irrational fear over the objectively safest power generation source currently known to man. Exactly. I think it is part of human psychology to fear the unseen and unfamiliar more than the threats you can see and do understand. For example, people freak out about what are really low levels of radiation while living in a city with very unhealthy smog levels. If people really knew the amount of radiation that granite countertops can pump out I wonder what they would do?
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Pressie Member Posts: 2103 From: Pretoria, SA Joined: |
People living in a big town in my country, called Paarl (a far-flung suburb of Cape Town), are exposed to natural radiation of 7 000 mSv per year from that rock they love. A big granite dome in the form of a beautiful mountain.
Yet some of them demonstrate against the nuclear power plant closeby. Ignorance, I guess. Edited by Pressie, : No reason given.
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Huntard Member (Idle past 2320 days) Posts: 2870 From: Limburg, The Netherlands Joined:
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According to this article, the disaster at Fukushima isn't quite the apocalypse the nutty greeners made it out to be.
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