Damned if we do, Damned if we don't

[Cliff Clavin 10]

All these idiots calling for the end of Nuclear Power Stations is all fine and everything but I really hope they've thought it through. Will they be happy with sustained black out periods, schools closing on regular bases during winter times, high fatality rates in hospital, food shrortages, mass unemployment, a near or complete collapse of the economy?

 

In reality we need more Nuclear Power Stations as it's the cheapest more efficient way of producing electricty and if the electric car is ever to take of in mass production it's the only way to go.

[Resident 1,193]

We're all going to become residents of Holland if we don't use nuclear power?

[taxman 12]

We're all going to become residents of Holland if we don't use nuclear power?

 

Or even Denmark?

[Resident 1,193]

Or even Denmark?

 

DOH ! Geography fail !

 

I blame my tired brain, I've been staring at PHP all day.

[R i chy 10]

Nuclear Power Stations ftw.

 

Just build it in Rotherham so if there's a melt down the people mutated by radioactivity will blend in with the inbreds.

[Lockjaw 11]

Or even Denmark?

 

"Shrortages" definitely sounds Dutch to me, though his title suggests Denmark. Perhaps he's a polyglot.

[Fogey 10]

Alternatively we could spend the untold billions that new nuclear stations will cost on enough renewable sources to wipe out any energy crisis forever and ever and ever. Wind, hydro, solar, biomass, tidal, geothermal. With a good spread of those and the development of hydrogen fuel cells were good to go.

 

And before someone claims it will all be paid for privately, it wont it wont it wont because these things will be too important to fail when the private investors decide they arne't making enough money. So the public will have to pay for it one way or another.

 

However badly damaged a windturbine is it won't render any part of the earth uninhabitable for a period of several hundred years.

[Halibut 12]

Alternatively we could spend the untold billions that new nuclear stations will cost on enough renewable sources to wipe out any energy crisis forever and ever and ever. Wind, hydro, solar, biomass, tidal, geothermal. With a good spread of those and the development of hydrogen fuel cells were good to go.

 

And before someone claims it will all be paid for privately, it wont it wont it wont because these things will be too important to fail when the private investors decide they arne't making enough money. So the public will have to pay for it one way or another.

 

However badly damaged a windturbine is it won't render any part of the earth uninhabitable for a period of several hundred years.

 

Absolutely - spot on!

[HeadingNorth 11]

However badly damaged a windturbine is it won't render any part of the earth uninhabitable for a period of several hundred years.

 

And however undamaged it is, it won't produce even 1/1000 as much energy as a nuclear plant. You should at least try to compare like with like.

[Halibut 12]

And however undamaged it is, it won't produce even 1/1000 as much energy as a nuclear plant. You should at least try to compare like with like.

 

There isn't anything like a nuclear reactor - except another one.

 

Fogey's point is an excellent one - if there was massive investment in all the sources he talks about we simply wouldn't need nuclear energy.

[Resident 1,193]

However badly damaged a windturbine is it won't render any part of the earth uninhabitable for a period of several hundred years.

 

Highest power output recorded by a standard HAWT - 7.58MW

(average is around 5.5MW at full rotational speed, rarely achieved)

 

Highest power output recorded by 1 modern nuclear reactor - 1100 MW (1500MW reactors are currently being built in the US)

 

To reach the output using HAWTs of one reactor you'd need around 200 running at full rotational speed which is rarely acheived. The space required for 200 HAWTs could easily house several reactors.

 

I'm not disputing that use of HAWTs for many people is preferencial however the technology currently falls short of producing what's required

[Gordonb 11]

Not convinced about it being the cheapest. Per unit of electricity maybe but total life cost far exceeds anything else. Government is subsidising the decommissioning cost almost to a level of 100% Much rather it continued subsidising wind, solar and geothermal. Perhaps we need to continue looking at ways of reducing demand for energy rather than creating new generators.