Nuclear Power Plants: Are Ye for it?

[BenRaines]

I would not consider Soviet monitored nuclear power as safe. They have greater problems with toxic waste from petroleum, mining, etc.

Ben Raines

[Moksha]

Originally Posted by john doe

Salt Lake City Weekly is hardly even-handed in its articles. I wouldn't trust much of what they say unless they back it up with reliable facts and figures which they rarely, if ever, do.

Their reporters have won a number of journalism awards for investigative reporting.

[MarginOfError]

Originally Posted by Moksha

I think they had some sort of incident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

They were also running experiments at Chornobyl trying to maximize energy output. They were doing things there that no US power plant would have gotten away with. In essence, they were deliberately overheating the rods, trying to see how far they could push the envelope without causing an explosion. I guess they found out.

The US history of nuclear power ended because no one could afford to make a venture into the business and still make a profit. But Americans were running nuclear power plants in a very different way than the Europeans, or even Canada. In those countries, nuclear power plants all have the same design with interchangeable parts. This allows for mass production of parts. So if something goes wrong with a part and the plant doesn't have one readily available, they don't have to wait for one to be manufactured...they just take one from another plant and order one to replace it.

In the US, since every plant had a custom design, all parts had to be custom made and special ordered. This gets really expensive. To avoid unnecessary expense, plants would wait until something started to wear out before ordering a new part, and then continue to run on a failing part until the new one arrived. Not a great idea.

You can tour the power plant in Quebec, Canada. You can even go down near the reactor and watch them change the rods. The only thing between you and the insanely hot rods is a glass wall and a pool of water. The water prevents the transmission of the radiation. It's completely safe, and you're standing 30 feet from the rods. At this plant, they have a couple of sites far away from populated areas where they store the spent fuel rods in under ground bunkers made of concrete. Yup, that's right...concrete blocks the passage of the radiation.

It really isn't hard to make nuclear energy affordable and safe. You just have to convince the public and then regulate the design of the plants (probably a major sticking point for the no-government involvement folks, but essential to make the plan affordable). The bigger problem is how do you talk Iran out of building nuclear power plants with your right hand while building your own with your left?

[sixpacktr]

I'm all for it. We are neglecting a great source of energy. I know, there is the problem of getting rid of the waste. But if we would let the free enterprise system work on it for a PROFIT (gasp!) because there is a demand for it, I have no doubt a solution could be worked out.

Even the Japanese, the only nation to be at the wrong end of a nuclear bomb, have nuclear power plants all over the place.

Chernobyl is not a good argument against nuclear power. For one, WE have no control over what other gov'ts or nations do. For another, the USSR was notoriously bad at doing anything except keeping their people down, with very lax regulations and a criminal lack of concern for what it did to the people or environment (as an aside, so is China, but that is a politically incorrect thing to say these days, as they have been 'reformed' apparently, and besides, they hold a ton of our debt...).

[Alana]

I'm all for it. When you drive into my town there is a sign that reads "NUCLEAR FREE ZONE", booo!

[Tarnished]

I think Nuclear power can be a good thing if handled correctly. What I found most interesting about the article though is that they are not going to be using Yucca Mountain for nuclear waste storage. That fact alone makes me happy that I am no longer living in Salt Lake City. If Utah can handle a Nuclear power plant better than they have handled the disposal of nuclear waste then I think it could really be a good thing in regard to jobs and such, otherwise I could see it as a big problem.

[john doe]

The Chernobyl plant design was completely different from the ones being used today all over the world. It was a disaster waiting to happen.

[john doe]

Originally Posted by Moksha

Their reporters have won a number of journalism awards for investigative reporting.

I'll bet the Enquirer and Star magazines can show you their awards too, it still doesn't make them reliable sources of information.

[sixpacktr]

Hijacking thread...

We do have to remember, however, John, that the Enquirer DID break the John 'Baby Channeler' Edwards story of his catting around behind his wife's back and fathering a child, when none of the MSM would touch the story.

Un-hijacking thread...

[john doe]

Originally Posted by sixpacktr

Hijacking thread...

We do have to remember, however, John, that the Enquirer DID break the John 'Baby Channeler' Edwards story of his catting around behind his wife's back and fathering a child, when none of the MSM would touch the story.

Un-hijacking thread...

True, but when you consider you had to sift through all the stories about space-alien babies to find the one that was true, it hardly makes it worth it.