Germany to Shutdown All Nuclear Power Plants

Good for them, though i can only hope the plan goes as said. Lots of talk has always been spoken but actions speak for themselves (i'm not targeting the germans but humans have a way of saying one thing and doing another). I hope they keep their word on this. Its good to hear someone is trying to move in the right direction.

 

I'm more in favor of Nuclear than I am fossil fuels or biomass generators actually. MUCH more so than coal.

But I feel like we should really just move toward Deuterium Fusion generators which essentially runs off of sea water and has very little accident potential, nothing catastrophic at all and produces only minute amount of radiation.

Or just a better way to mass produce silicone and cover roof tops in solar panels.

 

Well, those are the devil and the deep blue sea, if you ask me.

Speaking as a former nuclear plant operator and instructor (and who served aboard a nuclear submarine), I'll say this ... if the civilian nuclear industry ran their plants the way we did in the Navy, they would never have these problems. The emergency cooling system shouldn't even require electricity ... ours didn't. The plant was designed so that the ECS circulated water via natural convection flow. And it worked. We tested it every chance we got.

But be that as it may, I'm guessing that the Japanese tragedy spells the death knell for the commercial nuclear power industry. And good riddance, I say. It's been 60+ years since the first power-producing nuclear plant, and we still don't have any good plan for dealing with the high-level radioactive waste. That stuff is bad shit.

But that doesn't address the cancer and black-lung disease and all the other health risks, not to mention climate change, from the burning of coal or oil. How can you say that nuclear is worse than those things?

Bingo.

 

i hope they can pull this off and still have reasonably affordable energy. a friend has a relative who put in a wind generator. it's only been working a couple months, and we're looking for data to see what the payback is. the last time i looked at solar, the payback was something like 17 years. that's too long...but someone has to think long term. that usually means someone is using someone else's money.

 

Good one.

 

Other than the poster who was a former Submariner with the nifty Emergency Cooling System for nuke accidents I've never cared for nuclear power for making electrical power. I have always felt it was the most effective way of dealing with am obstinate enemy who needed to be put down. At least until a cleaner and just as effective weapon becomes available nukes are what we got.

But it's NOT just about power generation. Take the recent disaster in Missouri from those killer tornadoes. Building codes either HAVE TO BE STRENGTHENED or immediately stop above grade construction and begin reconstruction of BELOW GRADE BUILDINGS!! Earthbermed houses are SUPER ENERGY EFFICIENT. Plus they can be near bug proof, fire proof, ATF storming your house proof, tornado proof, wind proof and arty resistant.
At the very least it has to be MANDATORY all structures for 'occupation' MUST HAVE a tornado proof below grade shelter capable of taking a class 5 tornado direct hit. Schools, libraries, hospitals, malls, fire stations, factories must have tornado shelters in place to handle the structures rated capacity of occupants+say 10-20% extra space for overflow. Shelters at the absolute minimum should have a 7 day water supply for the rated capacity of said shelters. Several fire extinguishers, a well thought out first aid kit and pioneer tools should be on hand (secured). Sanitation must be addressed. A hard wired diesel genset for basic lights and emergency comms with civil authorities and/or FEMA. Course tho many of us have seen just how inept FEMA can be when the SHTF. I would say as a good rule of thumb count on NOT being able to count on FEMA. On a local level perhaps restarting the old time Civil Defense.

Ok so I went off topic about a zillion hectares. So sue me.....

Of all the fossil fuels Natural Gas is the cleanest. We should switch out our coal fired power plants to NG. Then we should sell all of our coal to China and let them pollute the crap out of their land and NOT OURS!!
Personally I've always preferred Hydro power. A good solid flow from upriver that never stops is hard to beat for sustainability. Build in a fish ladder and hatchery and you're good to go. If a few cry baby tree huggers don't like it fine....hand them the bill for building a new plant. They can pass the hat and buck up or shut up. Give them an all expenses paid ONE WAY trip to China or some other emerging nation so they will no longer be a drain on our local natural resources.

But America DOES HAVE a viable source of power right here at home. We only need 3 things.
1) Land. We need to put all fallow ground into use growing this commodity. Getting 3 or 4 cash crops per year could put America back on the map of prosperity and America could collectively all flip the bird at OPEC and watch as OPEC fades away in a sandstorm of lost revenue.
2) Rescind the law making it illegal for American farmers to plant and raise this vital plant. The seed of which can be turned into gas, diesel, jet fuel, solvents, plastics, paints, human and animal food. That's all I know about tho I'd bet there are lots more things you can do with the seeds.
3) Plant HEMP. Reap the rewards. Tell OPEC to eat shit and die. Fuckem!!
Hells bells we could tell Exxon, Dow Chemical, Halliburton and some big ass banks to eat shit and fuck off as well.

Wouldn't that be a hoot!!:sunny:

 

No Nukes is good nukes.
Solar and wind.

Ethanol out of hemp stalks. Drive your car, and smoke it too!

F__ OPEC. Grow your own.

 

Nuclear energy makes up something like 25% of Germany's energy output. While I'm glad that they're making the effort to cut Nuclear, they're going to have to make it up somewhere.

Unfortunately, it looks likely that they'll fill the hole with more coal. That won't exactly help the problem. Yes, they say they're going to make it up in Renewable, but DOUBLING it in 10 years? Fat chance.

I'm all for shutting down Nuclear plants, and I'm glad this is going ahead, but it was done in response to the Japanese accidents, not for cleaner energy. Looks like political point-scoring to me.

Oh well, no need to be so pessimistic. Hopefully this will lead to other countries doing the same

 

If the majority of people in this world only knew what they're doing with the nuclear waste. I'm sure they would go after every single politician and military general and cut off their heads. Because what they're doing with that stuff is not only a war crime and a crime against humanity. It's also a crime against creation itself.

 

I think some serious attention to Tesla's inventions and patents needs to happen

 

And even building enough new coal-fired plants in 10 years to make up the deficit would be very difficult.

It's worth pointing out that many, many more people have died in coal mines or developed respiratory problems from the burning of coal than from nuclear. And coal-fired power plants actually emit more radioactivity into the atmosphere than nuclear plants do, from the radioactive carbon-14 in the coal.

The difference is these deaths don't happen all at once, and governments are more accepting of tragedy if it's metered out over time. And that's not to mention the vague mental connection between nuclear power and nuclear weapons.

All that's irrelevant, however, as far as I'm concerned. The choice shouldn't be between nuclear and coal/oil/gas, it should be between nuclear/coal/oil/gas and solar/wind/other ... between non-renewable and renewable.

What's frustrating to me about this debate is that it's not a new debate. All of these issues have been well-understood for freaking decades. You might be able to engineer the plants better now than you could 50 years ago, but you can't change basic nuclear physics.

But it's not a matter of having the technology or even the money. It's a matter of having the political will to do it. I might suggest that if we spent half as much over the next decade as we've spent over the last decade on the Middle East war, we'd be a long way toward solving our energy problems.

Ha. Can you show me something that politicians do that isn't political point-scoring?

 

Very good indeed,lets hope other countries follow!

 

Germany puts us to shame. They're also the biggest solar cell user or atleast near the top.

 

If the money is ok they will do it.