Posted by
Gov Odious on Tuesday, June 17, 2008 10:11:34 AM
Electricity from nuclear reaction. This truly holds the answer to so many of the country's needs. Did you know that a greater amount of petroleum beyond automotive use is consumed for electric power generation? If that amount could be cut by even 50 to 70%, the remaining fuel could be had at much reduced costs for the automobile. Job loss throughout the US - in manufacturing, the cost of labor is only half the equation, if electric energy were cheaply available, many many of those jobs would flood back into our borders. Look at the aluminum industry - they all went to Iceland where they have nearly free geothermal electric energy.
So then, WHY do our esteemed politicians seem so ignorant and loathe to even utter the N-word? Energy Policy is rarely on their lips, and then only to talk pandering solutions. Chicken s*** they are! There hasn't been a new start nuclear reactor in the US in over 20 years. France, for all their foibles, is almost entirely nuclear powered. The new generation of reactors has come a very long way from the designs of the 60's and 70's. With honest and vigilant oversight of construction and operation, safety is a controllable and minimal risk. There should be a new start reactor in EVERY state in the union. They should ALL be of one design and operated in a way similar to that of Air Traffic Controllers - that way any of the workers can be moved to any of the plants and fit right in. Privately owned by the utility companies, but federally administered. Strikes of course would be prohibited due to the nature of the product. The American culture and mindset on this has to change, or we are doomed to our gluttonous past behaviors. But our self-absorbed nature can be the subject of another rant another day...
The issue of waste production and storage is not simple, but we certainly do have the capacity to safely store it right now. And technology marches forward - even though we may not today have a good means of mitigating the waste, we ALWAYS have new smart people coming up thru the ranks and there WILL be viable solutions within reasonable time frames (read this as 'expectantly hopeful').
Some of these new reactors could also be dedicated to industrial and manufacturing parks that consume huge amounts of electric power - like the ore refiners.
The so-called alternative energy sources like windmills and solar - are so minimal of input to the grid, they are laughable. Consider the notion of Return-on-Investment. The cost of one windmill powerhead is in the range of a MILLION dollars EACH. At an output of three megawatts on a good day, and at 3 cents per kilowatt, it will take about ten years to recover investment costs according to some industry analysts - and that's about the service life too.
Even the new "world-record" efficient gas turbine in Germany by Siemens hits 60% at 340 MW and burns fuels that puts out only a small percentage CO2 of a coal burner, at about 200,000 tons/year. Please contrast this with near ZERO CO2 emitted for a nuclear reactor (the workers gotta breathe).
By writing this, I hope to spark up some talk about the subjuect of nuclear energy. Some can easily take issue with the numbers I cite, and while not exactly accurate - I am in the ROM (rough order of magnitude). So, how 'bout it? Beat me up, agree with me, I dare ya.