To set out my position from the outset, I am largely against nuclear energy as the way to a cleaner, greener Earth. It’s not that I don’t see the benefits, it’s just that I don’t trust that the world governments have prepared sufficiently for waste disposal or that risks will have been adequately assessed. However, the energy crisis we hear about seems very real and imminent and it is probably true that the same lack of foresight and planning has meant that safer technologies such as wind and wave power have not been developed quickly enough to cope with our energy shortfall.
In this issue I am a lay person so I have decided simply to present the pros and cons and hope we can get a debate going.
Efficiency
Many researchers believe that harnessing the power of the atom in fission reactions is the most significant alternative energy resource that we have, for the fact of the immense power that it can generate. Their efficiency is rather staggering (nuclear power is generated at 80% efficiency).
Waste
There is not a lot of waste material generated by nuclear fission but the waste that is produced consists largely of radioactive materials. The necessity for safe storage of this waste is one of the main concerns of environmentalists, including many from the pagan community.
The radiation from this material lasts for an extraordinarily long time, so once contained and stored it can never be released . On the other hand, there is no greenhouse gas production hence no contribution to global warming.
Safety
Nuclear reactors deal with massive amounts of energy and it is imperative that the fission process is properly controlled, cooling being a vital element of this. Overheating can cause the reactor containment to be damaged, leading to non-nuclear explosions and environmental contamination. Although the risk of a “meltdown” is allegedly very low, providing equipment is kept up to date, it has happened before (e.g. Chernobyl).
Many people are also concerned about possible terrorist attacks and it is easy to see the attraction of nuclear power stations as a target. Despite this, there is supposedly no chance of an atomic power plant exploding like a nuclear bomb because of both the specialized geometry of the plant and the composition of the core materials.
Current Use
There are over 430 nuclear reactors spread out across 33 nations, and nuclear reactors have been in use since the early 1950s. Currently, six states in America generate more than half of all their electrical energy needs through nuclear power.
Your thoughts…
So what are your thoughts and feelings about the use of nuclear energy? I’m sure there are many opinions and it would be great to hear them.
Coming next: The Astrological Signs: Gemini
You’re a bit off on the term “efficiency”. A nuclear plant has the roughly the same efficiency as a standard fossil plant – 33% of the heat generated is converted into electricity. This is because the non-nuclear parts of a nuke and a fossil are roughly the same. (Some of the newer fossil designs do go higher.) What your 80% may be referring to is availability — how much of the time on average a reactor is producing full power. Traditional supplies run around 80 – 100%, windmills only about 25%, and so on. (So when they talk of 5 MW windmill, they often mean 5 MW max power, but don’t expect more than 25% of that on average.) One thing that is staggering about nuclear is the power per amount of fuel – one pellet of prepared nuclear fuel about the size of a marble is equivalent to 100 box cars of coal.
In a very general sense, you’re pretty much correct on everything else. Unfortunately, though, energy production isn’t something that lends itself to summarizing very well. It’s as complicated as everything else in life. If you’d like a entertaining lay person’s tour of the good and bad of the US electric and nuclear industry, see my blog at http://RadDecision.blogspot.com for my (free online) novel “Rad Decision”. It’s pretty much got everything else I’ve got to say on the topic. (Once in awhile I comment briefly on blogs like this just to let folks know this resource exists. Now its back into the ether. Good luck.)
Thanks James
I really appreciate your time to correct the information. I will definitely check out your blog. Best Regards
Great post!
Pretty cool post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say
that I have really liked reading your blog posts. Anyway
I’ll be subscribing to your blog and I hope you post again soon!
tks for the effort you put in here I appreciate it!
I wanted to introduce myself – Thanks
Mary Aloe
Greetings…
Discussion about the earths temperature increase – or global warming are most often disregarded as too scientific – however, an earthquake shaking an entire country into disaster should not be disregarded as another statistic. Hundreds of thousads are dead and homeless
Please help the victims to Chile and Haiti
http://www.google.com/relief/chileearthquake/
Hi im new to this board, I have been floating around for sometime as a guest & thought i would pop in and say hello.
Thanks