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RE: Nuclear technology - dangerous or not?
The huge problem for me isn't the danger from the plants (that is very minimized and gets better every year) leaking, but in what's left over.
Where do you store the cores and used rods?
How do you justify heating huge gobs of water in a world where water is becoming ever more precious?
Those are the questions that need to be answered in order to get me on board.
Some advanced reactors are capable of "burning" nuclear waste for more energy which would effectively solve the potential radioactive waste problem. These same reactors can burn nuclear weapons for energy too.
If nuclear technology was fully implemented we could find ourselves living in a world where energy is practically free.
A nuclear power plant produces approximately 25 tons of nuclear waste per year. Sounds a lot at first, but that's like a cube with the side lengths of one meter each. In other words, a relatively small amount in terms of volume.
The storage problem has not yet been solved to the utmost satisfaction, but this is not an unsolvable problem. The castor containers of a German company for storing the burned rods are already extremely safe, only the final disposal has to be taken care of. But as I said, this is not an insoluble problem in my eyes.
The biggest sourceof energy, coal mining, is more environmentally unfriendly and thousands of people die every year. Most governments already know that nuclear energy plants have become very efficient, run for decades, the waste can be recycled better than other sources, but because of public opinion, they won’t want to burn their hands. I know this first hand from a brilliant scientist friend who advices on energy And governments ask him for advice. They know it, but won’t do it. Maybe when energy poverty becomes so serious ( it is already becoming a problem in Germany) will we start implementing nuclear energy on larger scale.
That is so true. I have a professor at my university who was working 40 years at a nuclear plant for Siemens. Unfortunally the politics and the public are the problem because lack of knowledge and understanding. The scientist all like the nuclear plants and they are sure way better than burning coal but at the end the best solution does not win.
I’m glad you write a post about it. Many people don’t even dare to touch the subject.
It may have sounded like I am 'anti'. I'm really not, I like nuclear way better than coal or oil. The oil sands are an environmental catastrophe in the making. It isn't if there will be a problem, it's when.
I just wanted to point out the problems that need to be solved other than the 'meltdown' fear.
And for the record, I know a guy that was on the containment project at Hanford WA. He helped design a storage container that will work.
That’s nice. I don’t claim it’s perfect, and I might be a bit over enthusiastic to try to convince people.