Should Nuclear Power Survive Japan?

[^_^ 5,021]

Should Nuclear Power Survive Japan?

Posted by Michael Specter

I grew up in a world where progressive politics were pretty straightforward: you opposed the war in Vietnam, supported civil rights, and treated Earth Day like Christmas. (With a little sanctimony thrown in, perhaps.) Nuclear energy was about as popular as a visit to a local draft board. Daniel and Philip Berrigan, priests who became heroic anti-war demonstrators, became heroic again for picketing nuclear facilities and dumping blood on their grounds. Of course, that was all before anybody paid attention to climate change.

The destruction at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, already a catastrophe for Japan, is also likely to hinder any effort to build a new generation of nuclear plants in the United States (and perhaps in other countries as well). As a matter of scientific policy, that is terrible news indeed. Nuclear power is the only abundant energy source we have that emits nearly no greenhouse gases. As a matter of public policy, however, the fear escaping through the containment walls in Sendai will only hasten the inevitable. The battle for nuclear plants was always going to be long, expensive, and ugly. We don’t have the time and we don’t have the money.

Many climatologists have come to support nuclear power. My favorite converter by far is Stewart Brand; the greenest man of the nineteen-sixties, Brand started the Whole Earth Catalog and has been a voice of reason and restraint for nearly fifty years. As he likes to point out, if you used only power generated by nuclear energy throughout your life, the waste could fit into a can of Coca-Cola. The waste from burning coal, on the other hand, would fill dozens of boxcars, for each of us. So it makes sense, intellectually, for President Obama and serious environmentalists to support nuclear power.

Alas, it is also a mistake. Science doesn’t always matter; emotion governs our lives just as often, as anyone privy to the vaccine wars or the vicious battle over genetically modified foods (another environmentally benign product endorsed by Brand) can report. It isn’t enough for nuclear energy to make sense; the fighting that comes with it will only distract us from our goal, which is to make clean fuel. There is an obvious way to do that: invest in the next industrial revolution. We can use biology to make clean gas.

So while I pray for the people of Japan, I am not sorry to see the nuclear future derailed. There are better ways to save the planet.

[mawilson 2,133]

Just don't build them in seismic zones. Problem solved.

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Just don't build them in seismic zones. Problem solved.

So no nukular plants anywhere in the ring of fire? Build them all on France.

Edited March 15, 2011 by \

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

So no nukular plants anywhere in the ring of fire? Build them all on France.

I was going to say, no nukes in the Pacific Rim, etc? There isn't too many place that don't at least have the potential, if not the history of major earthshaking events. Think New Madrid.

[^_^ 5,021]

I was going to say, no nukes in the Pacific Rim, etc? There isn't too many place that don't at least have the potential, if not the history of major earthshaking events. Think New Madrid.

How about on the moon?

Worst case scenario the moon explodes and we don't have tides anymore. No big deal.

[Usui Takumi 1,562]

There are safer units than Fukushima right? Such as PBRs?

How about on the moon?

Worst case scenario the moon explodes and we don't have tides anymore. No big deal.

I'm pretty sure life as we know it requires the moon.

[^_^ 5,021]

There are safer units than Fukushima right? Such as PBRs?

Can it withstand alien attack?

I'm pretty sure life as we know it requires the moon.

When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's amore

True, procreation requires amore.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

So no nukular plants anywhere in the ring of fire? Build them all on France.

That's already done. France relies primarily on nuclear energy - some 75% of it's electricity comes from nuclear plants. That's a far larger share than any other country - the next in line is Slovakia with a bit above 50%. The US draws 20% from nuclear power, Japan less than 30%. France has 20 nuclear plants in operation, one under construction and one more in the planning stages.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Can it withstand alien attack?

When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's amore

True, procreation requires amore.

They say San Onofre can survive an attack by illegal aliens.

[^_^ 5,021]

They say San Onofre can survive an attack by illegal aliens.

What are illegal aliens gonna do, clean the place up, wash the dishes and cut the grass? Please - that is not very scary.

I'm talking about extraterrestrials. Or at least the inevitable ChiCom invasion for which California will be Ground Zero.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

What are illegal aliens gonna do, clean the place up, wash the dishes and cut the grass?

[Dakine10 5,452]

The wave of the future could end up being mini nuclear plants.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/nov/09/miniature-nuclear-reactors-los-alamos

[^_^ 5,021]

The wave of the future could end up being mini nuclear plants.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/nov/09/miniature-nuclear-reactors-los-alamos

A local mayor is on this particular bandwagon.

WARREN TWP. — Mayor Victor Sordillo told Township Committee members at the March 25 meeting he would “rather be on the cutting edge” of technology than anywhere else.

...

The other idea came, he said, after he read an article in the March 22 issue of Fortune about small nuclear power plants that are buried about 15 feet or more underground.

These “backyard nukes” as they have come to be known can produce enough power to supply as many as 20,000 homes with electricity at a cost of about 10 cents a kilowatt.

The mayor said that as a member of the Advisory Board of the American Nuclear Insurance Association, he isn’t worried about the safety aspects of such a power plant and pointed to “Chernoble and Three Mile Island” as the only serious accidents involving nuclear power plants.

The small nuclear power plants aren’t going to be ready until 2013 or so, but as the mayor said, he would “rather be on the cutting edge.”

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

I am thinking that the more dispersed we make these things, the more likely something will go wrong. Simple probability analysis tells you that if you have an x failure rate, that the probability of experiencing a failure is nx.

A multi-engine aircraft is more likely to experience an engine failure, than a single engine aircraft, although the likelihood of all engines failing is less than the likelihood of a single engine failing.

Similarly, the more nuclear plants you have in service, that more likely the possibility of something bad for the neighborhood to occur. However, the catastrophes may be smaller, although more significant, if you start putting the reactors in more densely populated areas.Burying them fifteen feet in the ground just puts them that much closer to contaminating the ground water.

Edited March 15, 2011 by Some Old Guy

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

I am thinking that the more dispersed we make these things, the more likely something will go wrong. Simple probability analysis tells you that if you have an x failure rate, that the probability of experiencing a failure is nx.

A multi-engine aircraft is more likely to experience an engine failure, than a single engine aircraft, although the likelihood of all engines failing is less than the likelihood of a single engine failing.

Similarly, the more nuclear plants you have in service, that more likely the possibility of something bad for the neighborhood to occur. However, the catastrophes may be smaller, although more significant, if you start putting the reactors in more densely populated areas.Burying them fifteen feet in the ground just puts them that much closer to contaminating the ground water.

AJ wants a nuclear reactor in his basement. Let him have it. If something goes wrong, he won't notice. At least not for very long.