I'm okay with a nuke taking a week to get running and for there to be checks along the way. But, once they are running they can run for years and generate electricity very reliably. Nuke plants and the big fossil plants are used for large scale electricity supplies while the smaller ones are used to adjust voltages in the grid. Why not have some alternatives in there as well.

Another thing, I don't care if it takes 25 years for a payback period on building some alternative system that happens to be non-polluting. There is NO payback period on just burning more dead dinos.

 

Tell that to Georgia Power, who has some generator plants they aren't allowed to operate more than a certain number of hours because it might make lake water too warm!

 

There is currently a generating capacity of well over 600,000 (that's six hundred thousand) megawatts in the US with several thousand megawatts of new capacity coming online every year. So what if some of those megawatts are derived from a free fuel source like the sun. The only people that have a problem with that is the people that make money off of non-renewable resource usage.

 

Just my opinion, but I feel that anyone against allowing me to choose how spend my money is UNAMERICAN.

I'm not an energy speculator, but how dare you or anyone tell me where I can invest. Last I looked this was still a free country.

(FYI... I don't think you're unAmerican. This was a tongue in cheek remark to illustrate how, well, silly I feel your position in this is)

 

My thought is this: If I am being asked to pay for, install, and RELY on a source - it had better be well thought out. Its not an accident we generate power as we do - the other methods were tested as far back as the 1800s and failed then and every year up to now.

If you want a big govt check, just say 'green power' and no proof is required.

Stop for a minute and look at resource poor france and Japan. They are almost 100% nuke.

ask yourself for a moment why that is.

do they build better reactors than us?

 

No, just a cheaper, less reliable and less safe reactor.

 

That is true, there are some plants with operating restrictions but those restrictions are known to them and included in the license they are given to operate the plant.

The point is that there are seldom blackouts caused by the wait for plants to come on line. If anything, blackouts are caused more by the limitations in the distribution system more than the generation side.

 

And lieing, thieving bastiges like Jeff Skilling and Ken Lay.

 

actually we design or cross license the reactors.

the answer is political

Who were BOTH candidates for president recently in the past life?

lawyers?

What are MOST lawmakers? lawyers?

Who do they appoint to head cabinet positions? Bankers and more lawyers?

France and Japan have this bad habit of electing scientists and PHds and physicists to power.

Would Hillary neccessarily make a good DEpt of energy head?

The last reactor licensed was over 20 years ago, from a design approaching 30 years.

IS it possible we might have slightly different designs today?

France, and Japan, and all other Nuke friendly countries settle on a single design or design family and build to that. And since the people in power are knowledgable about the technology, they are not likely to be swayed by a lobbyist who is good at BS.

France and Japan also do something else - they nationalize the industry. Its paid for by tax dollars and rate charges upkeep it - not pay stock dividends.

When the industry is nationalized, you can take a hole in the ground and deep inject the waste. WE can do the same here, and simply guard it against the crackpots.

It would appear that electricity is the one energy form that is not going away in any conceivable future (unless we discover star-trek like plasma transmission, but even then, you ever touch plasma?) It is highly STUPID to generate one energy source that will therefore always be needed - using another source that is diminishing. A lesson the US refuses to learn. Next time you are in a nuke debate and someone says 'Chernobyl' - just smack them upside the head with a 2x4. Its their fault for being stupid so feel no guilt.

In the meantime, all oil and gas fired plants should be banned ASAP and replaced with coal until the PWR plant is online to replace it - the temporary hit in carbon emmissions will be more than offset by the loss of ALL generating station carbon emmissions in a few years.

Since we can do this on a nationalized level, there are no profit/loss concerns to worry about.

 

Hydro electric can't simply come on line in a matter of minutes. They are governed by environmentals concerning lake and river levels, total flow, etc. Most peak demand power in this country is supplied by natural gas because it can come on in seconds (minutes is too long a reaction and can lead to brown outs) and is very easy to control its output.

You know why electric companies give discounts for people who have hourly rated meters (so they can use less power during peak hours)? Because providing continuous power with coal, nuclear, water, etc. is very cheap but bringing natural gas online for peaks isn't.

 

Maybe if his previous life, through reincarnication McCain was a lawyer, but not in his current time span on this planet. McCain has been in the military and politics all his life, but never a lawyer.

 

Ok, I conceed he was the one 2008 candidate who was NOT a lawyer - but my point still stands - exactly what experience qualifies these people to make decisions that are technical in nature.

Kyoto made it to the senate floor. That fact alone proves our elected officials are clueless about things that actually do matter.

 

There is only one thing that matters to those people. Getting elected and then doing what it takes to get re-elected. They are only environmentalists (or whatever issue) to the point that they anger their consituents. My own Senators are perfect examples of that - they are both in favor of alternative power sources until someone proposes a wind farm off Cape Cod - then the NIMBY in them kicks in and they fight it tooth and nail. They don't vote science, conscience or what is best for the country - they vote to get votes.