Nuclear Power

[GDS_Starfury]

Gold bacon

[Windigo]

Nuclear reactors with containment vessels (Three Mile Island) are much safer than those without (see USSR).

Still, both those and the Japanese reactor show that a multi billion dollar investment can be ruined.  Nuke plants are more expensive than gas plants or coal plants (despite Obama's wish to kill coal).

But nukes produce less "evil carbon" which the bunny huggers should like - except they don't.

Still, you run the odds of a nuke plant being ruined with a massive drain on cash flow plus the loss of a multi-billion dollar investment and the math does not work right now.

the magic of commercial thorium reactors is coming very soon.... 'get with the beat Baggy'

[MikeGER]

everboy wants cheep nuclear power...
but nobody want to live close to the actual plant anymore (and close can be up to hundreds of klicks in the direction the wind blows most of the year, for very picky realestate buyers with small kids and a 'concerned' mom )

That the French had no accident in the news is either just luck or good OPSEC on operating theirs.
I always regarded the Japanese as very capable when it came to high tech usage, so Fukushima is really puzzling (if the Japanese can fuck up even the Germans can)... It may be the usual mixture of company ever cost saving endeavor and government incompetence in monitoring, but that the way of life is popular in most other modern  countries too....

When i witness all the BS that happens here with the former good trusty German Railroad, i think i am better off with only scientifically and military operated small reactors. (cost doenst matter once authorised with those, and the scientists know what they are doing)

A mixture of off-shore windmills plus pumped storage hydro power station, a little solar stuff at home, and natural gas is the way to go, and lets get rid off imported oil ASAP, so no more blackmail by OPEC and all the medieval-islamo sandni**ers
               

[GDS_Starfury]

To be fair to the Japanese I don't think they planned for an earthquake/tsunami hit like that.  That fell under the shit happens catagory.

[LongBlade]

To be fair to the Japanese I don't think they planned for an earthquake/tsunami hit like that.  That fell under the shit happens catagory.

Yes, but they did their best to coverup the severity.

There were warning signs. The village there had signs warning people not to build below X point due to tsunami. Sure the last tsunami that big had been 500 years ago. But it's a only nuclear plant, so why worry?

[DoctorQuest]

This might be a problem.....

http://www.omaha.com/article/20131013/NEWS/131019516

[Windigo]

70 million tons of spent fuel???   Ahhhh, I don't think that number is accurate. I know uranium is a dense material, but that number seems out to lunch by a magnitude

[bayonetbrant]

What's funny is how few locals realize just how many nuclear reactors there are at any given naval base around the US.

For all it's tree-hugger save-the-earth mentality, how many Californians do you think have a clue how many nuclear reactors are docked in San Diego right now?

[GDS_Starfury]

[DoctorQuest]

70 million tons of spent fuel???   Ahhhh, I don't think that number is accurate. I know uranium is a dense material, but that number seems out to lunch by a magnitude

You may be right on the number but we still have an issue. 

[eyebiter]

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