Forum OpenACS Q&A: OT: Nuclear Power

I think I have to second Todd on most of his points. According to the European Physists Society, 436 nuclear power plants have been in operation, producing 17% of worldwide electricity. In western Europe 151 produce even 43% of the electricity needed. I was searching for nice numbers how much emissions will be produced if Europe was to switch to fossile fuels for its 151 reactors, but could not find any. And if someone does, please have a look at the environmental costs involved with the digging of the fuel out of the earth, the sustainability of this source of energy (how long will it last), transportation costs (including the costs for e.g. building the pipelines aso. asf.). Compare these to the total costs for a nuclear power source.

So, Danielle proved to a certain degree that nuclear power has a lot of hazardeous risks involved and most people are able to see them. I agree with the risks part. What I don't understand though is how some environmentalists, that should be knowledgable about the risks involved with nuclear power, try to sabotage the transportation of this high risk material in order to make a point. I mean, what happens, if they damage the train track (which they do), the train derails, many more things happen to actually break the containers (as stated before, there is no guarantee). Luckily they seem to be smart enough not to break into a nuclear power plant and try to shut it down (scary idea....).

One further notion I found interesting. When asked, where most of the environmentalist demonstrating against nuclear power got their energy from it was most of the time the cheapest provider for energy, that (naturally) relied on nearly 100% nuclear power. Let me state that at least in Germany you can choose your energy source and a lot of "environmental friendly" tariffs are offered as well.

What are alternatives (as switiching off the nuclear power plants would leave Europe in a considerably worse condition than India is at the moment, with it's frequent power cuts in the summer).

- Solar energy at the moment involves a lot of power in generating the solar panels so, unless there is a major breakthrough, the total impact on the environment is still not good.
- Offshore wind mills. According to a study I read, one park (I think it was 250) of these mills could replace a small power plant. Though I have no idea about the impact of these on the ecosystem of the region installed and how this compares to other forms of energy.
- Water dams. From an environmental point of view, bad as it floods the land upriver, from a sailors point of view, great. Switzerland relies mainly on hydro power. Maybe that's why the America's cup is in Geneva now :).
- Use less energy.
- Find new techologies.

IMHO, the best shot we have are the last two. Countries need to investigate how to safe energy without reducing the standards of living. And please do it fast, I don't want to imagine second and third world countries energy needs in the future (with a roughly equal amount of living standard). And as Todd pointed the alternatives are knocking at the door.

Til that day we will see discussions and demonstrations and quite a lot of money beeing spend on complaining about nuclear power. I wonder how much money is spend on this (starting with the money GP is investing into this campaign and stopping at the money involved to securely transport the nuclear wast across Europe due to these demonstrations). Wouldn't that money easily finance research in the area of lower power consumption and search for new energies, instead of beeing burned away?