??? A number of folks have been killed in nuclear power plant explosions, both civilian and military. A lot more have gotten cancer.
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Nuclear power
- Thread starter eledille
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??? A number of folks have been killed in nuclear power plant explosions, both civilian and military. A lot more have gotten cancer.
SmartElectric
Active Member
Is nuclear power a solution to climate change?
This guy covers a lot of good stuff. The two most recent articles about Starlink and Starship are both good reads.
RY
This guy covers a lot of good stuff. The two most recent articles about Starlink and Starship are both good reads.
RY
mspohr
Well-Known Member
Comes down to nuclear is too expensive, can't get the cost down. Risky investment.
(Also, I've recently researched the CO2 from nuclear. The massive amounts of concrete and steel plus mining and refining uranium burden nuclear with about 10x the CO2 emissions of solar and wind.)
SmartElectric
Active Member
The "CO2 budget" also needs to account for 100% backup power for Nuclear, ie. a similar amount of baseload gas (or coal or hydro) backup power to cover. Ontario built out 7GW of gas to cover for a Nuclear refit program, the gas sits idle for many years, and paid to sit idle by the way.
With wind and solar being intermittent sources by nature, the power is balanced with other variable loads like hydro (and pumped hydro also used in Ontario) to meet variable needs.
Ontario currently has surplus Nuclear base load, exceeding needs off peak, so that power is sold at a loss (to NY), or worse case wasted (boiling water that is vented to atmosphere). Baseload is not a "requirement", it's just one of the power supplies available, it can be a good thing, but sometimes there is too much of a good thing LOL.
mblakele
FSD Beta (99)
I think the message here is "don't make sudden moves", not "nukes are good". But in the wake of this particular disaster I might have made the same choice.
Was shutting Japan’s reactors deadlier than the Fukushima disaster?
High power prices caused the poor to turn off the heat, killing many of them
Was shutting Japan’s reactors deadlier than the Fukushima disaster?
High power prices caused the poor to turn off the heat, killing many of them
[...] 54 reactors in Japan were shut down amid safety fears, winking out nearly 50 gigawatts of generating capacity. A new paper* argues that that decision may have cost far more lives than the initial disaster.
The Fukushima accident led to a surge in imports of coal, gas and oil. In the four years after the meltdown, the share of generation from fossil fuels leapt from 62% to 88%. Nuclear power, which once produced over 30% of Japan’s electricity, fell to zero. The result, say three academics, was a sharp spike in electricity prices.
Many people responded to higher prices, in turn, by switching off their electric heaters. Average electricity consumption per household fell by 8% in some areas in 2012, according to government surveys. The biggest drops were in regions such as Tokyo, where electricity prices rose by over a third. The increased exposure to the cold in winter caused an additional 1,280 deaths from 2011 to 2014, the authors claim. Given that fossil fuels are far dirtier than nuclear power, the shift almost certainly added to air pollution and thus to respiratory ailments, the authors add, although they did not try to quantify this effect.
The Fukushima accident led to a surge in imports of coal, gas and oil. In the four years after the meltdown, the share of generation from fossil fuels leapt from 62% to 88%. Nuclear power, which once produced over 30% of Japan’s electricity, fell to zero. The result, say three academics, was a sharp spike in electricity prices.
Many people responded to higher prices, in turn, by switching off their electric heaters. Average electricity consumption per household fell by 8% in some areas in 2012, according to government surveys. The biggest drops were in regions such as Tokyo, where electricity prices rose by over a third. The increased exposure to the cold in winter caused an additional 1,280 deaths from 2011 to 2014, the authors claim. Given that fossil fuels are far dirtier than nuclear power, the shift almost certainly added to air pollution and thus to respiratory ailments, the authors add, although they did not try to quantify this effect.
mspohr
Well-Known Member
What was the reasoning behind the decision to shut down all reactors? Seems like a panic rather than logic.
mblakele
FSD Beta (99)
People are bad at estimating risks. The people in charge guessed that the risk (political and real) of keeping reactors open was greater than the downside.
mblakele
FSD Beta (99)
China’s nuclear industry and high-speed trains are world class
[...] In the past 20 years China has built nuclear plants faster than any other country; its nuclear capacity is now 43gw, third only to that of France (63gw) and America (99gw). Unlike in those two countries, though, China’s capacity is growing. And whereas in 1996 just 1% of the value of its first nuclear plants came from domestic firms, that figure is now 85%.
[...]
Though many Western experts believe that nuclear power has a real, if smallish, role in the energy systems of the future, exporting nuclear plants may never be a huge business. In most places, the zero-carbon electricity they offer will not be as cheap as wind or solar. The Chinese are aware of this, too. Their renewables industry has grown even faster than nuclear power and the two sources are providing the country with broadly similar amounts of power. Again, the story is one of taking a foreign technology, indigenising it and scaling it up massively. Whether it be turbines, reactors, trains or satellite launchers, China has mastered this procedure.
[...]
Though many Western experts believe that nuclear power has a real, if smallish, role in the energy systems of the future, exporting nuclear plants may never be a huge business. In most places, the zero-carbon electricity they offer will not be as cheap as wind or solar. The Chinese are aware of this, too. Their renewables industry has grown even faster than nuclear power and the two sources are providing the country with broadly similar amounts of power. Again, the story is one of taking a foreign technology, indigenising it and scaling it up massively. Whether it be turbines, reactors, trains or satellite launchers, China has mastered this procedure.
It was like grounding a fleet of planes after a crash.
They shut down with intention of inspecting, fixing any issues, and then restarting.
Public opposition slowed down the restart process, but they've gradually restarted them.
nwdiver
Well-Known Member
Vogtle cuts 2,000 of 9,000 workers. Expect new delays announced soon.
Atlanta Journal Constitution: Georgia Power cuts nearly 2,000 Vogtle workers as coronavirus spreads.
Georgia Power cuts nearly 2,000 Vogtle workers as coronavirus spreads
Atlanta Journal Constitution: Georgia Power cuts nearly 2,000 Vogtle workers as coronavirus spreads.
Georgia Power cuts nearly 2,000 Vogtle workers as coronavirus spreads
FESSENHEIM, FRANCE - France's oldest nuclear power plant will shut down on Tuesday after four decades in operation, to the delight of environmental activists who have long warned of contamination risks, but stoking worry for the local economy.
The Fessenheim plant, opened in 1977 and already three years over its projected 40-year life span, became a target for anti-nuclear campaigners after the catastrophic meltdown at Fukushima in Japan in 2011.
Despite a pledge by then-president Francois Hollande just months after the Fukushima disaster to close Fessenheim -- on the Rhine river near France's eastern border with Germany and Switzerland -- it was not until 2018 that his successor Emmanuel Macron gave the final green light.
Run by state-owned energy company EDF (Electricite de France), one of Fessenheim's two reactors was disconnected in February.
The second is to be taken offline early Tuesday, but it will be several months before the reactors have cooled enough for the used fuel to be removed.
That process should be completed by 2023, and the plant is not expected to be fully dismantled before 2040 at the earliest.
<Snip>
Full article at:
France Pulls Plug on Country's Oldest Nuclear Plant
The Fessenheim plant, opened in 1977 and already three years over its projected 40-year life span, became a target for anti-nuclear campaigners after the catastrophic meltdown at Fukushima in Japan in 2011.
Despite a pledge by then-president Francois Hollande just months after the Fukushima disaster to close Fessenheim -- on the Rhine river near France's eastern border with Germany and Switzerland -- it was not until 2018 that his successor Emmanuel Macron gave the final green light.
Run by state-owned energy company EDF (Electricite de France), one of Fessenheim's two reactors was disconnected in February.
The second is to be taken offline early Tuesday, but it will be several months before the reactors have cooled enough for the used fuel to be removed.
That process should be completed by 2023, and the plant is not expected to be fully dismantled before 2040 at the earliest.
<Snip>
Full article at:
France Pulls Plug on Country's Oldest Nuclear Plant
SmartElectric
Active Member
40 years?! Amateurs!
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/pickering-nuclear-decommissioning-1.5426207
1971 ... Ontario Canada will be running this plant actively until 2024, 53 years.
It's only a few dozen km away from the core of Toronto, and google says "Toronto's 2020 population is now estimated at 6,196,731".
^ all 8M residents of Ontario were woken by urgent cell phone notification earlier this year when there was an "incident" at this nuclear plant ... FFS ... we charged our Tesla to full immediately and then packed food and travel bags before an updated notification was sent out that there was no pressing issue... freaking scary!!
My solar panels on the roof might leak some sunshine (over produce) on occasion, but I don't see the likelihood that we'd need to evacuate the neighbourhood if they had an issue..
As the t-shirt says, whenever there is a huge spill of solar energy, it's just called a nice day.
nwdiver
Well-Known Member
I guess that's one way to keep nuclear plants from closing... be interesting to see how this story unfolds.
Ohio House Speaker Arrested In Connection With $60 Million Bribery Scheme
Ohio House Speaker Arrested In Connection With $60 Million Bribery Scheme
SmartElectric
Active Member
Yeah, I was following up on that story. I think I even donated to the campaign to overturn the new law. At first I didn't connect the bribery scheme to the law that passed.
A follow up story said that even though all the crooked politicians got busted, the law is still on the books. WTF. Gonna be interesting to see how this all plays out before the big orange pardons all involved.
So generally defense attorneys job is to drag out cases as long as possible, to keep their clients out of jail. This has me wondering if these scumbags will just roll over and allow the sentencing to happen before January so they can all get pardoned because they were "all treated so unfairly".
RT
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mspohr
Well-Known Member
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