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The Nuclear Power Renaissance
Actual Reality writes "It is ironic to me that much of the same sentiment that thwarted the nuclear power industry back in the 80's is partially responsible for reviving it. Nuclear power is very clean compared to any power source that burns fuel. The US has missed several advancements in nuclear technology. We can only hope that environmental concerns will not again stifle our progress."
We don't need nuclear. Nuclear is the dirtiest of all known fuel sources, NOT the cleanest. The waste remains deadly for hundreds of thousands of years.
The simple truth is that we don't need nuclear, much the same as we don't need fossil fuels. Using totally clean, renewable resources is well within our technological reach.
The problem is with renewable technology is that it takes the market away from the current big players. The oil, coil, and nuclear industry are all based on the same basic process:
- bribe the government so they let you mine the resources you want
- claim the resource as your own, as if you have some sort of actual legitimate right to it
- convert the resource into power
- dump the waste without any thought as to the consequences
A switch to renewable energy undermines this model completely, as the resource is coming at us from the sun, and it's quite distributed in nature. That means that it favors distributed capture and conversion into usable energy. For the big energy companies, this is simply not on.
What's more, renewable energies scale up and down extremely well. This means that instead of requiring massive capital investment to get a huge power plant working, a local community can install solar, wind, etc generators, and bring them online as required. For the big energy companies, this is REALLY not on. And they'll fight with everything they've got to make sure it doesn't happen.
Right now, the battle is in convincing people that renewables are a viable solution. The energy industry would have us believe that this solution doesn't exist, and that we have to keep burning fossil fuels, and then switch to nuclear. BULLSHIT! We need to invest seriously in renewables, and leave the toxic fossil fuel and nuclear energy and weapons industry in the past.
This brings me to the final point: that nuclear energy == nuclear weapons. In most nuclear countries, the US included, there is NO separation between the so-called civilian and military nuclear fuel cycle. While we have nuclear energy, we'll have nuclear weapons. While we have both these abominations, we'll have nuclear waste, accidents, horrific damage to the environment, and possibly a world-wide nuclear catastrophe. It doesn't take much to cover the world in radioactive dust. And what do we do then?
"Nuclear power is very clean..."
Only if you ignore the waste products. If you think spent nuclear fuel is clean, why not make useful consumer goods out of it?
If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
I mean "Zionists"...yeah....
Ah, no. Solar power produces less than 1% of all electricity used in the US. Since about half the electricity used in the US is used in business for various purposes, up & including manufacturing, you're asking everybody to take an economic hit that would make living in a mud hut in the Congo look like living in Beverly Hills. You're asking for at least a 99% reduction in electrical useage. Ain't gonna happen, dood.
Understanding the scope of the problem is the first step on the path to true panic.
First step would be to build an Earth based reciever that won't get picketted by envirowhackos intent on protecting the ecology of the desert. Reason for that would be, the most efficient reciever of microwaves would be a rectenna. You know they'll build the reciever in the desert because the land there is almost worthless.
ALMOST worthless isn't totally worthless though.
Understanding the scope of the problem is the first step on the path to true panic.