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Bill Gates On Energy
Sam the Nemesis
submitted an interview in Wired with Bill Gates on the future
of energy. Gates sees nuclear as the only
feasible option for base load generation. His views on the current
direction of energy funding are particularly distressing: "But the
economics are so, so far from making sense. And yet that's where
subsidies are going now. We're putting 90 percent of the subsidies in
deployment — this is true in Europe and the United States
— not in R&D. And so unfortunately you get technologies
that, no matter how much of them you buy, there's no path to being
economical. You need fundamental breakthroughs, which come more out of
basic
research."
Bill Gates is smart and has a whole lot of field-specific knowledge about PCs. He's not well educated outside his field.
Let's let the let the guys with the PhDs in science, math, and engineering figure out energy policy.
Bill Gates doesn't get it. - Again -
He didn't get it on the Internet in 1995 and doesn't get it for renewables in 2011.
Nuclear power is only cheap if you don't include the waste disposal and the riscmanagement in the price.
If you think otherwise go to Chernobyl or Fukushima and se for yourself.
As for the disposal. No longterm deposit has been errected so far - world wide.
Including these risks onely in the Energy prices would mean to quadrupel the price per kwH.
Not to mention some other problems:
Scarcity of Uranium. Some Experts speak of "Peak Uranium" in analogy to Peak Oil.
Many nuclear byproducts are not only dangerous radioactiv matirials, some are among the most effective poisons known to man.
So please Bill, do some serious research on the subject, before blurting out some lobbiest DUMMTALK.
There is only on way to make the planet happier and better with nuclear power:
Shut it down ASAP.!
Thanks folks.
Going back to sleep now. ;-)
Your problem is not electric supply, it is consumption. Sounds like your heating your homes with resistors, stop doing that and get some heat pumps. Also try selling your power to your neighbors, they eat cheese and live a short swim away.