Slashdot Mirror
Decommissioning San Onofre Nuclear Plant May Take Decades
gkndivebum writes "Southern California Edison has elected to decommission the San Onofre nuclear plant after a failed effort to upgrade the steam generation system. 'Nuclear economics' is the reason stated for the proposed decommissioning. Other utilities operating nuclear power plants in the US likely face similar decisions when it comes to weighing the costs of upgrading older facilities. Allowing the reactors to remain in 'safe storage' for a period of up to 60 years will allow for radioactive decay and lower radiation exposure for the workers performing the demolition."
One word...NIMBYs. Frankly NIMBYs is why america will be fucked in the future, you can't get shit done here without the NIMBYs having a royal fucking shitfit so we either keep the pre-NIMBY shit running or do without, that really is the only choices we have.
The sad part is if we built the new design reactors and did a second reactor beside it that reprocessed and ran on the waste of the first? we could cut the waste problem down by so much that it would be a trivial matter, but again NIMBYs will never let that shit happen.
I would love to get some NIMBYs in a fucking room and just say "WTF are you doing? Are you living in a mud hut and doing without electricity? No, then STFU assholes" because the way the NIMBYs act you'd think power comes from the electric fairy because there is NOTHING you can build that the NIMBYs won't have a shitfit about..nuclear? "ZOMG radiation run!" fine we'll build dams then "ZOMG you'll kill teh fishies!" fine then we'll build fucking windmills, will you STFU about that? "ZOMG no, you'll kill the birdies and cause noise pollution!"...ARGH,
FUCK OFF you whiny bastards, we HAVE TO HAVE power to power to run those latte makers and iToys you love to play with and we can't get shit built with you assholes cockblocking every damned thing we try to have! Sorry if that comes off a little harsh but if you have ever talked to one you'd know there is NO right answer, they will have an objection to building ANYTHING near them, you'd have to build everything in fricking space before they would be happy.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_energy_in_Germany
In 2012 The German electricity sector increased its coal usage by 4.9 percent over its coal consumption value of 2011.[43] This increase in coal usage was largely due to a power gap in Germany created after the nation shutdown 8 of its 17 nuclear power plants.[44] The shortfall in electricity supply from these 8 power plants, is primarily being filled by building more lignite coal burning power plants.
Yeah, real good job Germany, thanks for the CO2 increase...dicks.
The licencing for nuclear reactors in the US, the UK and a few other countries requires that the site be returned to greenfield status after the reactor(s) on site are decommissioned. That means total demolition of the structures including the metre-thick reinforced concrete containment buildings.
In some cases if the site is to be reused immediately then the reactors are demolished quickly with special handling of the slightly radioactive pressure vessel which has suffered neutron activation. It costs a little bit less to wait a few decades for that radioactivity to decay at which point the demolition can go ahead with no radiation-specific problems. The real problem during demolition in either case with older (1970s vintage) reactors is the presence of asbestos in pipe lagging, tank insulation etc.