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Japan To Restart Nuclear Power Tomorrow After Energy Prices Soar

An anonymous reader writes: After the Fukushima meltdown, all of Japan's nuclear power plants were shut down, the last in late 2013. This week the government plans on starting up reactor No.1 at the Sendai nuclear power plant. Energy prices have risen 30% since 2011, and it is hoped that the plant will soon be producing a surplus of electricity. Not everyone is happy about the plant restarting. This weekend, about 2,000 protesters marched around the plant and voiced their opposition. "Past arguments that nuclear plants were safe and nuclear energy was cheap were all shown to be lies," said writer Satoshi Kamata, one of the demonstration organizers. "Kyushu Electric is not qualified to resume operations because it has not completed an anti-quake structure to oversee a possible accident as well as a venting facility."

338 comments

  1. And... by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 5, Funny

    Gozilla breathes a sigh or relief... Nuclear power, sweet, lifegiving nuclear power!

    --
    Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
    1. Re: And... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How much does big oil pay for one of your scaremongering posts ?

    2. Re: And... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I think they're joking.

  2. It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by Firethorn · · Score: 4, Insightful

    From the article: "has built stronger, higher tsunami walls near the new plant" and "Regardless, the 31-year old reactor"

    It's sad that 31 years old counts as 'new'.

    Consider that if they had had some really new nuclear plants that Fukushima probably would have already been shut down.

    --
    I don't read AC A human right
    1. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Japan's newest nukes are of the very latest design, and all of the plants being restarted have passed the latest safety tests, on a date that has been planned for years. No, this is not some panic move "in response to soaring energy prices" as the headline claims.

    2. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by trout007 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Imagine if the nuts never stopped reactor development? We'd have breeder reactors by now with little waste and much better air.

      --
      I love Jesus, except for his foreign policy.
    3. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by rmdingler · · Score: 1
      No source of earthly power is without consequence and repercussion.

      There will be opportunistic learning windows at every stage of development as we learn what not to do. In everything that we get better at.

      There has to be an acceptable level of imperfection in the human hands that exploit nuclear power generation.

      --
      Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

      Ernest Hemingway

    4. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by FranTaylor · · Score: 4, Funny

      There has to be an acceptable level of imperfection in the human hands that exploit nuclear power generation.

      Yeah, that's the ticket, keep telling the nuclear fuel to be more forgiving of stupid humans, that's how we prevent accidents.

    5. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by Trepidity · · Score: 4, Informative

      Japan's newest reactors are indeed of a modern design, but the specific plant whose restart is discussed in this article, Sendai, is still a 2nd-generation plant. It's a newer one than Fukushima (1984 vs. 1971), but not a 3rd-generation plant.

    6. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by ColdWetDog · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Japan's newest nukes are of the very latest design, and all of the plants being restarted have passed the latest safety tests, on a date that has been planned for years. No, this is not some panic move "in response to soaring energy prices" as the headline claims.

      No, not really.

      "The vast majority of plants under construction around the world, 47 in all, are considered Generation II reactor designs—the same 1970s vintage as Fukushima Daiichi, and without integrated passive safety systems."

      Note the last phrase 'without integrated passive safety systems". That is the key. Fukashima required external power to shut itself down safely. Yes, TEPCO could have done things differently - site generators uphill, install a seawall that could actually contain a worst-case-scenario earthquake. Installed a hydrogen vent system. But it didn't. And TEPCO stated for years that the system was safe.

      Until you can shut down a reactor all by itself, then it isn't safe.

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
    7. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by rmdingler · · Score: 3, Interesting
      You don't ever, really, completely prevent accidents.

      There becomes a measurable, yet acceptable level of environmental consequence for the creation of energy using fossil fuels, hydro, solar, and even wind.

      Should the bar for nuclear use be set right near perfection? Of course not, but maybe

      --
      Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

      Ernest Hemingway

    8. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by FranTaylor · · Score: 0

      There becomes a measurable, yet acceptable level of environmental consequence

      That level for nuclear generated electricity would be zero, considering that we have multiple other options available. If we had to choose between whale oil and nuclear, it would be a different story, but face it, between solar, wind, and reduced consumption, we simply don't need to take the risk

    9. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by drinkypoo · · Score: 1, Insightful

      You don't ever, really, completely prevent accidents.

      The best argument against nuclear power ever! Thanks for that.

      Consequences of a solar event: sunburns
      Consequences of a wind event: if your windmills are designed properly, you can pitch your props flat and nothing bad happens
      Consequences of a coal plant event: severe
      Consequences of hydro plant failure: massive
      Consequences of a nuclear plant event: generational

      Why is this even an argument?

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    10. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      We can have nuclear plants with a more forgiving design so no number of homer simpsons, natural disasters, unnatural disasters, and deliberate sabotage could trigger a meltdown.

    11. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Imagine if the nuts never stopped reactor development?

      Not only are people against nuclear power potentially quite rational (some of them are nuts, sure) but nobody stopped reactor development. They just chased it to a handful of countries.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    12. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by FranTaylor · · Score: 0, Redundant

      We can have nuclear plants with a more forgiving design so no number of homer simpsons, natural disasters, unnatural disasters, and deliberate sabotage could trigger a meltdown.

      citation needed

    13. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by David_Hart · · Score: 4, Insightful

      There becomes a measurable, yet acceptable level of environmental consequence

      That level for nuclear generated electricity would be zero, considering that we have multiple other options available. If we had to choose between whale oil and nuclear, it would be a different story, but face it, between solar, wind, and reduced consumption, we simply don't need to take the risk

      Wrong...

      Wind and Solar are unpredictable and cannot be stored for peak times. Geothermal and Hydro tend to provide reliable power but do not provide enough supply. Wave power may contribute to this, but they are still working on engineering materials that will last in the ocean and handle the currents. That leaves Coal and Natural Gas, both of which have their own detrimental effects on the environment and risks, some of which are as bad or worse than nuclear. http://motherboard.vice.com/bl...

      Modern reactor design is as safe, or safer, than natural gas and coal. Most accidents are occurring at older plants that are near their lifetime. We are in this state because of public fear and the near impossible process of bringing a new reactor online. This has slowed the development and deployment of newer, safer designs.

      One of these days, we will learn how to store solar and wind energy. At that time, the other methods would quickly become obsolete. But until then, the sources of energy that we use will carry some form of inherent risk.

    14. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Repent, sinner!

    15. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The 747 had its maiden flight in 1969. So what?

    16. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Hydro tend to provide reliable power but do not provide enough supply."

      Hi. I live in Quebec. Not only does hydro provide reliable power, it powers most of the province and there's a huge energy surplus.

    17. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by epyT-R · · Score: 1

      Because solar and wind lack the energy density needed. Switching to these exclusively in their current technological state would also cause massive death from starvation, and likely, a second dark age as well.

    18. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by towermac · · Score: 1, Insightful

      You lost me at reduced consumption.

      Solar and wind won't even cut it for our baseline. And that assumes that 4 billion brown people are going to be content to stay poor forever.

      You believe in global warming, do you? It's really too late even now, isn't it? Well, there is one thing that could be done, that would surely fix things.

      Actually remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Yes, I mean enough to matter. Essentially, unburn the oil and coal that we used for 200 years to get where we are today.

      That's the *only* answer to man-made global warming, if the alarmists are correct. It could be done, given enough carbon free power.

      It would need to be a lot, wouldn't it? You got anything that comes close to that? Or just maybe screw the brown people. The one real answer to global warming, and you'll throw it away out of political spite.

    19. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by drinkypoo · · Score: 0

      Because solar and wind lack the energy density needed. Switching to these exclusively in their current technological state would also cause massive death from starvation, and likely, a second dark age as well.

      [citation needed]

      Or in slightly longer terms, that's complete, utter, and total bullshit because most human economic activity is unnecessary. Further, a big portion of it needs to stop, because it's predicated upon unsustainable practices like CO2 release without matching sequestration, or deforestation, or any of dozens of other activities inherently harmful to the biosphere upon which we depend for our very existence. So not only can we decrease our energy consumption, we must.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    20. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by epyT-R · · Score: 2

      How about this for starters:
      1. A design that does not tend towards crazy positive void.
      2. Does not allow one to remove all the rods at once, especially from the control room.
      3. Does not allow one to shut off all the cooling systems at once, especially while > x% of the rods are removed.
      4. Not built on a faultline.

      Really, one, two and three, were fixed a long time ago. Four is just common sense.

    21. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by Cyberax · · Score: 0

      Consequences of solar power: dead rivers from solar panel factories dumping their waste.

      Consequences of wind power: dead whales, birds and cities without electricity.

    22. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by epyT-R · · Score: 1

      It might just be easier to limit population growth.

    23. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by quenda · · Score: 4, Informative

      Hydro? Are you insane?
      In 1975, an 18GB hydro-electric dam system in China failed, killing at least 170,000 people. And 11 million made homeless.

      Far more in one incident than from Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined.
      Do you really want to take that risk?

      And don't get me started on coal ...

    24. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Consequences of solar power: dead rivers from solar panel factories dumping their waste.

      This is the best you can do? It's not good enough. That's both not a consequence of solar power but a consequence of uncontrolled capitalism, and also less of a problem than ever before because the latest formulations for solar panels use less toxics than ever before. So I'm going to scratch that one off as total bullshit.

      Consequences of wind power: dead whales, birds and cities without electricity.

      Killing birds was a problem for first-generation windmills, and is not at all a problem for some types. Cities without electricity? Bullshit. You don't use just one kind of power. You have wind, you have sea, you have solar. You have power storage. There are a whole bunch of common technologies of which you are apparently ignorant.

      As for the whales thing, what the fuck are you smoking, and where can it be purchased? Because the guy who said that was a possibility has since backpedaled as hard as it is possible to do.

      Your comment was just total bullshit. Unfuck yourself.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    25. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by quenda · · Score: 1

      ... sorry, 18 jiggawatts of hydroelectric output. ( Thats 1.3 × 1010 foot-pounds per second, for our non-metric speaking American friends)

    26. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      It might just be easier to limit population growth.

      It's easier to just release a bunch of the plagues we keep in storage, or have a big fat war, and kill a bunch of people off. Perhaps the easy road is not what you should be advocating. (War is easy for those who profit, who stay home and count their money while others die.)

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    27. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by FranTaylor · · Score: 0

      Really, one, two and three, were fixed a long time ago.

      citation required, please provide proof of perfect electromechanical systems that never ever fail

    28. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by epyT-R · · Score: 1

      So what should we do? Live in mud huts as masses of unwashed hippies struggling to get crops to grow? Do you realize how much more farmland we'll need to sustain the current population if we don't have those fossil fuel based fertilizers?

      I still vote for limiting population growth, especially in countries that depend on international aid. We should also attempt bootstrapping a stable industry in space before things do get too scarce.

    29. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by FranTaylor · · Score: 2

      Wind and Solar are unpredictable and cannot be stored for peak times.

      Duh, solar happens PRECISELY during peak hours, no storage necessary! Summer peak electrical usage is for air conditioning because of THE HOT SUN.

    30. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by thinkwaitfast · · Score: 1

      Not everyone lives in Quebec. Without looking up the actual numbers, I would bet that less than 5% of the world's population lives in Quebec.

    31. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Until you can shut down a reactor all by itself, then it isn't safe.

      The point you made earlier about them not being passive safe is the key. If it requires complex systems or a series of possibly unreliable things to go right then we may have the same problem again. That being said I'm not sure we can ignore nuclear power entirely. IMNSHO stop renewing the operating licenses of old plants and perhaps provide incentives to transition to designs that are passively safe (Gen3). Existing reactors need to be independently reviewed to cover any foreseeable dangerous scenario safely and if they are lacking they need to get up to date quickly or shut down, depending how much they are lacking....

      Someday perhaps we will have a perfect energy source, and if it requires a massive scale, we will also have a perfect portable storage mechanism, but I rather suspect it won't be in my lifetime. The only real progress I've seen lately is in energy storage, and I suppose Wind and Solar. I just can't see every house in america decked with enough solar panels anytime soon. The maintenance costs of such a system would also be a large concern, and I wouldn't be surprised if theft became an issue, sooner or later. Those battery packs aren't cheap. Sure, you can design a house to run on only solar plus batteries, but you could probably build two houses for the cost. Perhaps SIPS housing with somehow integrating solar panels into the design is the way. (Structurally Integrated Panels. I.E. basically 1/2" OSB + foam + 1/2" OSB) The other technology which basically uses styrofoam forms and concrete has the downside of really thick walls that cut square footage significantly, and, well you get taxed on the square foot estimate of the outside of your house...

      BTW, one small way to improve the efficiency of a new house, particularly if it is a large house, is to run 3/8 pex or similar to the hot side of all faucets, well other than bathtubs. You likely don't want to wait there. Insulation wouldn't hurt either, but just one size down in pipe reduces the wasted water by half.

    32. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by FranTaylor · · Score: 2

      You lost me at reduced consumption.

      Really? Between LED bulbs, more efficient computers and a better refrigerator, I've reduced my personal power consumption pretty steadily over the years. I know I am small potatoes, but big buildings can also reduce their consumption by pretty massive amounts with a retrofit:

      http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2013/06/29/empire-state-building-retrofit-new-projects

      "In 2011, the Empire State Building beat its year-one energy-efficiency guarantee by 5 percent, saving $2.4 million, and in year two, it beat it by almost 4 percent.

      The core building retrofit is completed except for the build-out of high-performance space for new tenants. Once that's finished, $4.4 million is expected to be saved each year, about a 38 percent cut in energy consumption."

      And then there is the Conde Nast building:

      "Environmentally friendly gas-fired absorption chillers, along with a high-performing insulating and shading curtain wall, ensure that the building does not need to be heated or cooled for the majority of the year."

    33. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by thinkwaitfast · · Score: 1

      Population growth seems to decrease and go negative with higher energy consumption. Source: every statistic ever.

    34. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by epyT-R · · Score: 1

      Uh, no such animal exists and you know that. So what? We should live like cavemen and never take risks? It's called risk mitigation and one common method is redundancy.

    35. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by epyT-R · · Score: 1

      I guess I should be like the other greenpeacer extremists here and ask for impossible citations, right? Was that just correlated, or were causatives indicated?

    36. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by FranTaylor · · Score: 1

      We should live like cavemen and never take risks?

      You must be talking to clint eastwood's imaginary chair, because nobody is saying that. Do you really assert that living with solar panels and wind energy is equivalent to living in caves?

    37. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 1

      None of these things happened at Fukushima. You need to add...
      5. In event of a reactor shutdown with loss of the grid in an areawide emergency, design the core coolant coupling so that local fire truck hoses will fit. That's literally all it would have taken to keep water circulating in the core long enough to remove heat of decay and prevent a meltdown.

    38. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by FranTaylor · · Score: 1

      I just can't see every house in america decked with enough solar panels anytime soon.

      straw man alert, nobody ever said that

    39. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by mysidia · · Score: 1

      Summer peak electrical usage is for air conditioning because of THE HOT SUN.

      Except when it's raining. Or in freezing temperatures, when peak usage is to heat buildings after dark.

    40. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      So what should we do? Live in mud huts as masses of unwashed hippies struggling to get crops to grow?

      Well, almost. Live in dirt bag houses as masses of washed humans of whatever persuasion, not struggling to get crops to grow because it is not as difficult nor does it require so much water as you imagine.

      Dirt bag houses? Is that what it sounds like? Yes. Yes it is. But once they're plastered up, the only way you can necessarily tell that they're any different from any other houses is that they're better. They're much like an adobe structure. They're low cost in the way that adobe is low cost, but they're even lower-labor because you don't have to press any bricks. They have greater tensile strength because they're held together with barbed wire in between the courses of bags, which are like sand bags and which can be natural or synthetic as you like. The ultimate effect is like that of rammed earth, but without the forms and without the ramming. I can go on about this at some length, but it should not be necessary. Northern California is currently on fire like a motherfucker, so a building style which is non-flammable is particularly attractive to me right now. However, it's not ideally suited to earthquake country. Luckily, it's not the only option.

      In fact, there's loads of "alternative" building styles which we could be using which would have lower environmental impact and energy costs, most of which have been used with broad success for at least dozens of years, often hundreds of years, sometimes thousands.

      Do you realize how much more farmland we'll need to sustain the current population if we don't have those fossil fuel based fertilizers?

      Oh, stop. Just stop. This is such a boring, stupid, wrong thing to say. The highest per-acre yields come either from vertical container gardening or, in a more "natural" setting, from organic intensive gardening using guilds. And your fertilizer is shit, just shit. As a society, we in the west have long thrown away our shit, and only recently have we become any good at saving it again. Many if not most municipal sewage treatment plants are now cooking their treated sewage sludge until it can be used for compost. And they even can produce natural gas from the process!

      But there are even lower-impact ways to do this, using far less water and energy. For low-density populations, the Bason Toilet (sorry for PDF) refines the composting toilet into a simple and friendly device which won't stink up your home. Within a year, crap becomes rich compost that can be directly applied without risk, toxic medications aside. For higher-density populations, Advanced Integrated Wastewater Pond Systems (or, obviously, AIWPS) permits a larger-scale version of the same operation but tapped off of the typical municipal sewage line system, and with methane capture. You get to keep your flush toilet.

      I still vote for limiting population growth, especially in countries that depend on international aid.

      Sure, I'm not against it, but the best way to do that is to educate people and give them free birth control. Then you also have an educated society. That's got to be a good thing, although in itself it doesn't fix all the world's problems or anything. That should go without saying but I want to eliminate some of the obvious responses which might descend upon this comment.

      We should also attempt bootstrapping a stable industry in space before things do get too scarce.

      Now you're speaking my language. The only way out is through.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    41. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by tompaulco · · Score: 1

      From the article: "has built stronger, higher tsunami walls near the new plant" and "Regardless, the 31-year old reactor"

      It's sad that 31 years old counts as 'new'.

      Consider that if they had had some really new nuclear plants that Fukushima probably would have already been shut down.

      Awesome, so basically if it hadn't been for anti-nuclear protestors, we likely have never had a Fukushima incident.

      --
      If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
    42. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by ultranova · · Score: 2

      reduced consumption

      Says a guy wasting power posting on Slashdot. But that's what it always comes down to with such suggestions: your uses of energy are important, other people are merely wasting it.

      Even if humanity was perfect, reduced consumption would in practice mean the misery of rationing with the added effect of having lights go off suddenly when someone else more important needs power or generation drops. But since humans are not perfect, it in practice means no electricity for the masses.

      Then there's the developing countries which are currently using little power and are trying to change that. Are you going to tell them to endure poverty forever, then keep bombing their infrastructure back to stone age every few years when they tell you to go to Hell and continue developing - thus increasing their energy use - instead?

      Every future where energy consumption is reduced or even stays the same is a nightmare scenario. Every "better tomorrow" scenario requires (vastly) increased energy consumption. Plans which include reducing energy consumption are noise at best and actively harmful for humanity at worst.

      --

      Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.

    43. Re: It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by WindBourne · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Gen 4 melted salt thorium reactor. In addition, these can use current nuke waste and leave us 5% of the volume that is safe in 200 years. Zero chance if a failure, unless all of the laws of physics suddenly collapse.

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    44. Re: It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by WindBourne · · Score: 2

      No, all of Japan's plants require human intervention to prevent meltdown. A gen 4 reactor is needed.

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    45. Re: It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by WindBourne · · Score: 0

      Actually, all those that state that nuclear power is unsafe, are not only irrational, but hate science as much as the far right wingers do.

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    46. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Awesome, so basically if it hadn't been for anti-nuclear protestors, we likely have never had a Fukushima incident."

      Oddly, this might very well be true. Delay after delay quashed nuclear power, and with it, the research and development of new reactors, some of which might have replaced Fukushima before the tsunami.

    47. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by Cyberax · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Ok. Solar panels: many, many dead people (about 10x more than ever died from nuclear accidents), including children. The main source of casualties are injuries sustained during installation or maintenance of rooftop solar batteries.

      Why do you hate poor innocent children?

      And about "ignorant" - I'm an investor in several solar and wind energy companies (including privately held ones). A successful investor, I'd say. And I _know_ the capabilities and _limitations_ of solar and wind energy.

      Right now there's still no solution that can at the same time reduce CO2 and provide reliable baseload capability except nuclear power.

    48. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      More people die installing solar panels than anyone has ever died at a nuclear power plant. This holds equally true for the rest of your list.

      It's an argument because you are imagining fantastical scenarios while the rest of us look at what is happening RIGHT NOW.

    49. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by dwywit · · Score: 1

      Who the hell puts batteries on the ROOFTOP?

      What the hell kind of building codes even allow those kinds of batteries OVER PEOPLE'S HEADS?

      And FWIW, I've been living off-grid for almost 20 years. My last energy consumption survey was ~8kWh/day. Two adults, two children, fridge, freezer, computers, TV, automatic washing machine, gas stove, wood range, etc. Yes, I have a petrol generator for backup, but it doesn't get used very often. There are very few limitations on solar for domestic use.

      --
      They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom
    50. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      200,000 km^2 of current gen solar technology would satisfy 100% of world demand, day and night.

      You can place various stations in the desert of North Africa, the outback of Australia, the desert of the American Southwest, Gobi desert of Northern China, etc.

      Now take all your hydroelectric and wind farms and that's your surplus you can use to pump carbon back into the ground.

      No new technology required, just an aircraft carrier load of money and the will to do it.
       

    51. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by hcs_$reboot · · Score: 2

      What it doesn't say is that this power plant (Sendai/Kyushu) is close to one of the largest active volcano on Earth, mount Aso. In this area, an eruption of mount Aso is more to be feared than an earthquake / tsunami like in 2011. So the next excuse is gonna be "look, that wasn't a tsunami, that wasn't an earthquake, that was a volcano eruption which was [unexpected/very unlikely/not seen before...].

      --
      Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
    52. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by Chas · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Solar and Wind are *NOT* "options" for baseline power.

      Not with our current grid system.
      Not even if we rebuilt into a proper national grid, spec'ed to maximize the solar/wind contributions.

      And I wish people would STOP trying to push this sort of bullshit.
      Solar and wind currently provide a TINY fraction of the national power load. Scaling up to provide all of it, were it even possible with current tech, would basically leave vast swaths of the country buried under panels or reflectors (in the case of solar thermal). Leaving said tracts of land useless for pretty much anything else.

      Nuclear is a 365-day-a-year baseline power solution. And far more energy-dense than any renewables out there.
      The main problem is that too many people have been conditioned with "Nookyoolur = BOMZ!" fear and antipathy.
      As such, we've seen even simple issues blown COMPLETELY out of proportion. And every and any issue is treated like "the plant blew up and we have thousands of people dead because of it".

      There have been approximately 371 deaths in the nuclear power industry since 1950. Most of them being uranium miners.
      There have been approximately ZERO civilian deaths.
      And most of the overseas casualties have been plant workers in poorly designed/maintained/operated facilities.

      That I know of, there's been approximately 3 deaths in the solar industry since the 1970's. All of them during install.
      That totally discounts deaths among silica miners, as other industries utilize silica-based products too.

      As for "reduced consumption".

      You be the first to volunteer to go shiver in a cave in the winter, roast in the desert in the summer and generally never use modern electronics again.

      Consumption of power is only ever going to INCREASE in the US. Any efficiencies realized will simply be subsumed in further consumption.

      Realistically, what I'd like to see is a modernized grid with a base generation of nuclear fission (for now) with additional load covered renewable resources mated to power storage technology.

      This can tide us over while we race to find out if nuclear fusion will become a viable power source.

      After that, baseline nuclear fusion augmented by renewables with power storage technology.

      --


      Chas - The one, the only.
      THANK GOD!!!
    53. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by Chas · · Score: 2

      In your area maybe it does.

      In the US, we're pretty much AT Peak Hydro right now.

      Environmental concerns over the repercussions of implementing new hydro has dropped new hydro projects to virtually nil.

      Hell, we're ripping down Hydro dams to revert areas to their natural ecology.

      --


      Chas - The one, the only.
      THANK GOD!!!
    54. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by Chas · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Right. You want to use things like Solar and Wind at peak times.

      For everything else, there's nuclear.

      And you know who's pushing the solar and wind farms the most?

      The gas company. Because a lot of these solar and wind facilities being put in are actually:

      Solar + Gas backup

      Wind + Gas backup

      --


      Chas - The one, the only.
      THANK GOD!!!
    55. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by Chas · · Score: 0

      I volunteer you to be medically sterilized and have any offspring you may have already produced eliminated first!

      --


      Chas - The one, the only.
      THANK GOD!!!
    56. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by Cyberax · · Score: 1

      Sorry, language leakage. Russian term for "solar panel" is "solar battery" if translated word-for-word. I plead a sleepless night. And where do you usually install solar panels if not on a roof?

      And while you might live within 8kWh/day (that's about 30% of the average household consumption) with intermittent blackouts, many industrial processes or commercial consumers can not. And they make up about two thirds of the total electricity consumption.

    57. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by Chas · · Score: 1

      So, basically Solar gets a pass and a whitewash on it's environmental record because you say so?

      Come back when you're serious.

      --


      Chas - The one, the only.
      THANK GOD!!!
    58. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by Chas · · Score: 2

      How about something like this?

      A molten salt reactor.

      It's DEFAULT state is "no reaction".

      Because a drain in the reaction tank is plugged by a supercooled chunk of the reaction medium itself.

      If the reaction starts to run away? The plug melts. The fuel drains away from the catalyst. The reaction stops.

      If the power to the generator goes out? The plug melts. The fuel drains away from the catalyst. The reaction stops.

      Someone sabotages the plug cooler? The plug melts. The fuel drains away from the catalyst. The reaction stops.

      And there's no crazy boiling water system inside the reactor itself to overheat and blow up (this is what explodes in reactor accidents).
      And with a simple design like this, there's no Rube Goldberg domino machine controlling the system and trying to circumvent every possible way of being, itself, circumvented.

      This is the problem with current solid fuel boiling water reactors. They're heavily over-engineered to try and compensate for every little implausible or impossible corner case a sick mind could imagine. However, the larger and more complex it becomes, the more ways there are to fuck it up. And it's a never-ending vicious cycle.

      As for "perfect" systems that never fail?

      As soon as you can show me 100% failure-proof solar and wind systems.

      There's no such thing as 100% failure-proof.

      However, done right, even failure mode can be 100% safe.

      --


      Chas - The one, the only.
      THANK GOD!!!
    59. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      You just accept what you are told on Slashdot without checking? Really, there is not enough solar or wind to meet our energy needs? Any rudimentary calculation of the solar energy hitting earth says this is not true. The problem is whether we have a systematic will to use this energy, or whether we are going to be controlled by oil, gas, and coal interests. http://www.altenergy.org/renew...

      The Earth receives an incredible supply of solar energy. The sun, an average star, is a fusion reactor that has been burning over 4 billion years. It provides enough energy in one minute to supply the world's energy needs for one year. In one day, it provides more energy than our current population would consume in 27 years. In fact, "The amount of solar radiation striking the earth over a three-day period is equivalent to the energy stored in all fossil energy sources."

    60. Re: It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Actually, all those that state that nuclear power is unsafe, are not only irrational, but hate science as much as the far right wingers do.

      Until the last bit of nuclear waste has at least reached its half-life, until the last nuclear plant is decommissioned, that is an argument which is yet to be settled. You can declare victory now if you want, but it's not going to impress anyone that isn't already impressed with you.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    61. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not everyone lives in Quebec. Without looking up the actual numbers, I would bet that less than 5% of the world's population lives in Quebec.

      Everyone who is worth a shit lives in Quebec. The rest of you can piss off.

    62. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by Solandri · · Score: 2

      That's an invalid comparison. It's like comparing how a plane crash kills hundreds of people while a car crash kills 1-4, therefore cars must be safer.

      To compare properly, you have to normalize the consequences by the amount of power generated. So 1 nuclear plant = 1 hydro plant = 2 coal plants = 7500 wind turbines = 19 square km of solar panels. Then you apply the failure rate of each technology based on the construction, operation, and maintenance of that amount of infrastructure. Even with Fukushima and Chernobyl, nuclear is by far the safest power generation technology. Hydro is second - a close second if you exclude Banqiao, a distant second if you include it. Then come wind and solar which kill about an order of magnitude more people per MWh generated than nuclear. (Little-known fact: despite nuclear power producing 12% of the world's electricity vs 2% for wind, and suffering its second-worst accident in history in March 2011, nobody died from nuclear power during that month, while wind killed one person. Someone forgot to lock the ladder to a wind turbine, and a high school student climbed up and fell to his death. While forgetting to lock one ladder is unlikely, multiply it by the 7500 turbines needed to replace a nuclear plant and it's almost certain to happen.)

      Coal is about 4 orders of magnitude worse. That is what is not even an argument. We should be doing everything we can to replace coal with any of the alternatives. But because some people have a stick up their ass about nuclear, they're insisting we phase out coal slowly so it can be replaced with only renewables, even though right now nuclear is the only power source which can realistically replace coal.

      Nuclear doesn't have to be our final power source. We can transition over to nuclear for a few decades while R&D into renewables drops their price to more competitive levels. Then we can phase out the nuclear plants and replace them with renewables. That would get us off coal almost immediately, saving hundreds of thousands if not millions of lives each year compared to our current trajectory, where we're hanging on to coal plants because certain people are adamant that we cannot build new nuclear plants. Those coal deaths are on your heads.

    63. Re: It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The oil businesses and the Nuke Weapons Club have very successfully executed and Information Operation to protect their interests. And the vast majority of people can be scared to hell if the 1% controlled media is doing their dirty work.

      Damn the facts (such as oil killing probably 100 times more people per kWh generated) and all hail to the propaganda.

      BP makes something like 20 billions per quarter...

    64. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm sorry, I couldn't understand you. Could you say that in English again, please?

    65. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by barc0001 · · Score: 1

      Yeah, you're right. Let's just keep burning coal instead. Surely that can't release any radiation.

    66. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by cheesybagel · · Score: 0

      You reduce it in one place and increase it in another. Lighting is less power intensive now but desktop computers aren't. Neither are large high-refresh rate LCDs for that matter although Plasma would be worse.

    67. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by cheesybagel · · Score: 1

      Don't worry. They'll get coal and natural gas like they deserve.

    68. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The plugs actually freeze if you remove heat ("catalyst" in your post). That's how the system fails safe. Instead of heating up, it cools down.

    69. Re: It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Putin is a smartass. And surely he will aid CIA fronts like Greenpeace as long as they keep damaging the west.

      Should they ever venture into Russia, he will simply jail them.

    70. Re: It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If The Friends Of Comintern have it their way, life will of course be a misery for everybody. For them it is not about smart decisions, rather it is a power game they want to win at all cost. They want (political) power and they are ready and willing to destroy their nations for it. Just look at how the communist sympathizers in the established media are trying to destroy Donald Trump. Trump is a patriot like Putin and simply wants to do the straightforward correct thing to help his country and his fellow people.

      Nah, that goes against A) Bankster internationalism and its covert brethren B) Communist internationalism.

      As strange as it sounds, but both Russia and China are run by patriots these days, while America and its Euro vasalls are controlled by the remnants of Comintern. Just witness how they want to transform Germany into Africa by essentially uncontrolled mass immigration. Comintern has teamed up with the Mohammedics in order to whitewash this evil ideology.

      Anglosaxon, your daughter will seek protection from Sharia in China !

    71. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by cheesybagel · · Score: 1

      [citation needed]

      Frickin Wikipedia tards. Google muthafuka. Know about it? If you have counter arguments use them. If you don't then get out of my lawn.

      The whole Universe is in a state of increasing entropy. You can try to save all you want you will still die in the end.

      Solar and wind don't scale easily. They have a high space footprint. They are unreliable and you end up spending three times the money to build extra backup generators and the paraphernalia to load balance the power grid. Unsurprisingly this costs money and resources which could be used elsewhere. What people like you will get is more coal and natural gas as you admire a couple of token wind and solar installations. Just like California that is in fact switching to natural gas. Which mind you traditionally has had wildly swinging prices. It's gonna be great for power price speculation. Natural gas prices are even harder to predict than silver prices.

      It's great that natural gas is used to backup wind and solar production shortfalls. Instead of the natural gas power plants running at combined cycle efficiencies of 60% they work at a cycle efficiency of 30% from all that spooling up and down. But do not let that shatter your little green dream.

      Thank you for reading this message. Brought to you by the letter F.

    72. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by AmiMoJo · · Score: 0

      Even if you accept that a dam failure is somehow a mark against the hydro plant it happen to have installed, no-one is suggesting building more massive dams like that. On the other hand, people are trying to re-start reactors of not entirely dissimilar design to Fukushima.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    73. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by cheesybagel · · Score: 2

      The Chinese are presently building a lot of Westinghouse AP1000 nuclear reactors which are passive safety Generation III nuclear reactor designs. The current owner of Westinghouse BTW is Toshiba Group.

      In fact the first one should be started up next year:
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

    74. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by AmiMoJo · · Score: 2

      In Europe we have been reducing out energy consumption (down 9% from the peak in 2006) while increasing our quality of life. That is despite population growth, and the admission of new rapidly developing nations to the EU.

      It's cheaper to save energy than it is to install new capacity, and doing so improves your life. Why waste energy heating and cooling your home when you can insulate it once and then enjoy a pleasant, temperate environment with minimal effort? Air conditioning gives you the chills and heating dries the air out. Insulation is much better.

      Why drive a really inefficient car? You are just wasting money on fuel and polluting the environment that you live in, which then damages your health. Thanks to manufacturers being forced to improve modern engines are much more efficient while still delivering plenty of power. You can bet that without regulation they wouldn't be - just look at other products such as vacuum cleaners and hair dryers - the market created products with massive, inefficient motors instead of good cleaning/drying ability until regulations fixed them.

      Ever increasing energy consumption is a nightmare scenario. I want my phone to last a week on a tiny light weight battery, that's progress. I want my environment to be clean. I want products that don't produce waste heat that I then need to vent in the summer or crank up the AC to compensate for. I want a stable population because the infrastructure can only take so many personal vehicles before I end up wasting half my life in traffic jams.

      Many of the biggest improvements we can make now involve reducing energy consumption.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    75. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by adhdengineer · · Score: 1

      It's worth know why Fukushima failed then. It failed, not because it got hit by a massive earthquake. Not because it got hit by a massive tsunami. It failed because the backup diesel generators for the coolant pumps were located in the basement and got flooded. Seriously. it's one of those things that no-one considers until it's too late. But now we know. Now we can build un-floodable backup generators. With blackjack. and hookers. Ah forget the power plant.

    76. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      Japan leads the world in battery storage for renewables. There are multiple 50+GW battery installations in Japan, and the technology has been exported to Hawaii and other countries too.

      Instead of spending tens of billions on nuclear, let's spend it on batteries instead. Oh, but batteries are less profitable and attract lower subsidies...

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    77. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by Bongo · · Score: 2

      Does it explain why energy consumption went down? Less industry perhaps?

      I think the main argument about energy is simply, how much is needed? Cutting energy use 10% might not make much difference, to say, whether one can ditch nuclear or coal altogether.

      I live in a small house, wear jumpers indoors, don't have a car, rarely fly (once in ten years), always turn the lights off when I leave a room, etc. I doubt I'm making any significant difference to my energy use. Fact is, I use what I need to use. There are no big savings to be made. We forget that we have washing machines and fridges and TVs and computers which previous generations didn't have. We forget that when we turn up to work, we're by law expected to enjoy a comfortable environment, a standard previous generations would have thought extravagant. And whatever you do, don't get sick and need a hospital, just think of the enormous amount of infrastructure you are making use of there. We will always be using a lot of energy. 20% less of a lot is still a lot.

      The only way forward really is new cheaper energy sources. We need much much more energy available. And saving is good but that's always been the case that we find some things we can make more efficient. But generally, efficiencies mean people can use more. It is only when you make things much more expensive that you may stop people using energy, but then you are forcing people to be poor.

    78. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by dwywit · · Score: 1

      Apology accepted :-) and I apologise for spouting off before seeking clarification.

      My point about daily energy consumption was that it is possible, and not particularly difficult, to drastically reduce energy consumption in many domestic situations, regardless of whether you have solar panels or not.

      Switch to LED lighting, dry your clothes on an outside line (if you have the weather for it), examine your use of any electric heating elements - maybe switch to gas or even wood for heating.

      As for commerce and industry, while aluminium smelting (for example) isn't going to reduce its electricity consumption, commercial office spaces can. Reflective film on windows, retro-fitting insulation where it's possible/practical, adjusting thermostats upwards a bit in summer and downwards a bit in winter, will all contribute to energy and cost savings.

      P.S. My only blackout was deliberate, when I just kept turning lights and appliances on to see when the overload breakers would trip.

      --
      They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom
    79. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by serviscope_minor · · Score: 2

      And yet if you measure deaths per TWH, nuclear is still safer than wind or solar. Why?

      The answer is because wind and solar are diffuse and so the plants are truly colossal, compared to a nuclear plant of equivalent power. Those plants have to be built and those raw materials have to be mined and construction and mining deaths are still a thing.

      Wind and solar don't have the single catastrophic accidents, but they more than make up for it in lots and lots and lots of small accidents. But "gut dies in a construction accident" is never a news story so you never hear about it. But news of fukishima radiation reaching the west coast is, even if it's over an order of magnitude below the background level in the sea never mind in food and on lang.

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
    80. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by TheRaven64 · · Score: 2

      Lighting is less power intensive now but desktop computers aren't

      Nonsense. Even if you're talking about high-end workstations, compare them to a quad Alpha or similar from 15 years ago. We've actually had issues in the building where I work (full of computer scientists, so not exactly short on power users - for normal office users, the requirements would likely be even lower). The heating in the building was designed based on the assumption that every desk would have a CRT on it and a tower next to it. The CRTs are all gone (replaced with LCDs) and the towers now all consume less power: a modern multicore i5 or i7 consumes a lot less than a Pentium 4, modern SSDs use less power than spinning rust, so the waste heat from all of these is a lot lower than the building designers expected. I can't tell from the fan noise whether the computer under my desk is on - the machine I was using a decade ago made it very obvious from the jet engine noise.

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    81. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ... killing at least 170,000 people

      How is that more than "Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined"? The death count was estimated at 200K - 300K people. Some experts argue that when the long term effects of nuclear warfare is considered, the death toll triples. Besides, construction projects in China collapse with amazing regularity: Kleptocracy is a cost of the one-party political system and of the central Asian "steal from the government" mentality. Dams in most countries (USA excepted, because there is no building code for privately-owned dams) are working well. You need a better argument, than the mismanagement of two countries.

      ... started on coal.

      That's why nuclear stations were built. But nuclear technology didn't advance and those stations became more dangerous than coal.

    82. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by Eunuchswear · · Score: 1

      There are multiple 50+GW battery installations in Japan,

      50+ what? GW is a unit of power, not energy. How much energy do these magic batteries store?

      A quick web search shows that in 2014 a 400MWhr system was described as "the biggest in the world".

      Also, in 2013 METI were boasting about: "World’s largest battery storage system to be installed in Japan" for a 60MWhr system coming online in March 2015.

      So your "50+GW" rubbish is not only meaningless, it's a flat out lie,

      --
      Watch this Heartland Institute video
    83. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by Eunuchswear · · Score: 1

      Consequences of a coal plant event: severe

      No, the consequences of normal operation of a coal plant is severe.

      When you add up the number of them operating it's worse than Chernobyl and Fukushima combined.

      --
      Watch this Heartland Institute video
    84. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by khallow · · Score: 1
      While the previous poster's claims are bombastic and erroneous (since while solar and wind aren't as dense as nuclear, they are more than dense enough), I find your statements have similar problems.

      First, it is not your place to decide what human activities are "necessary" and what are not. It's a highly subjective determination anyway with your opinion of what is necessary usually very different from anyone else's. For example, your life is necessary to you, but it is merely of immeasurably modest convenience to me.

      Nor does an activity have to be necessary in order to be useful or interesting to us. I view this as just a rhetorical ploy to invalidate things you don't like. You should stop making such arguments.

      Further, a big portion of it needs to stop, because it's predicated upon unsustainable practices like CO2 release without matching sequestration, or deforestation, or any of dozens of other activities inherently harmful to the biosphere upon which we depend for our very existence.

      I don't need that to stop which invalidates this subjective argument. And it's worth noting that most human goals are one time. They don't need to be based on sustainable practices. For example, I don't need human society to be sustainable till the Sun goes nova in order to build a better solar panel or other invention. The amount of eventual effort is fixed no matter how much or little the effort is sustainable.

      And that leads us to the huge, ignored observation about the necessity of sustainability. Even if we want sustainability in the long term, we don't need sustainability in the short term in order to reach that goal.

      As I've indicated in the past, I don't buy that substantial sustainability is something we need to attain right now (or even need to devote considerable resources towards for that matter), especially given that most of our resources will still be around later. Garbage dumps for example, won't magically disappear. Similarly, I don't think we will need to devote significant collective efforts to encouraging or transitioning to greater sustainability when we have economic systems that naturally encourage sustainability at smaller scales when those actions becomes more viable than unsustainable practices (eg, why buy a gasolined-power car that is expensive to operate due to the high price of gas than an electric car?).

      So not only can we decrease our energy consumption, we must.

      There's no reason for that. There's way more energy out there than we currently use. And the real world trend is to more energy consumption per capita.

    85. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      fuck off back to your cave!

    86. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What all you idiots pushing for reducing consumption forget is you can only do it so far!!

      and the maths still don't fucking work!

    87. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      lol, of course you fucking nutters stopped reactor development..

      Why develop it when you fucking idiots won't let us use it!!!

      and if you bring up batteries as storage, at least go do the fucking math!

      There is not enough accessible raw material to make enough batteries on the fucking planet!!..

      Stop drinking poo it is'nt good for your mental health!!

    88. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by tsotha · · Score: 1

      They made the regulatory process so expensive building approved 40 year old designs makes mores sense than trying to develop something new.

    89. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by cheesybagel · · Score: 1

      Nonsense? I used to be able to put my hand on the CPU of my PC in the early 1990s while the thing was on. Good luck doing that now. Why do you think the power supply wattage keeps going up?

      How many people had Alpha workstations back then anyway? Compared to desktop PCs? But sure let's do a little comparison:

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
      Alpha 21264: 90W TDP.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
      Back people probably had Pentium processors: 16W TDP.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
      Recent AMD FX-9590: 220W TDP.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
      Recent Haswell-E: 140W BogoTDP (TM).

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
      Oh and let's not forget the GeForce GTX Titan Z GPU. Did not have that in the 1990s: 375W.

      Fact is a computer is today a major power hog in a regular house.

      I don't know. Maybe you use one of those integrated systems with a low-voltage processor. Even if you do I bet it draws more power than the Alpha did.

      http://www.samsung.com/us/vide...
      How about large screen LCDs? 245W for a 55".

      http://icecat.us/en_us/p/sony/...
      Back when we used CRTs we also used smaller screens. 160W for a 36".

    90. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      it's 191Km away it not fucking close at all!!..

      just look it up on google!!

      geography, not Americans best subject I know but damn your sat at an internet connected computer!!

    91. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by cheesybagel · · Score: 1

      Oh and fan noise has nothing to do with power draw. I remember in the 90s people used small diameter high pitch fans. Today we use huge diameter low pitch fans which actually move more air.

    92. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by AmiMoJo · · Score: 2

      Does it explain why energy consumption went down? Less industry perhaps?

      I live in a small house, wear jumpers indoors, don't have a car, rarely fly (once in ten years), always turn the lights off when I leave a room, etc. I doubt I'm making any significant difference to my energy use.

      You are. Turning down the thermostat a couple of degrees makes a big difference, for example. Not owning a car is another huge saving.

      Fact is, I use what I need to use. There are no big savings to be made.

      You are not very typical. Most households own a car, for example. Even for you though, if you live in the EU your modern appliances are a lot more efficient than the old ones. Your fridge, for example, uses a fraction of the energy the one you bought in the 1980s did, and contains far fewer harmful chemicals, and needed less energy to build too. You saved energy by replacing an item that came to the end of its natural life, because the government made sure that the new one was more efficient.

      And whatever you do, don't get sick and need a hospital, just think of the enormous amount of infrastructure you are making use of there.

      Personally, I'd rather the hospital fitted LED bulbs (more reliable, less likely to fail at a critical moment) and fitted me with the most efficient pacemaker possible so that I don't have to have the batteries changed too often. I'd also rather the atmosphere in the hospital was a free of pollution as possible, which is helped by having more efficient combustion engines or moving to alternative fuels. I'd rather that the medical equipment used efficient LCD panels instead of CRTs, because then they will run longer on emergency generator power and are easier for staff to move around. I'd rather I could be seen right away instead of having to wait while they treat the soldier who was injured securing our energy supplies.

      You need to take a holistic view, rather than focusing on tiny individual actions. While small things are important, the are often only significant when everyone is doing them, which is why regulation to mandate efficiency is important.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    93. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by hcs_$reboot · · Score: 1

      it's 191Km away it not fucking close at all!!..

      Coz of course, lava and ashes are gonna take roads and tolls... Distance is about 140 km, which is very close for a volcano that big.

      --
      Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
    94. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      In 2013 Germany was generating 9% of its electricity from wind, with Saxony-Anhalt hitting 48%. In Germany, wind energy is currently providing more electricity than gas, and will overtake nuclear in the next few years even before nuclear capacity is turned off.

      The claim that it won't work or can't provide any significant proportion of national energy is clearly bullshit. I wish people would STOP repeating it, even in the face of evidence to the contrary.

      Nuclear is a 365-day-a-year baseline power solution.

      Nope. Nuclear needs down-time for maintenance too, and sometimes if forced down unexpectedly. In a typical year nuclear plants spend around 5-6% of their time offline due to unexpected failures, for a total of around 10-11% total down-time.

      In some ways it is actually much worse than intermittent renewable sources. Wind is extremely predictable over the short term (30 minutes) and the failure of a turbine takes out 2-3MW typically. A nuclear reactor suddenly being forced offline will take up to 1000MW out of the supply instantly, so you need much more spare capacity available.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    95. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      That's an invalid comparison. Death is not the only metric of safety or value.

      To compare properly, you have to consider the cost of nuclear power verses other forms of generation. The cost in terms of what it costs to build and operate, and the cost in terms of what accidents have damaged and will cost to rectify, the cost to the lives of human beings who live with those technologies, and damage to the environment.

      Limiting the field of just renewables, nuclear is by far the biggest loser. It's extremely expensive to build and operate, requiring vast investment and subsidy. The cost of fixing Fukushima is currently unknown but estimated to be in the hundreds of billions of dollars range, and has made large areas of land uninhabitable*. It has dome immense harm to people who used to live there, or live near there. There are other kinds of accident too, such as when French plants have to dump hot water into lakes and rivers, resulting in the deaths of plants and animals. Nuclear plants do a lot of damage to the environment even when working normally, killing more wildlife than wind.

      Of course, wind, solar and hydro all have problems as well. Hydro might come out pretty badly if you include somewhat unrelated dam failure (by that logic car stereos kill thousands of people every year). Even so, nuclear is by far and away the worst option.

      * Note the very specific meaning of this word before contesting it please.

      --
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      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    96. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by jittles · · Score: 1

      "Hydro tend to provide reliable power but do not provide enough supply."

      Hi. I live in Quebec. Not only does hydro provide reliable power, it powers most of the province and there's a huge energy surplus.

      And the people in Iceland can rely almost entirely on geothermally generated electricity. What's your point? Not every location has an abundant supply of water or geothermal activity.

    97. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by LWATCDR · · Score: 1

      "There are multiple 50+GW battery installations in Japan"
      Really where?
      I did a google search I found 500mw battery in CA and a 36 MW in China both are 1/100th the size of the installations you claim.
      Unless you have a reference you are living in fantasy land.

      --
      See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
    98. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by pipingguy · · Score: 1

      "Actually remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere."

      We're at 0.04% now. How will vegetation survive? At what percentage of atmospheric CO2 do plants start shutting down?

    99. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by MachineShedFred · · Score: 2

      Yeah, even the most energy sucking LCD display still sips power compared to the CRTs of yesteryear. Also, we aren't tiptoeing the line where computers are drawing 10 amps at startup like we were in 2004 due to multiple spinning disks starting at once + fans using max current to get moving in order to get rid of the waste heat from bad CPU designs like Pentium 4. Plus, add in virtualization in the data center and you've got less machines using less energy to do more work these days from far better load-sharing efficiency and capacity utilization.

      Technologies like Intel vPro allow businesses to sleep / shut off machines that used to run 24/7 in order to get software updates. vPro allows for reliable unicast wake-up events over the network, unlike trying to rely on shitty wake-on-LAN layer-2 broadcasts.

      Try again.

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    100. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      cherry picked data is cherry picked.

    101. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by MachineShedFred · · Score: 1

      I'd be happy if we could just stop the expansion of coal and oil. Wind and solar can be part of the mix, and we should be breaking down adoption barriers wherever possible - right now the big energy companies are doing everything they can to delay renewables through lobbying bullshit to stymie their competition, and we're the ones that lose in the end.

      Nuclear is the only large-scale relatively carbon-free (post construction) energy source we've got right now. We need to stop being afraid of science and start actually working the problems.

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    102. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You go first. Disconnect from the Internet and open the main breaker to your home.

    103. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Of course they will take the roads and tolls, it's magic lava that hunts down nuclear power plants, in your fucking la la land dreams!!!.

      The last large (of the size you are imagining!! which is fucking fantasy land!!!!) eruption was 90,000 years ago.

      The only active part now is:

      The crater of Mt. Naka, the west side of which is accessible by road, contains an active volcano which continuously emits smoke and has occasional eruptions. Only the northernmost crater (the first crater) has been active for the last 70 years—1974, 1979, 1984–1985, 1989–1991,[1] 2009, and 2011.[2]

      so it has blown within the lifetime of the nuclear plant, with no problem, it's not really near enough!!!. unless the whole caldera. (25km dia approx) blew, but then there would be a lot more to worry about than the nuclear plant.

      I know America is crap at teaching it's kids, but fuck the internet is under your finger tips..

      For fucks sake use your brains!! there must be some in their somewhere!!!.

    104. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by BlueStrat · · Score: 1

      it's 191Km away it not fucking close at all!!..

      Coz of course, lava and ashes are gonna take roads and tolls... Distance is about 140 km, which is very close for a volcano that big.

      Hey, hate to rain on your roll, but if a volcano 140km away erupts on a scale that it's a serious threat to a reactor installation at that distance, seeing how we're talking about an island with limited area, chances are very good that the presence of a reactor installation will be the least of their problems!

      Strat

      --
      Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
    105. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Consequences of a solar event: skin cancer (there, corrected that for you).
      Consequences of a wind event: Your windmills get ripped up by the tornado.
      Consequences of a coal plant event: severe - you bet, you left out radiation, cancer, air pollution, poisons lasting for generations, ozone holes, ...
      Consequences of hydro plant failure: massive - all depends on whether you were stupid enough to let people build in the flood plane.
      Consequences of a nuclear plant event: generational - about the same as for coal plants actually.

    106. Re: It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      All the research/demonstration ones built so far have had serious failures. No melt-downs, but serious contamination issues or problems that caused the reactors to be written off. They are far from ready for prime time, and melt-down is only one of the risks.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    107. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      WHO CHOOSES WHO can have a baby?
      1st world populations are largely not reproducing. It is 3rd world populations that are exploding and then INVADING 1st world countries.
      Perhaps we should limit those migrations.

    108. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually not.

      Peak heat occurs at the same time as peak cloud cover... unless you are in the desert.

      Peak air conditioning occurs when people return home... and turn the thermostat down, which in most places is between 4PM and 7PM when the sun is not at its "optimum" for energy conversion.

    109. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by rwiggers · · Score: 1

      Except here, where it's really hot and we need air conditioning, peak hours are near sunset, with people getting home and turning on the AC...
      Well, 80% of our energy is still hydro, which is pretty fast. I guess solar is a good point anyway here, with hydro providing background and peak...
      Also, wind power here has the very disappointing property of having peak production exactly at the peak demand, when sun is going down...
      Can anyone explain me why we're building that crap oil and gas plants the cost more than solar and wind here?

    110. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by Talderas · · Score: 1

      That would get us off coal almost immediately, saving hundreds of thousands if not millions of lives each year compared to our current trajectory, where we're hanging on to coal plants because certain people are adamant that we cannot build new nuclear plants.

      Even with a major nuclear accident on par with Fukushima every 20 years it would still almost certainly result in less usable land lost and fewer deaths than sea level rise.

      --
      "Lack of speed can be overcome. In the worst case by patience." --Znork
    111. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No. What explodes is hydrogen accumulated from the breakdown of water.

    112. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by MachineShedFred · · Score: 2

      Yeah, except what you're conveniently not saying is that your molten salt is likely to be NaK, which ignites spontaneously in air, and explodes if it makes contact with water. As a bonus, the molten salt also becomes incredibly radioactive while in operation (sodium-24, half-life of 15 hours, two gamma rays per disintegration, decays into magnesium which is also highly flammable).

      There's a reason that these haven't been built past the research and design phases, and it's mostly to do with solving a whole new set of engineering problems. The Soviets used lead-bismuth eutectic as coolant in nuclear submarines in the 1980s, and that technology never made it to commercial energy production either due to issues with the coolant being corrosive to steel, and that configuration has WAY less concerns.

      I'm a big fan of using nuclear power and getting it as close as we can to perfection and operational safety, but you can't just paint over the problems with each design.

      --
      Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
    113. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually they did.

      They created so many regulations that it became unprofitable to design new reactors, much less build them to test, or to put them into production.

    114. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by MrKaos · · Score: 1

      We can have nuclear plants with a more forgiving design so no number of homer simpsons, natural disasters, unnatural disasters, and deliberate sabotage could trigger a meltdown.

      citation needed

      Oh, he is quite correct. FYI, it was already done at the NRC's request by reactor manufacturers like Westinghouse and GE and a bunch of others. They came up with a pretty good design that may have even made Nuclear power a viable energy source, with features like, it's underground, separated facilities, control room further away - except that it was too expensive.

      Instead we got SNUPPS, which what the AP1000 is based on. Reduced thermal containment to reactor heat ratio to reduce the amount of concrete to make it *cheaper*.

      That's the Nuclear Industries concept of "progress".

      --
      My ism, it's full of beliefs.
    115. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1
      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    116. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In fact you linked to the wiki page, but you obviously did not read it..

      you simple went ooh look "BIGGEST" volcano, PANIC PANIC RUN!!!!!!.

      If you bothered to read it, you would notice the actually active part is small, much smaller than the ASO volcano that last went off 90,000years ago...

      And that's the problem with people today, they cannot think an idea through and be bothered to check if they are simply regurgitating shit they think they read/heard, without actually looking and understanding the implications....

      Anything to fit the story they are biased towards.

       

    117. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      Apologies, I mis-typed. 50MWh.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    118. Re: It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by MrKaos · · Score: 1

      All the research/demonstration ones built so far have had serious failures. No melt-downs, but serious contamination issues or problems that caused the reactors to be written off. They are far from ready for prime time, and melt-down is only one of the risks.

      The main issue with this fuel cycle is Thallium, but I haven't been able to dig up if it's 233 or 238. It is pretty nasty stuff to the human genome.

      --
      My ism, it's full of beliefs.
    119. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by MrKaos · · Score: 1

      Yeah, you're right. Let's just keep burning coal instead. Surely that can't release any radiation.

      If you're referring to Uranium in coal, it's not enriched, it's natural, so mostly U-238. It should be collected, so essentially coal has the same problem the Nuclear industry does, radionuclide effluents.

      --
      My ism, it's full of beliefs.
    120. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by MrKaos · · Score: 2

      From the article: "has built stronger, higher tsunami walls near the new plant" and "Regardless, the 31-year old reactor"

      It's sad that 31 years old counts as 'new'.

      Consider that if they had had some really new nuclear plants that Fukushima probably would have already been shut down.

      Awesome, so basically if it hadn't been for anti-nuclear protestors, we likely have never had a Fukushima incident.

      According to the official report if it hadn't been for collusion between the regulator and TEPCO, we likely have never had a Fukushima incident.

      --
      My ism, it's full of beliefs.
    121. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by Chas · · Score: 1

      In 2013, Germany...

      Which has 1/30th our land area and a quarter of our populace. Germany's roughly the size of Montana. So the issues of delivering power reliably to the whole country are simply NOT comparable.

      Come back when you have better information.

      Nope. Downtime for maintenance

      You seldom, if ever, pull an entire multi-core nuclear facility COMPLETELY down. You simply bring another reactor up as you're cooling the one you need to service down.
      As for emergency situations, that's universal across ALL forms of power. And emergency reactor dumps aren't THAT common. If they were, nuclear never would have gotten off the ground to begin with.
      As for your ass-pull numbers on "unexpected failures"...

      In some ways its actually much worse than intermittent renewable sources

      Bullshit. Keep up the greenwashing though.

      --


      Chas - The one, the only.
      THANK GOD!!!
    122. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by Chas · · Score: 1

      Actually, most of the kinetic force in a modern reactor explosion is water overpressure. Sure, there's SOME hydrogen being lit off. But mostly it's water going "You heated me. I'm expanding whether you like it or not."

      --


      Chas - The one, the only.
      THANK GOD!!!
    123. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by Chas · · Score: 1

      Ah. Cherry picking Wikipedia to find one of the molten salts that could explode. Rather than the more common UF4.

      And I don't deny that nuclear has issues.

      But ALL forms of power generation have issues. I'm simply not ignoring the issues that other forms of power bring to the table.

      --


      Chas - The one, the only.
      THANK GOD!!!
    124. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      not the same as convertible energy!!.

      Fucking eco-loons why can they not do the fucking full maths!!. ho that's right reality smacks em in the face so they avoid it!!

      i.e you cannot build enough panels at a low enough cost even in china!!!! (that's even forgetting how polluting the manufacturing is, Apparently it doesn't count as pollution as it's for a green product and fuck it it's over in china anyway, plenty of them to poison so it does not matter!!(for the terminally dumb, I am being sarcastic!)).

    125. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      500mw? in a phone?

      That is actually pretty small for a phone even.

      MW =/= mw

      Also, batteries are measured in Wh, not W.

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
    126. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by Eunuchswear · · Score: 1

      50MWhr is big for a battery, but it's not exactly impressive on an electricity generation scale. Right now France is consuming 45.78 GW, 44.54 GW of which is nuclear.

      So one 50MWh battery would last about 4 seconds. You'd need 900 of 'em to power the country for an hour.

      (France chosen as an example 'cos I live here and the great Gridwatch site has the numbers)

      --
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    127. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by Bongo · · Score: 1

      You need to take a holistic view, rather than focusing on tiny individual actions. While small things are important, the are often only significant when everyone is doing them, which is why regulation to mandate efficiency is important.

      There was a long post/book by a mathematician (excuse I can't remember the ref., but his point was simple) who wrote that, if a lot of people make a small saving, then as a whole, the nation has made a small saving.

      For myself, it is only an accident of other life conditions which have meant I can get away with not having a car. But that could easily change. Not everyone can live near where they work, or afford to choose where to live.

      I mean, I agree that regulating for efficiency is much better. But in terms of the sorts of scale of use that we're talking about when it comes to nuclear, and how people want electric cars (where's that energy going to come from), I don't see how we'll get there.

    128. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      You have one per wind farm. They are about the size of a shipping container. You don't try or need to run your entire country off one giant battery, hilarious as it would be to try.

      --
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      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    129. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      To compare properly, you have to consider the cost of nuclear power verses other forms of generation. The cost in terms of what it costs to build and operate, and the cost in terms of what accidents have damaged and will cost to rectify, the cost to the lives of human beings who live with those technologies, and damage to the environment.

      Even with all those costs, and the costs of all the senseless litigation by NIMBYs like you, nuclear still comes out way ahead.

      Post citations on anything different, or stop spouting off about all the things you think are true.

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
    130. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by TheRaven64 · · Score: 2

      I used to be able to put my hand on the CPU of my PC in the early 1990s while the thing was on. Good luck doing that now

      And my laptop can do everything that the PC from the early '90s could do without even turning the fans on. Even a Raspberry Pi 2 outperforms a late-'90s PC handily and doesn't even have a heatsink (let alone a fan) on the SoC and can run happily from a battery.

      Why do you think the power supply wattage keeps going up?

      It doesn't, unless you're talking about high-end workstation machines (or gamer rigs, which are a similar and small market segment). The reason that I brought up the Alpha is because that's what people who had high-end workstations used and those things had 500W+ PSUs. Pentium-class machines had 230W PSUs at the entry level. Now, for basic office use, an Atom or similar with embedded Intel graphics and a small SSD will happily do what you need with a 30W total system power budget.

      My laptop has a quad-core i7 (4+4 with hyperthreading), an nVidia GPU, and a 1TB SSD. The power supply is rated at 85W and when I'm using all of the cores, and the GPU, and hitting the SSD hard, and have the screen brightness turned to maximum, it's still charging the battery at a reasonable rate, so the total draw is a lot less than 85W in normal use. A Pentium from the early '90s wouldn't even turn on with an 85W PSU (don't forget, that Pentium had a load of logic in the north and southbridge chips that each drained power and a load of discrete ICs for various controllers that are now integrated into a single chip, plus a hard disk that drew a reasonable amount of power).

      Those data points that you're picking are completely irrelevant for office machines. No one needs a 400W GPU for office work. You might need them for scientific computing, but there that 400W GPU is often replacing a 10kW cluster from a decade or so ago. Haswell-E is an 'enthusiast-class desktop' chip - i.e. a thing that idiot gamers with more money than sense buy so that they can feel 'leet. You won't find them in workstations or in office desktops.

      Fact is a computer is today a major power hog in a regular house

      In a regular house, there are no desktops. There are laptops, tablets, and smartphones. And, increasingly, only tablets and smartphones.

      How about large screen LCDs? 245W for a 55".

      So, about the same as a 24" CRT. Which do you think are more common: 24" CRTs 10 years ago, or 55" LCDs now?

      Back when we used CRTs we also used smaller screens. 160W for a 36".

      That's 160W for a new CRT, which is a lot more energy efficient than the ones we were using a decade ago (less loss, better phosphor). Even then, 30" CRTs were pretty rare a decade ago - I only knew a couple of people who had them, I don't know anyone who has a 55" LCD. You're more likely to have a projector for that size, and modern LED / laser projectors are even more power efficient for the same brightness.

      --
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    131. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by GuB-42 · · Score: 1

      Germany generates 43% of its electricity from coal and their plan to absorb the variations from the use of renewables is to make more adaptive coal plants.
      So yes, it is significant but is is actually a strategy based on coal.

    132. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by werepants · · Score: 1

      That calculation has to happen with absolutely everything. Wind power? Workers are going to fall off of turbines during installation and maintenance, and die. Solar power? Same thing, with roofs. The dangers of hydroelectric have been well described below.

      The thing is, in terms of Deaths/MW of delivered energy, nuclear is among the very safest technologies. Accidents are noteworthy because they are so very rare, and because it's easy for sensationalist reporters to exploit the scientific illiteracy of the public to make nuclear accidents sexier and more frightening.

    133. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by Thelasko · · Score: 1

      Hydro? Are you insane? In 1975, an 18GB hydro-electric dam system in China failed, killing at least 170,000 people. And 11 million made homeless.

      There are no safe energy sources. It's not about where the energy comes from. Energy itself is dangerous.

      Ever see a wind turbine failure?

      --
      One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
    134. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by LWATCDR · · Score: 1

      It looks like reading is.
      From this
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
      "As of 2008, sodium–sulfur batteries are only manufactured by one group, the NGK/TEPCO consortium, which is producing 90 MW of storage capacity each year.[11]"
      So it would take 555 years to make one 50 GW battery installation.

      "Japan Wind Development has opened a 51 MW wind farm that incorporates a 34 MW sodium sulfur battery system at Futamata in Aomori Prefecture in May 2008.[11]"
      Yea that is not close to 50 GW.

      "As of 2007, 165 MW of capacity were installed in Japan, and NGK has announced in 2008 a plan to expand its NaS factory output from 90 MW a year to 150 MW a year.[13] (Source in Japanese, but with some pictures.)"
      So if they did increase this by 150MW a year it would take 332 years.

      And this linke https://www.ngk.co.jp/nas/ [ngk.co.jp]
      Has a single case study in Japan for a 51MW system which is 1000 times smaller than you claimed.

      Your statement was "There are multiple 50+GW battery installations in Japan" and your links actually back this up as pure fantasy. So unless you made an error in size by a factor of 1000 and after a snarky reply failed to catch it, you are living in a fantasy land.
      So give me a link to a single 50 GW battery system. The largest I found was 500MW.

      --
      See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
    135. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by wallsg · · Score: 1

      It's sad that 31 years old counts as 'new'.

      Everything is relative. New means "newer".

      The New Course at St Andrews opened in 1895. The Old Course was in use in the early 1400s. There's a foot bridge at the 18th on the Old Course that's at least 700 years old, built for shepherds, that predates the game itself.

    136. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yep. Ironic, isn't it...

    137. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by MobyDisk · · Score: 1

      If you mean the Banqiao Dam that 170,000 number seems very suspect.

      A 2005 book compiled by the Archives Bureau of Suiping county reports that more than 230,000 were carried away by water, in which 18,869 died.[9] It has been reported that 90,000 - 230,000 people were killed as a result of the dam breaking.

      Notice that the 18,869 number is cited, and the second number is weasel-worded.

    138. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by morgauxo · · Score: 1

      Where I live there are clouds most days of the year. I do see a lot of turbines around. Most days there isn't enough wind to drive them. They just sit there like the tripods in War of the Worlds after all the martians died. Fortunately for me there are at least two nuclear power plants nearby and many many coal plants. Even better, the local environment which does not provide a ton of sunlight or wind also does not provide earthquakes! Energy costs where I live are about 1/10th what my friends out west pay.

      I do wish more of those coal plants would be converted to nuclear though. It's diffuse enough I never notice but I don't want to breath any coal plant exhaust.

      Better yet... if we could only harness the hot air coming from the anti-nuke crowd's mouths... unlimitted nearly free energy for everyone! All it costs is a bit of soy and granola! It might be a bit stinky though.

      Don't get me wrong.. I'd love to see wind and solar replace as much of the power generation as is practical. Anyone who thinks that is going to be enough to save the world though.. they need to pull their heads out of their asses and realize that the world is much bigger than their sunny little wind blown corners.

    139. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by Cyberax · · Score: 1

      I'm living in an apartment and my electricity usage is actually even lower than yours. That still won't help much - households are only about 35% of the total electricity demand. The rest is commercial and industrial customers and they are already doing pretty much all they can to cut the usage.

    140. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by Enigma2175 · · Score: 1

      Even if you accept that a dam failure is somehow a mark against the hydro plant it happen to have installed, no-one is suggesting building more massive dams like that. On the other hand, people are trying to re-start reactors of not entirely dissimilar design to Fukushima.

      No-one? What about the Three Gorges Dam? It's the biggest hydro project ever and it was just recently completed. Your assertion that nobody is building massive dams anymore is false.

      --

      Enigma

    141. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by barc0001 · · Score: 1

      Indeed that it is what I am referring to, and also that coal plants have killed more people through their pollution than nuclear plants have, by orders of magnitude. Yet everyone loses their minds at the thought of using nuclear power while the coal rolls.

    142. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by LWATCDR · · Score: 1

      I saw that you apologised in another post for being off by a factor of 1000. I assume you will not reply anymore to this thread since you were so snarky and yet so clearly wrong.

      Just to put this into perspective for you.
      A 50MW battery would would hold less than 1 minute of output from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.... The average over a year is about 15 minutes. So to just replace that one power plant you would need with Solar you would need 64 times that size at a minimum a 3.2 GW battery system. It does not matter if it is a bunch of small battery packs or one big one the total is 3.2 GW which is HUGE!

      --
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    143. Re: It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by WindBourne · · Score: 1

      This is not about being impressed or impressing others.
      The problem here, is that you and others HATE nukes and refuse to look at HONEST data. The Molten Salt Reactors have been tested and worked great. Meltdown is IMPOSSIBLE.
      In addition, the ability to not use any NEW nuclear material, but to simply use the waste, well, it is foolish to NOT do this.
      Trans Atomic, along with Flible, Could be ready by 2022. These would be SMALL reactors (150 MW, rather than 1-2 GW), and would be built in a factory and shipped to current nuke sites. Combine that with a small material processing unit, and suddenly, we have a way to remove most of the 'waste'.

      Look, you scream about the far right being afraid of science, and you are correct.
      BUT, your own irrational fear, and hope to push NOTHING but AE, puts you in the exact same boat with them. Basically, you are contributing to CO2 emissions increasing as much as they are.

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    144. Re: It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      This is not about being impressed or impressing others.

      Yes, yes it is.

      The Molten Salt Reactors have been tested and worked great. Meltdown is IMPOSSIBLE.

      When you have a problem, it will be exciting. When it comes time for decommissioning, we'll see how clean the whole process is.

      Look, you scream about the far right being afraid of science, and you are correct.
      BUT, your own irrational fear,

      There's nothing irrational about fearing that humans will be irresponsible. Indeed, it's the only safe way to bet.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    145. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by hcs_$reboot · · Score: 1

      last went off 90,000years ago...

      It's actually *every* 90,000 years... so of course, currently the active part is small, but a big eruption is still possible.

      --
      Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
    146. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by hcs_$reboot · · Score: 1

      if a volcano 140km away erupts on a scale that it's a serious threat to a reactor installation at that distance, seeing how we're talking about an island with limited area, chances are very good that the presence of a reactor installation will be the least of their problems!

      For people living on the Kyushu island - sure. The 13 million people there will definitely have a hard time (like the thousands in 2011 with the tsunami). But once lava and ashes reach the reactor, what will be the consequences? Explosions? The northern island (Honshu) and nearby Korea, at least, would be at risk.

      --
      Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
    147. Re: It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by WindBourne · · Score: 1

      When you have a problem, it will be exciting. When it comes time for decommissioning, we'll see how clean the whole process is.

      First, a number of reactors have been shut down and it is not a big deal. A bit expensive, because they were built in place and have to be taken down by hand.
      OTOH, TransAtomic and Flibles would be built in factories and carted to the site via rail and/or truck.
      It is also easy to hook them up, by design.
      As such, It is easy to get them out of there as well without any real human issues. Take them to the current disposal site in Tx, and then have a robot tear it appear. Issue solved.

      There's nothing irrational about fearing that humans will be irresponsible. Indeed, it's the only safe way to bet.

      And that is why you use a process in which it does not require a human to shutdown or keep the temps down. It is irrational to disregard the fact that laws of physic protect these.
      And as one that is betting that AGW IS HAPPENING, the safe thing is to replace coal and nat gas as quickly as possible. There is ZERO chance that AE can do 100%, let alone 50% of the job within 15 years. As such, it is irrational to HOPE that we can do 100% AE, when it is already shown that it can not happen esp. since you on the far left refuse to stop China's growth.

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    148. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by MrKaos · · Score: 1

      Indeed that it is what I am referring to, and also that coal plants have killed more people through their pollution than nuclear plants have, by orders of magnitude.

      Yes, the coal industry is all of that.

      Yet everyone loses their minds at the thought of using nuclear power while the coal rolls.

      The consequences of using Nuclear Power are deferred to the future. The common myth is that the are no consequences from using Nuclear Power however you only have to look at the radiological effects on humans to realize those consequences are much more subtle and complex to understand whilst taking much longer to manifest as the radionuclide load in the environment increases the likely hood of transgenic disease in human beings.

      I don't think either side of this debate truly grasps that and thus the discussion becomes emotive and reliant on belief systems as opposed to fact.

      --
      My ism, it's full of beliefs.
    149. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There are no safe energy sources.

      I think that was the point.

    150. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by Firethorn · · Score: 1

      Hi. I live in Quebec. Not only does hydro provide reliable power, it powers most of the province and there's a huge energy surplus.

      Hi Quebec, could you please cover the NE seaboard of the USA? No? Well, I guess we'll have to find our own options.

      Hydroelectric is effectively maxed in the USA. We still need to make up the difference.

      --
      I don't read AC A human right
    151. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by Firethorn · · Score: 1

      I've noticed this as well. Short of laptops, my old computers generally used a couple 6-8 cm fans. Today my computer has 5 12 cm fans. They're low speed, but still.

      You look at the cooling for a modern computer and the first guess wouldn't be reduced power usage.

      --
      I don't read AC A human right
    152. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by ember42 · · Score: 1

      NaK is not even a salt (it is a mix of molten reactive metals), the salts used would be stuff like Lithium Flouride, which are about as nonreactive as you can get.

    153. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by phayes · · Score: 1

      "duh" says the man who probably lives in the American south-western desert where his peak usage is during the day and cannot conceive of people living elsewhere.

      --
      Democracy is a sheep and two wolves deciding what to have for lunch. Freedom is a well armed sheep contesting the issue
    154. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by ultranova · · Score: 1

      Why drive a really inefficient car?

      Because I can't afford a better one, either not at all or not without giving up something else I want, which would mean a lower quality of life for me. And the same goes for all your examples: every time I prioritize energy saving I also de-prioritize some other concern. It might be a reasonable tradeoff in some cases, but it's still a tradeoff, and just as importantly it's a tradeoff you're demanding I make - you don't have a car, and if you don't need one that's wonderful for you, but I'd have to add an hour or more to my commute both ways without one, leading to a lower quality of life (less free time) for me.

      Ever increasing energy consumption is a nightmare scenario. I want my phone to last a week on a tiny light weight battery, that's progress.

      Manufacturing, transporting and running that phone - and cell towers, let's not forget about infrastructure needed to run it - still uses more energy than not having one and accepting the resulting lack of communication. It's to you what a car is to me. Every single time you're about to talk about conserving energy, understand you're basically asking other people to give up their phones. Then consider the billions of people still living in abject poverty; should they ever get wealthy enough to get their own cellphones, all those billions of phones are going to use a lot more energy than zero phones.

      Ever increasing energy consumption is an inevitable side effect of progress. The difference between a dead rock and one covered in moss is that one of them is using energy and the other isn't. And the difference between us and Dark Ages is that we are better at tapping and controlling energy flows. We can and should see if we can optimize our usage, but the only alternative to long-term increase is to give up - to sit here and wait for Sun to die and kill us all in the progress, if nothing else gets us first, which seems unlikely.

      All that said, I'm in favour of heavily investing in renewable energy production, precisely to ensure we have a sufficient supply. In the long run, we'll have to switch to solar simply because it's the most abundant source available by far, especially once we venture beyond Earth. But completely unrealistic plans that involve people who are already just barely getting by buying a new car, doing a large-scale renowation of their home (and insulation does have its limits due to the need for ventilation) and apparently not being allowed to have kids on top of that are simply getting in the way.

      --

      Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.

    155. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by lott11 · · Score: 1

      Funny thing the only one's that defend nuclear are usually are US and UK people. Lets start with water power there are 12 water turbines 1.5 to 2.7 miles of the coast of South Florida. But at anytime you can of find only two units producing energy and only for test purposes only. Why because there are 3 power plant with in a 100 miles distance, there turkey point, port of fort Lauder dale, Everglades, well to make this short. There 57 power plants in Florida, of this 15 are run by FPL the other are independent. How do I know this, I grew up in South Florida. One of my jobs was going to work at turkey point 3 times a week. To the point each generator in the gulf produces 2.7 KW hour, but the excuse was the marine live. Well let me tell you where the turbines are locate there is nothing but run off back water and sewage. Let me tell you this is not a place you would like to dive, there is not a thing to see but silt from TP. If run a string of turbines along the gulf stream on the east coast of United states. They could make enough power for 11 states all year, no nuclear or coal power would be needed. In the Hudson river there are 5 turbines propelled by the tides, but only one is in use to power a super market. In Washington state there is a wave power station that after one year after construction was close off. The Tapchan power station has been running since 1985 it 5000 MW in Sweden, the Okiawa yabaru power station also produces 30 MW. So if built a few power station on the coast of any country, would it reduce the need for coal or nuclear. Most funnel power stations have a smaller foot print, and less impact on the environment. https://www.youtube.com/watch?... https://www.youtube.com/watch?... there several way of using tides to power, 1. is to funnel water and store it and use to move turbines. 2. Use a funnel water tide to move air then in turn move wind turbines. 3. a funnel tides passage like Tapchan witch is in open water. There is no money for the oil and coal companies, when there is an environmental and sound solution. There is more production of oil and coal now then ever. The 1.2 billion that Busch push for hydrogen was oil companies, guess what Busch is what and oil what. Is Fracking the way make dirty hydrogen, well that's what oil say right. http://www.dangersoffracking.c... for hydrogen there other ways such as brown's gas or even https://www.youtube.com/watch?... or back to water using a ram pump to make power. https://www.youtube.com/watch?... so what was the point. There are so many ways of making power just use your brains, or pay for power the rest of your life. Are there solutions, yes are you going to use them. Do power companies apposed any of this changes, how much would they loose. I could show you 15 other ways that you could reduce you carbon foot print, but most of you just do not care. It is all up to you to do something.

    156. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by cheesybagel · · Score: 1

      And my laptop can do everything that the PC from the early '90s could do without even turning the fans on. Even a Raspberry Pi 2 outperforms a late-'90s PC handily and doesn't even have a heatsink (let alone a fan) on the SoC and can run happily from a battery.

      Apples and oranges. I could also compare a pocket calculator to ENIAC. It doesn't matter. What matters is what people use which is what drives power consumption.
      You talked about an Alpha workstation when most people only had PCs in their house. Now you compare with a modern Raspberry Pi which is basically an embedded system. I compared high-end desktop PCs with high-end desktop PCs.

      Those data points that you're picking are completely irrelevant for office machines.
      No one needs an Alpha for an office machine either. In fact in the early 1990s a lot of people had electric typewriters or even mechanical ones in their office which used even less power than your laptop or whatever.

      The "high-end" GPU is not for replacing a cluster. It's a gaming machine add-on that costs $3000 USD. Hardly a cluster. The Titan Z can't even do DP FP worth a damn. It's not for scientific computing. It's for gaming. Even a $999 USD card can use 320W. Not outside of the realm for a gamer. I paid more for a computer monitor two decades ago when the dollar was actually worth more.

      The problem with modern LCD screens is 4K. It gobs power. Same thing happened with smartphones and tablets with high-resolution displays.
       

    157. Re:It'd be hilareous if not so sad... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Now I know your a troll and fucking stupid at the same time.

      An eruption the size of which you are imagining would pretty much wipe out the whole island..

      At that point no fucker would even notice the reactor even if it did a nuclear explosion!!!..

      Also at that point the amount of shit in the atmosphere would mean global warming would be welcome!!! (world gone cold, plants dying, starvation!!!).

  3. Burn the protestors... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    Burn the protestors to generate electricity - at least let them do something useful!

    1. Re:Burn the protestors... by bobbied · · Score: 0

      I always refuse to take the nuclear power protestors seriously until they agree to go out and pull their electric meters and refuse to do any business with anybody who uses electricity both directly and indirectly.

      So far, I've not found anybody I can take seriously....

      --
      "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
    2. Re:Burn the protestors... by FranTaylor · · Score: 0

      So far, I've not found anybody I can take seriously....

      The feeling is mutual

    3. Re:Burn the protestors... by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      I always refuse to take the nuclear power protestors seriously until they agree to go out and pull their electric meters and refuse to do any business with anybody who uses electricity both directly and indirectly.

      Please tell us what made you consider that to be a logical response. *pops corn* This should be insane, I mean good!

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    4. Re:Burn the protestors... by ganjadude · · Score: 1

      i dont think saying lead by example is a bad thing

      --
      have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
    5. Re:Burn the protestors... by FranTaylor · · Score: 1

      i dont think saying lead by example is a bad thing

      That's not what he said, not at all. He said he cannot tolerate hypocrites. Since every human is a hypocrite, he is what you call a "psychopath"

    6. Re:Burn the protestors... by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      I always refuse to take the nuclear power protestors seriously until they agree to go out and pull their electric meters and refuse to do any business with anybody who uses electricity both directly and indirectly.

      Please tell us what made you consider that to be a logical response. *pops corn* This should be insane, I mean good!

      i dont think saying lead by example is a bad thing

      I don't think saying "cut yourself off from all power, then" is a valid response to people who say "we should be producing other forms of power than nuclear", and neither does anyone else who speaks English and has the faintest idea what we're talking about unless they're being completely disingenuous to support their argument.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    7. Re:Burn the protestors... by ganjadude · · Score: 1

      oh no argument there. there is a huge leap from "lets all change our lightbulbs...as they die... with better ones" and "lets all outlaw oil coal and nuke power overnight"

      sadly the majority of people belong to those saying the first, and the ones who get airtime are those wanting the 2nd

      --
      have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
    8. Re:Burn the protestors... by thinkwaitfast · · Score: 1

      That's my general take on environmentalists. It only works if you apply the rules to the people whom you care little about because they are different from you.

    9. Re:Burn the protestors... by tompaulco · · Score: 1

      That's my general take on environmentalists. It only works if you apply the rules to the people whom you care little about because they are different from you.

      An environmentalist is a person who is 10 times better than you because they use only 99.9% of the resources that you do. Or in some cases (like Al Gore), many, many times more resources.

      --
      If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
    10. Re:Burn the protestors... by FranTaylor · · Score: 1

      An environmentalist is a person who is 10 times better than you because they use only 99.9% of the resources that you do. Or in some cases (like Al Gore), many, many times more resources.

      The wealthy guys who own the solar panel factories, they drive around in fancy cars and use more gas than you do, does that mean they are not environmentalists?

    11. Re:Burn the protestors... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > The wealthy guys who own the solar panel factories, they drive around in fancy cars and use more gas than you do

      The wealthy guys who own solar panel factories, drive around in fancy cars called Tesla S and use zero gas or coal, charging from nuclear and solar electricity powered sockets.

      On the other hand the Koch brothers are really nice guys, they are like Mahatma Gandhi x Melinda Gates.

    12. Re:Burn the protestors... by bobbied · · Score: 1

      I always refuse to take the nuclear power protestors seriously until they agree to go out and pull their electric meters and refuse to do any business with anybody who uses electricity both directly and indirectly.

      Please tell us what made you consider that to be a logical response. *pops corn* This should be insane, I mean good!

      I'm saying "Lead by example". If you want me to consider your argument, prove to me you are really serious about it.

      The world is full of people who "protest" all sorts of things, yet don't fully understand what they are really protesting, nor are they *really* committed to the cause. Al Gore comes to mind here. All sorts of bluster about CO2 emissions, rides in a private luxury jet. Or Michael Moore, who is out protesting the 1% when he's in the top 1/2% himself and could easily give enough away to prove he's serous. These two are nothing more than scammers. But then there is the environmentalist who's our advocating that we stop burring coal for electricity, but happily has an air-conditioned home that sucks oodles of power out of the grid that's powered by coal, oh they buy "renewable power" but when it's cloudy, calm and hot, they don't even know that fossil fuels are what's keeping them cool.

      Then there is the "I don't burn fossil fuels to drive" crowd with their EV's. Lord help us when they find out where that electricity comes from....

      --
      "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
    13. Re:Burn the protestors... by cyberchondriac · · Score: 1

      That word, I do not think it means what you think it means.

      --

      Look back up at my post, now look back down, you're on the Internet. Now look back up. I'm a signature.
    14. Re:Burn the protestors... by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      I especially liked the quote in TFS:

      "Past arguments that nuclear plants were safe and nuclear energy was cheap were all shown to be lies," said writer Satoshi Kamata, one of the demonstration organizers. "Kyushu Electric is not qualified to resume operations because it has not completed an anti-quake structure to oversee a possible accident as well as a venting facility."

      Past arguments that nuclear is safe have been shown true by the very accident he is refering to. NO ONE died from radiation at Fukushima. What safety didn't pan out there?

      Nuclear also would be cheap if it wasn't for protesters and NIMBYs who slow down every single reactor construction. In fact, it is still one of the best power sources we have for expense per Wh. The only thing I know that beats it is Hydro, which of course the environmental crowd hates as well.

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
    15. Re:Burn the protestors... by tompaulco · · Score: 1

      The wealthy guys who own solar panel factories, drive around in fancy cars called Tesla S and use zero gas or coal, charging from nuclear and solar electricity powered sockets.

      Well, I suppose they all live in France then, because they sure don't use zero gas or coal if they live anywhere else.

      --
      If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
  4. What did they think was going to happen? by timrod · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It should've been obvious to everyone involved that shutting down all the nuclear reactors in Japan as a reaction to the Fukushima meltdown with absolutely no replacement strategy wasn't a sustainable option.

    1. Re:What did they think was going to happen? by Person147 · · Score: 2

      Bah, it was a popular decision with the public - and that is what democracy is all about!

    2. Re:What did they think was going to happen? by Kohath · · Score: 1

      So? Lynch mobs and witch hunts are immune to ideas that are merely "obvious".

    3. Re:What did they think was going to happen? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nope, it was just a political cave-in. Still, you wonder why Japan doesn't embrace more solar. You'd think that would subsidize that to death.

    4. Re:What did they think was going to happen? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Depends, was it really the popular decision? or did a minority make it look like a majority? In the States the minority often looks like a majority. That is how we end up Obamacare.

    5. Re:What did they think was going to happen? by thinkwaitfast · · Score: 1

      This goes a long way to answer your question, but requires 3 hours of reading and a thorough` understanding of eighth grade math. It was written by a physicist and contains a lot of numbers. No algebra is required, but it does have a lot of numbers. Most people don't like numbers because they can't argue against them.
      No science or sociopolitical knowledge is required as there are no moral judgements made, just numbers.

    6. Re:What did they think was going to happen? by Eunuchswear · · Score: 1

      In the States the minority often looks like a majority. That is how we [ took so long to get ] Obamacare.

      --
      Watch this Heartland Institute video
    7. Re:What did they think was going to happen? by MrKaos · · Score: 1

      This goes a long way to answer your question, but requires 3 hours of reading and a thorough` understanding of eighth grade math. It was written by a physicist and contains a lot of numbers. No algebra is required, but it does have a lot of numbers. Most people don't like numbers because they can't argue against them. No science or sociopolitical knowledge is required as there are no moral judgements made, just numbers.

      Thanks for that, I'll check it out. I think one of the biggest issues people forget is the amount of energy that goes into mining Uranium in the first place. Below 200grams U per ton of rock Nuclear is no longer viable due to energetic requirements to get the fuel in the first place. That's even before the energy expenditure on the disposal of the reactor at the end of it's service life.

      I think we are at the end of the once through reactor fuel cycle for that reason and burner reactors aren't really viable until materials technology catch up.

      --
      My ism, it's full of beliefs.
    8. Re:What did they think was going to happen? by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      Naa, if the majority really had the chance to vote on it, we would have single payer, Obamacare is a cluster**** caused by collusion with the health care industry on how best to scratch their backs.

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
  5. 2011? 2013? by Black+Parrot · · Score: 1

    How come they're saying how much costs have risen since 2011, instead of since they shut the nukes down?

    --
    Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
    1. Re:2011? 2013? by bobbied · · Score: 1

      How come they're saying how much costs have risen since 2011, instead of since they shut the nukes down?

      Oh that's easy.... Figures never lie, but liars figure... Somebody is massaging their data set.

      --
      "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
  6. What energy prices have risen? by wooppp · · Score: 1

    Almost all energy prices (crude oil, natural gas, coal) have fallen by half comparing to the mid-point of 2011 prices, except uranium. What energy prices are they talking about?

    1. Re:What energy prices have risen? by U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M · · Score: 1

      Uranium.

    2. Re:What energy prices have risen? by cheater512 · · Score: 2

      Chances are they aren't producing much of their electricity domestically any more and instead are importing.

      They didn't shut down their nuclear reactors and a whole bunch of coal plants just sprung up everywhere to take up the slack.

    3. Re: What energy prices have risen? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Uranium is more expensive than gasoline per gallon, but you get much more energy out of a gallon of uranium. The major cost of a uranium plant is water for cooling. The cost of uranium consumed is a rounding error.

    4. Re:What energy prices have risen? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Almost all energy prices (crude oil, natural gas, coal) have fallen by half comparing to the mid-point of 2011 prices, except uranium. What energy prices are they talking about?

      They are talking about their electricity supplies.

      Nuclear energy is mostly local energy. Fossil fuels are ALL IMPORTED into Japan. So yes, energy prices increased since yen devalued and Japan has been literally burning foreign currency reserves to burn fossil fuels.

      Uranium prices do not really matter for nuclear power. It forms a very small fraction of actual costs.

    5. Re:What energy prices have risen? by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 1

      The government-subsidized production and operations of nuclear fission power plants prices.

      Which have very little to do with actual free market power prices.

      Those are the prices they're referring to.

      --
      -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
    6. Re: What energy prices have risen? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The safest thing to do is put it in large barrels, inside plastic drums, then buried at least 40 meters underground in clay soil. Do not open, then no problems.

    7. Re: What energy prices have risen? by FranTaylor · · Score: 1

      Do not open, then no problems.

      good luck with that

    8. Re: What energy prices have risen? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Uranium price is big part when you include damage to environment when mining it, plus damage when sorting it, plus potential for radioactive mutation of people.

    9. Re:What energy prices have risen? by erice · · Score: 2

      Chances are they aren't producing much of their electricity domestically any more and instead are importing.

      They didn't shut down their nuclear reactors and a whole bunch of coal plants just sprung up everywhere to take up the slack.

      Um. This is Japan, and Island country. I'm pretty sure they are not importing electricity from anywhere, though they do have some submarine cables between the islands. If they did build a cable on the shortest route to South Korea (the only plausible endpoint) it would be on the longest undersea power cables in the world. Maybe if/when the build the tunnel

    10. Re: What energy prices have risen? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nobody has an actual solution for what to do with the existing radioactive waste, because "SCARY NUCLEAR WASTE ZOMG THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!1".
      How about dump it right back were the (radioactive) Uranium was mined in the first place?

    11. Re: What energy prices have risen? by FranTaylor · · Score: 1

      How about dump it right back were the (radioactive) Uranium was mined in the first place?

      Because
      1 it's been purified and concentrated countless times
      2 it's pretty likely to end up in the aquifer

    12. Re: What energy prices have risen? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You know it's only a matter of time before the EPA digs it up by accident.

    13. Re:What energy prices have risen? by tsotha · · Score: 1

      As erice points out, Japan can't import electricity. They have no domestic supplies of fossil fuels, either, which makes nuclear attractive for strategic reasons. In the early days following 2011 they got by running peakers around the clock, which explains why their electricity is so expensive.

    14. Re: What energy prices have risen? by thinkwaitfast · · Score: 1

      1. dilute it back down

    15. Re: What energy prices have risen? by FranTaylor · · Score: 1

      1. dilute it back down

      creating enormous volumes of material, completely impractical to store and transport without spilling it

    16. Re: What energy prices have risen? by WindBourne · · Score: 1

      Actually, nuke waste is trivial to solve. Simply use it in a gen 4 reactor and then have only 5% of waste and all safe within 200 years.

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    17. Re: What energy prices have risen? by WindBourne · · Score: 1

      And how does this subsidy compare to wind/solar subsidies?

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    18. Re: What energy prices have risen? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      so like the parent said; Uranium doesnt cost anything.

      Only externalities of operating a nuclear power plant cost something.

      BTW, whats the cost of a hydro plant whose dam wall breaks and kills 170,000 people?

    19. Re: What energy prices have risen? by Xiaran · · Score: 1

      Spilling it? Google Synroc.

    20. Re: What energy prices have risen? by TheRaven64 · · Score: 2

      That's because radioactive waste is a horribly misleading term. Anything that is sufficiently radioactive to be a danger is also radioactive enough to be useful, even if only in radiothermal or betavoltaic generators. The 'waste' is fuel that, for political or economic reasons, it doesn't make sense to use at the moment. Most of it can be reprocessed in breeder reactors and turned into fuel useable in existing reactors. Often, storing it and using newly mined fuel is cheaper, but 'we have so much nuclear fuel that it isn't currently economic to make efficient use of it' is a really, really bad argument against nuclear power.

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    21. Re:What energy prices have risen? by cheesybagel · · Score: 1

      They restarted deactivated coal power plants and fuel oil burners from the 1970s. As you can imagine not exactly cheap.

      They are also burning a lot more natural gas. Some of their new plants are combined cycle but a lot are older less efficient designs. AFAIK Japan imports most of its natural gas by LNG tanker.

    22. Re: What energy prices have risen? by cheesybagel · · Score: 1
    23. Re: What energy prices have risen? by pellik · · Score: 1

      Whatever happened to encasing the waste in glass?

    24. Re: What energy prices have risen? by sjames · · Score: 1

      It came out of the ground in dilute form, leaving a void. It will necessarily fit back into that void if diluted back to natural concentration.

      The alternative is concentration. Re-process it into a small amount of concentrated highly active waste that will decay in 200 years and the remaining 95% is fuel ready to go back into a reactor.

    25. Re: What energy prices have risen? by dunkelfalke · · Score: 1

      Not really. Try to use old activated reactor walls as fuel. They are dangerous alright, but not useful at all. It is waste, but still dangerous. RTGs require very specific isotopes.

      Reprocessing in breeder reactors, that one is especially funny. How many actually working breeding reactors can you name?

      Nuclear power is only economic if you ignore the waste problem, and even then it is very expensive.

      --
      "It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
    26. Re: What energy prices have risen? by MrKaos · · Score: 1

      1. dilute it back down

      creating enormous volumes of material, completely impractical to store and transport without spilling it

      Radionuclide don't dilute, they bio-concentrate because they present as micronutrients to metabolisms (plants and animals). You can *disperse* radionuclides, but they will bio-concentrate all over again until they complete their decay cycle.

      Which for pu-239 is 25,000 years

      --
      My ism, it's full of beliefs.
    27. Re: What energy prices have risen? by MrKaos · · Score: 1

      Whatever happened to encasing the waste in glass?

      It's not glass, it's called C22 and this paper might help answer that question.

      --
      My ism, it's full of beliefs.
    28. Re: What energy prices have risen? by MrKaos · · Score: 1

      Actually, nuke waste is trivial to solve. Simply use it in a gen 4 reactor and then have only 5% of waste and all safe within 200 years.

      Dixie Lee Rays said that in the 70's or 80's and it is still not solved. Gen 4's still suffer corrosion and neutron bombardment issues that makes air leak *into* them. Radioactive sodium and water is a very bad combination and humans have proved them selves too unreliable to run PWR and BWR so the stakes are much higher with a fast reactor.

      Overcome the materials issues and then it becomes possible. Otherwise you still have many of the problems existing reactor tech does. I presume you mean burners over breeders, btw.

      It's not impossible however having a large scale Gen4 installations would take infrastructure planning and construction that would last a century, at the end though would be power infrastructure for the foreseeable future. I just doubt the human race has the political or economic maturity to engage such a project.

      --
      My ism, it's full of beliefs.
    29. Re: What energy prices have risen? by MrKaos · · Score: 1

      Often, storing it and using newly mined fuel is cheaper, but 'we have so much nuclear fuel that it isn't currently economic to make efficient use of it' is a really, really bad argument against nuclear power.

      That is not the argument against nuclear power, it's the argument against breeder reactors. They produce plutonium, more comes out than what goes in, that's *why* they're called breeders.

      --
      My ism, it's full of beliefs.
    30. Re: What energy prices have risen? by MrKaos · · Score: 1

      so like the parent said; Uranium doesnt cost anything.

      Only externalities of operating a nuclear power plant cost something.

      BTW, whats the cost of a hydro plant whose dam wall breaks and kills 170,000 people?

      Dunno, what the cost of a nuclear plant that renders 3500 square kilometers of land useless?

      --
      My ism, it's full of beliefs.
    31. Re:What energy prices have risen? by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      and Japan has been literally burning foreign currency reserves to burn fossil fuels.

      I don't think that "literally" means what you think it means. /Inigo Montoya

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
  7. I thought Abenomics wanted inflation? by JoeyRox · · Score: 0

    I guess they only wanted inflation directed the "right" players in the economy, ie people instead of businesses.

    1. Re:I thought Abenomics wanted inflation? by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I guess they only wanted inflation directed the "right" players in the economy, ie people instead of businesses.

      Price increases, in and of themselves, are NOT a sign of inflation.

      Essentially, inflation is an increase in the money supply not supported by a corresponding increase in "stuff you can spend money on".

      While electricity certainly qualifies as "stuff you can spend money on", nothing that can be done to the supply of electricity signifies inflation in and of itself.

      Remember, while price increases may be a sign of inflation, price increases are not necessarily a result of inflation. Sometimes it's just more demand than supply....

      --

      "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
    2. Re: I thought Abenomics wanted inflation? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or less supply than demand.

  8. Why are electricity prices soaring? by pipingguy · · Score: 1

    Energy prices are only up in Japan 30% over the past four years, what's the big deal?

    1. Re:Why are electricity prices soaring? by cheesybagel · · Score: 1

      Should do wonders for the industry of Japan I am sure.

  9. Fine but they should invest in wind next by WolfWithoutAClause · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Japan actually has a large, and largely untapped, capacity to use wind power. They also have quite a lot of hydroelectricity, which is useful for buffering against variations.

    Wind power is actually cheaper than nuclear anyway now.

    Nuclear power is probably not such a great idea for Japan, it's quite a small country, very highly populated, and on the ring of fire, and any accidents could have much worse effects than we saw with Fukushima. With Fukushima, it was fortuitous that it was on the East coast, and the prevailing winds blew the fallout out to sea where it was diluted it down. If the accident had been West of Tokyo it would have been incredibly, stupendously bad, and if they return to using nuclear power in a big way, that could actually happen.

    --

    -WolfWithoutAClause

    "Gravity is only a theory, not a fact!"
    1. Re:Fine but they should invest in wind next by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Wind power is not cheaper and has its own problems. It is certainly not cheaper than re-starting existing nuclear plants.

      Plant cannot withstand tsunamis, that is well know. They should not restart any plants that are in tsunami vulnerable areas. They have proven to stand up to earthquakes quite well, as they were designed to do.

      Cooler heads are prevailing in Japan.

    2. Re:Fine but they should invest in wind next by Harlequin80 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      The other way to look at it is if Fukushima had been on the West coast we wouldn't be talking about it at all and it would never have been damaged by the Tsunami.

      All power generation systems comes with some kind of risks. As a species we have been using nuclear all around the world for over 50 years and there are around 450ish plants with only 2 accidents of major note. In both instances we have learned what to look for and how to defend against those and similar issues in the future.

      One of the huge risks on other energy sources that is a major reason why Japan will have a nuclear energy sector for the foreseeable future is it is the only reasonably independent energy source available to it which other countries can't take away easily. Japan has no major fossil fuel reserves so must import gas, coal etc. putting it at risk to other countries for its energy supply.

      The same can be seen in their food production. Japan intensively farms its land and supports / protects its farmers. This is so that in the event of a conflict they retain the ability to feed themselves without imports.

      Wind is great, solar is great, hydro is great but I'm not convinced there is enough capacity, built or build-able, in those sources for Japan to move away from nuclear at this stage.

    3. Re:Fine but they should invest in wind next by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 1

      Wind power is indeed cheaper. Source: US DOE 2015 interim reports.

      Adapt or die in a radioactive tax-subsidized cloud.

      That's tax dollars you're soaking in, Abe.

      --
      -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
    4. Re:Fine but they should invest in wind next by FranTaylor · · Score: 0, Troll

      with only 2 accidents of major note. In both instances we have learned what to look for

      Whatever, man. Vermont Yankee's cooling tower collapsed because its owners were too stupid to realize that metal corrodes over time. Did they learn anything? No, they just started dumping the extra heat into the river, killing countless fish. Were any lessons learned here? Nope.

    5. Re:Fine but they should invest in wind next by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Of course there is. If the CONservatives that rule Japan allowed tidal power, then they would have more power than they could ever use. Instead, those idiots only allow the use of fossil fuels to promote AGW which they promote so hard because they know it hits the poor the hardest. They hate the poor so they want them to starve from high food prices or from natural disasters. They want them to die. Forcing the shutdown of nuclear power plants and outlawing renewables means that the Earth warms more and that is their goal. Their goal.

    6. Re:Fine but they should invest in wind next by albacrankie · · Score: 1

      it's quite a small country

      It's not that small. Larger than Germany, smaller than Sweden.

      If the accident had been West of Tokyo it would have been incredibly, stupendously bad

      Perhaps, but if by "west" you mean the Japan Sea coast, the tsunami risk is substantially lower.

    7. Re: Fine but they should invest in wind next by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You mean the two level 7INES events?

      Somehow I don't think the dead in other accidents are pleased.

    8. Re:Fine but they should invest in wind next by WolfWithoutAClause · · Score: 1

      There's over 600 GW of potential on and off-shore wind power around Japan, the normal average capacity factor with wind is at least 25%; often 35%. In other words there's enough wind power to power the entire country, just with wind power, at least on average. (For reference, the peak electricity demand in Japan is around 160GW during the summer.)

      https://en.wikipedia.org/w/ind...

      If you add some solar, and the existing hydroelectric then there's more than enough power and energy right there.

      And imports are a non issue with solar and wind.

      --

      -WolfWithoutAClause

      "Gravity is only a theory, not a fact!"
    9. Re:Fine but they should invest in wind next by FranTaylor · · Score: 2

      if this is an example of your ability to critique, then you're the one who belongs in the kitchen

    10. Re:Fine but they should invest in wind next by WolfWithoutAClause · · Score: 2

      Things still fail, shit still happens.

      Yesterday I saw a picture where corrosion had eaten about 7 inches into a huge thick piece of metal in a reactor; but I can't find it today. Really scary.

      People make mistakes, in specifying, designing, building and operating equipment; even with things a lot less complicated than a nuclear reactor.

      The difference is, with other things, you don't have to evacuate towns (or entire CITIES) for hundreds of years when they fuck up.

      --

      -WolfWithoutAClause

      "Gravity is only a theory, not a fact!"
    11. Re:Fine but they should invest in wind next by Harlequin80 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I didn't know the event so just did a quick read. From what I can see the other cooling towers were more than capable of handling the heat load and the plant was throttled to 50% until the cooling tower was repaired. I couldn't find anything that referred to discharges into the river causing ecological damage, happy to read if you have something. Also it looks like it was a failure of a timber support not metal.

      That said cooling towers are not specific to nuclear power stations. They are used by all heat based generation systems to the impact would have been identical at a coal or gas plant.

    12. Re:Fine but they should invest in wind next by FranTaylor · · Score: 1

      From what I can see the other cooling towers were more than capable of handling the heat load

      http://vtdigger.org/2012/10/10/study-vermont-yankee-thermal-discharge-into-connecticut-river-exceeds-limits/

      "The study found that from 2006-2010, between the months of May and October, Vermont Yankee’s discharge exceeded the permitted rise in temperature 58 percent of the time. In June, that number rose to 74 percent. The report also noted that temperature increases near the nuclear plant held at least 22.5 miles downstream in Massachusetts."

      Yeah you can see whatever you want to see if you don't bother to look.

      the impact would have been identical at a coal or gas plant.

      Again you can think what you want, but the facts disagree with you:

      http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/07/02/508879/burning-rivers-how-coal-and-nuclear-are-sucking-up-our-fresh-water/

      "Additionally, because nuclear fission is less thermodynamically efficient than the combustion of coal, the water required to generate nuclear power is slightly greater than that of coal-fired power."

    13. Re:Fine but they should invest in wind next by ganjadude · · Score: 1

      and none of that has anything to do with actual plant issues, thats owner/management issues

      --
      have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
    14. Re:Fine but they should invest in wind next by Harlequin80 · · Score: 1

      It's not impossible but it would be damn hard then. If you could manage a build out of all 600 GW of wind power, that would be a cost of $600 billion minimum, based on halving the cost figure I found here - http://www.windustry.org/how_m...

      Japan has 27GW of hydro currently so that will cover the short fall of the 25%. So I guess it is technically possible. But it leaves almost no room for growth in power demand in the future. It would also require every possible location to be approved and to find money that Japan doesn't have.

    15. Re:Fine but they should invest in wind next by Harlequin80 · · Score: 1

      Hey, ease up, I even said it was a quick read and I didn't spot the ecological impact but happy to read if you had it.

      And from the first paragraph of the article you linked to "A recent scientific study found that Vermont Yankee has a record of discharging water at temperatures above permitted levels. Even so, the nuclear plant has not violated its discharge permit under the Clean Water Act." Also this had nothing to do with the failure of the cooling tower wall which was what you initially pointed to and what I looked for information on.

      I'm not saying that there weren't issues with that plant or that the discharges into the river weren't a problem. But they don't appear to be linked to the cooling tower collapse AND they appear to sit within the licensing agreement the operator had with the government, meaning the issues is with the regulation / licensing first.

      Secondly the amount of water that is used in a generation system doesn't change the temperature of the water in a cooling tower system or the impact that that water would have if it was dumped into an ecosystem. Water's thermal behaviour is identical whether it is heated by nuclear, coal, the sun or your kettle. Hot water dumped from a coal cooling system would have been identical to water dumped from a nuclear system. The only argument you could have that would make nuclear worse than coal or gas is that in the event of a failure more water would be dumped from a nuclear system but that would totally depend on plant design and again is fuel agnostic.

    16. Re: Fine but they should invest in wind next by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Let's go visit Centralia Pennsylvania, surely their coal accident has calmed down by now!

    17. Re:Fine but they should invest in wind next by MrKaos · · Score: 1

      Things still fail, shit still happens.

      Yesterday I saw a picture where corrosion had eaten about 7 inches into a huge thick piece of metal in a reactor; but I can't find it today. Really scary.

      I think you are referring to Davis Besse where a very fine stream of borated water was squirting onto the inside of the reactor head. Of course the management ignored that the water filters were being changed far more often that specified by the designers, classic case of "shit happens". There was about an inch left before a loss of the reactor.

      People make mistakes, in specifying, designing, building and operating equipment; even with things a lot less complicated than a nuclear reactor.

      The difference is, with other things, you don't have to evacuate towns (or entire CITIES) for hundreds of years when they fuck up.

      I think it plays into the 'humans don't notice small change'. It's the same thinking that killed the space shuttle where they ignored the risks of constant damage to the heat shield and said 'yeah, shit happens' all the way until they lost an orbiter. As you say, with a reactor the stakes are a lot higher.

      --
      My ism, it's full of beliefs.
    18. Re:Fine but they should invest in wind next by FranTaylor · · Score: 0

      Water's thermal behaviour is identical whether it is heated by nuclear, coal, the sun or your kettle.

      I'm not dumping my kettle into the connecticut river

      there are plenty of energy sources that don't create waste heat, but isn't it funny that you don't bother to mention any of those, but my teakettle somehow fits your argument

    19. Re:Fine but they should invest in wind next by FranTaylor · · Score: 1

      and none of that has anything to do with actual plant issues, thats owner/management issues

      so your answer is to hire infallible space aliens to run the power plants, or are you suggesting some different collection of equally inept humans?

    20. Re: Fine but they should invest in wind next by FranTaylor · · Score: 1

      Let's go visit Centralia Pennsylvania, surely their coal accident has calmed down by now!

      what a great argument, humans can't handle coal without spilling it, so let's play with uranium instead

    21. Re:Fine but they should invest in wind next by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Only a fool believes wind power is cheaper. I understand why people would think so since they see wind dose all the work with no cost. Take the subsidy away from wind power, and no one would build them. At least not intending to make money from it.

      You can't really trust the DOE since it is controlled by Democrats, and you can't trust anything run by Democrats since, lets face it, never tell the truth.

    22. Re:Fine but they should invest in wind next by ganjadude · · Score: 1

      im saying that the vast majority of the plants are run well, and we should work on ensuring the right people are running things that can be disastrous and not homer simpson

      the weakest link will always be human but that doesnt mean we should not expand our resources. with anything worth having there is risk, and power is worth having

      --
      have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
    23. Re:Fine but they should invest in wind next by FranTaylor · · Score: 1

      with anything worth having there is risk, and power is worth having

      what is it that's more worth having? more power for your ever decreasing energy needs or a planet for your children to live in? it's pretty goddamn selfish to only include yourself in your wealth calculations

    24. Re:Fine but they should invest in wind next by FranTaylor · · Score: 1

      I think it plays into the 'humans don't notice small change'.

      The issue is that humans live for only a short time, even though the ramifications of their decisions go on for many generations after they are dead.

      Humans are unable to see past their own experiences and are unable to even think about what will happen to their children. We see it over and over and over again.

      Humans are perhaps a bit more intelligent than the yeast in your beer, but only a bit.

    25. Re:Fine but they should invest in wind next by Harlequin80 · · Score: 1

      Huh? My comment was that cooling towers are used by gas & coal powerplants as well as nuclear and that a failing cooling tower on a coal or gas powerstation would have the same impact as a failing cooling tower on a nuclear one. None of which is good.

      I made no comments about solar, wind or hydropower. Of course those don't need cooling towers but I'm not really sure why that matters? They are not thermal methods of generating electricity. It would be like me saying that nuclear power is inherently better than hydro because dams never burst when you use nuclear. It just doesn't make sense because the systems aren't comparable.

    26. Re:Fine but they should invest in wind next by FranTaylor · · Score: 0

      Of course those don't need cooling towers but I'm not really sure why that matters?

      My point is that nuclear plant operators are supposed to be extra careful but in fact they are no more careful than any other humans. If they cannot be trusted with maintaining a cooling tower, why can you think they can be trusted with nuclear material?

    27. Re:Fine but they should invest in wind next by Harlequin80 · · Score: 1

      Ok. I understand where you are coming from now.

      In the end there will be accidents, failures and breakages. This goes with all types of facilities, nuclear or otherwise. The key part though is how the systems are designed to handle those failures, not whether a failure can be prevented from occurring in the first instance.

      The design of a system has to take into account the fallibility of the human operators. In the case of the cooling tower collapse the plant design was such that there was enough spare capacity in the other cooling towers to keep everything running until the repairs were completed. Failure of a cooling tower was factored into the design.

      Modern nuclear designs fail to cold. They have multiple redundant systems which are there to cover for human stupidity / laziness. These designs are still not perfect, and fukushima is an example of where, ideally, there would have been differences in the designs. Location of the backup generators for one.

      Essentially I don't trust humans to not fuck up in a nuclear plant. I trust the iterative design process to have built in margin and safety measures to mean that when they do fuck up the impacts are negligible to low.

      The nice thing about nuclear vs coal or gas is that the true costs are known. We don't know what the impact of stuffing large quantities of CO2 into the atmosphere will be, though we are starting to think they will be pretty bad. We don't really know the impact of coal mining on wider communities health is. At least with nuclear we know the costs of the plant, the remediation and the risks.

      Whether you are comfortable with those risks is a personal thing.

    28. Re: Fine but they should invest in wind next by WindBourne · · Score: 1

      Lol. So, lets see you write that neo-cons/teabaggers always lie. That way the illogic will destroy you.

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    29. Re:Fine but they should invest in wind next by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      > we have been using nuclear all around the world for over 50 years and there are around 450ish plants with only 2 accidents of major note.

      Make that ternary at least!

      1. Chernobyl, USSR-Ukraine, 1986

      2. Fukushima, Japan, 2011

      3. Mayak, Chelyabinsk district, USSR 1957

      (Which was bigger than the other two combined, but covered up nicely by the commies. The official story is a chemical tank explosion of reprocessing sludge circa 150 cubic meters. The unofficial story is uncontrolled chain reaction and explosion of plutonium metal buillion stored for making A-bombs, due to floodwaters spilling into the site.)

    30. Re:Fine but they should invest in wind next by MrKaos · · Score: 1

      The issue is that humans live for only a short time, even though the ramifications of their decisions go on for many generations after they are dead.

      Indeed. The geological timeframe for radionuclide decay is something many people have difficulty getting their heads around. The common myth is that the radioactive effluents of the nuclear industry are harmless, however the mutagenic effects last generations.

      Humans are unable to see past their own experiences and are unable to even think about what will happen to their children.

      Energy on credit. Defer the costs to a future generation while screaming 'think of the children'

      We see it over and over and over again.

      Humans are perhaps a bit more intelligent than the yeast in your beer, but only a bit.

      I think that the dogmatic skepticism of all the fanbois will destroy the Nuclear Industry, unfortunately the legacy left by their selfishness will be a toxic mess that everyone else will have to clean up.

      --
      My ism, it's full of beliefs.
    31. Re:Fine but they should invest in wind next by cheesybagel · · Score: 2

      Wind is only cheaper if you don't take into account the secondary investments in backup generation capacity, storage, and electrical grid modifications.

      If you are using it to power an industrial process than can run as you get power (e.g. milling) I guess its fine. But not for business processes that must work 24/7.

      Also as you can imagine Japan does not have that much empty space to waste with windmills. They do have quite a few already.

    32. Re:Fine but they should invest in wind next by cheesybagel · · Score: 1

      Just remember to take into consideration the cost to rebuild all the off-shore wind power plants once the next Tsunami hits.

    33. Re:Fine but they should invest in wind next by cheesybagel · · Score: 1

      The difference is, with other things, you don't have to evacuate towns (or entire CITIES) for hundreds of years when they fuck up.

      If the city was built in the water line that floods in case of tsunami perhaps people shouldn't be living there to begin with.

    34. Re:Fine but they should invest in wind next by Eunuchswear · · Score: 1

      Wind power is indeed cheaper. Source: US DOE 2015 interim reports.

      Building new wind power plants is cheaper than building new nuclear power plants.

      But if you've already got the nuclear power plants they're almost free to run.

      --
      Watch this Heartland Institute video
    35. Re:Fine but they should invest in wind next by Eunuchswear · · Score: 1

      3. Mayak, Chelyabinsk district, USSR 1957

      Which, as you point out, has nothing to do with nuclear power.

      --
      Watch this Heartland Institute video
    36. Re:Fine but they should invest in wind next by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      and you are pretty fucking selfish to deprive poor people from the benefits of energy use, that you have had!!!..

      Fucking selfish dirt bag, postulating from your comfortable high energy use life!!!.
      Your hypocrisy make me sick!!.

      You are literally killing children!!! due to the dumb shit that you tell other people to do!!

      Fuck YOU!! The planet would be better off without your kind!!

    37. Re:Fine but they should invest in wind next by WolfWithoutAClause · · Score: 1

      Doing it would doubtless help Japan's economy- a big infrastructure project is always good in a recession.

      --

      -WolfWithoutAClause

      "Gravity is only a theory, not a fact!"
    38. Re:Fine but they should invest in wind next by WolfWithoutAClause · · Score: 1

      They should be immune, the size of a tsumami is lot lower out at sea and they'd likely to be strong enough to take the impact anyway if they can take high winds. So far as I know, fixed things like bridges didn't get swept away, even on land, it's more fragile things like houses and cars and people that couldn't take it.

      --

      -WolfWithoutAClause

      "Gravity is only a theory, not a fact!"
    39. Re:Fine but they should invest in wind next by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      and you belong in a mental asylum!!

    40. Re:Fine but they should invest in wind next by sjames · · Score: 1

      Our energy needs are far from ever decreasing. Individual uses are becoming more efficient, but overall our use is expanding. It will expand more once we start automating labor.

      If we want to leave the next generation an environment they can live in, we will need to stop burning fossil fuels. Solar and wind can take up a lot of slack, but not all of it.

    41. Re:Fine but they should invest in wind next by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      https://www.google.com/maps/pl...

      It looks like there is plenty of space offshore where wind is best built. But yes, it is much more expensive, and sucks for actual useful power generation.

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
    42. Re:Fine but they should invest in wind next by SuiteSisterMary · · Score: 1

      there are plenty of energy sources that don't create waste heat,

      No, there aren't, because that would violate the laws of thermodynamics.

      --
      Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.
    43. Re:Fine but they should invest in wind next by Whorhay · · Score: 1

      I think Japan actually has coal they could dig up if they needed. The abandoned industrial island that James Bond movie was filmed on was a coal mining industry town. It was abandoned because the price of coal changed such that it was no longer economically advantageous to mine it there.

    44. Re:Fine but they should invest in wind next by Harlequin80 · · Score: 1

      Actually it would be unlikely to help the economy, outside of a short term construction industry sugar hit, because it is not infrastructure that is adding anything new. It is replacing existing working infrastructure with something that does exactly the same.

    45. Re:Fine but they should invest in wind next by Harlequin80 · · Score: 1

      Bridges do get severely damaged. They are one of the biggest costs post flooding events. Debris carried by water hits the bridge supports and causes huge damage. Even taking larger debris out bridge scour from just the sand and mud carried by flood waters is hugely damaging to bridges. Bridges are actually very poor at resisting lateral forces and even worse at resisting lifting forces.

      As for whether the turbines would survive it would depend on too many factors to know. But there certainly would be a percentage damaged, from foundation movement to salt water inundation of the generators.

      Here is a photo of a bridge post fukushima tsunami. - https://www.ucsf.edu/sites/def... and http://www.beyonder.com.au/blo...

    46. Re:Fine but they should invest in wind next by WolfWithoutAClause · · Score: 1

      Nah. A fiscal policy that involves spending money in a recession often helps because the spent money is people's wages and they mostly spend it right back into the economy where it circulates, and some of it ends up helping repay the debt that is depressing demand. It also helps because any inflation created reduces nominal debt that is holding back the demand side.

      --

      -WolfWithoutAClause

      "Gravity is only a theory, not a fact!"
    47. Re:Fine but they should invest in wind next by WolfWithoutAClause · · Score: 1

      You can do conventional farming almost everywhere in a wind turbine farm.

      Wind power uses very little space, only a small footprint for the tower, and maybe a road; just a few percent of area is lost,

      Backup usually only starts to be a problem with very large wind power penetration percentages. If you're below 20% (which is much more than nuclear's penetration in most places), it's largely a non issue, and even 30% shows only modest increases in costs (n.b. Japan was on 30% nuclear power). Basically, the rest of the grid is typically flexible enough to ramp up and down as necessary.

      And note that nuclear has issues with variations; but not as the weather varies, as the demand side varies, nuclear doesn't usually demand follow; since nuclear power gets expensive when run at partial power, because it's costs are virtually all infrastructure costs.

      And no, Japan has very few wind turbines right now, only a couple of gigawatts or so. The UK has 14 GW and it's a significantly smaller country.

      --

      -WolfWithoutAClause

      "Gravity is only a theory, not a fact!"
    48. Re:Fine but they should invest in wind next by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      >> 3. Mayak, Chelyabinsk district, USSR 1957
      > Which, as you point out, has nothing to do with nuclear power.

      Do you think the sludge for re-processing came from the tits of fairies, rather than dissolved spent fuelling elements of atomic reactors? Or those plutonium buillions were mined by the Seven Dwarfs, rather than transmutated in atomic reactors?

      Nuclear power is just a cover-up to produce nuclear weapons. In fact, a country which has a reactor (research or steam-electric) and doesn't produce nukes is rightfully called a fool and will meet the same fate as Libya, Iraq or Syria. The eminent pupil DPRK survives.

    49. Re:Fine but they should invest in wind next by Eunuchswear · · Score: 1

      Japan has nuclear weapons?

      Germany?

      Finland?

      South Africa?

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  10. Suicide by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    A long standing act of bravery and honor.

  11. Need something to arm Japan with nuclear warheads by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Oh, wait, were we supposed to pretend PM Abe is peaceful?

    Yeah, sure.

    The best use for the area is to cover the nuclear radioactive fields with wind and solar plants, and step away from the eternal conflict that nuclear fission represents.

    --
    -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
  12. Re:Did Pearl Harbor Not Teach the Emperor Anything by sims+2 · · Score: 1

    It's not as bad as windows 8 or vista but windows 7 is still better in ease of use. Windows 10 start; It at least kinda resembles a start menu even if it doesn't actually function as one.

    --
    Minimum threshold fixed. Thanks!
  13. Also breeder reactors failed ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    as Japanese have been researching and working on those.
    They just can't get them to work.

  14. Investment in renewables? by manu0601 · · Score: 1

    It is quite hard to understand why they did not massively invest in renewable energy sources since Fukushima: wind and solar are obvious, but for islands in a earthquake zone, tidal and geothermal should be interesting to harvest.

    1. Re:Investment in renewables? by cheesybagel · · Score: 1

      They already spend some a lot on wind and solar. Of course they have a little problem with latitude so solar is not exactly perfect for Japan.

      Off-shore wind is susceptible to tsunami damage. They have some on-shore wind.

      Geothermal makes sense but it is not exactly simple to build.

  15. What power source instead? by tepples · · Score: 1

    I don't think saying "cut yourself off from all power, then" is a valid response to people who say "we should be producing other forms of power than nuclear"

    Then what non-fossil, non-nuclear source of electric power would meet demand on a calm night? Or would calm nights require rolling blackouts?

    1. Re:What power source instead? by FranTaylor · · Score: 1

      Then what non-fossil, non-nuclear source of electric power would meet demand on a calm night?

      Modern buildings have really minimal heating requirements. In many industrial and commercial settings, the humans and machinery are already providing more than enough heat. Even in the coldest parts of New England you can have very small heating requirements with modern construction.

      So between better insulation and LED lamps and more efficient computers and better refrigerator insulation we are all looking at much lower power consumption than ever. I'm sure my place could run all night just fine on a car battery's worth of juice.

    2. Re:What power source instead? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Industry requires stable power 24/7. You appear to be suffering under the delusion that a few light bulbs and other efficiency improvements make a significant impact. Wether you admit it or not, it is small fraction of your share of industrial energy use, and that will continue to come from reliable fossil fueled sources if not nuclear.

    3. Re:What power source instead? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm sure my place could run all night just fine on a car battery's worth of juice.

      I'm not sure what your place is, but a normal fridge (1400 Watt-hr/day) would use up a car battery (12V * 50Amp-hr) overnight. So no power for lights, computer/networking, tv, cooling, heating, charging, dish/clothes washing or microwave. I don't think that is typical.

    4. Re:What power source instead? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm sure my place could run all night just fine on a car battery's worth of juice.

      A) No.
      B) You might want to use a deep cycle battery instead of something with wimpy thin plates, or you won't be repeating the experiment many times.

    5. Re:What power source instead? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      fucking do it then...

      Trouble is you think your smarter than you really are,

      fucking whiny eco-nutters, walk the walk , stop fucking talking shit!!!

      you will soon find out how shit you are at maths!!!. never mind engineering!!!.

    6. Re:What power source instead? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Modern buildings have really minimal heating requirements. In many industrial and commercial settings, the humans and machinery are already providing more than enough heat. Even in the coldest parts of New England you can have very small heating requirements with modern construction.

      You have no idea what you are talking about. There are people going broke and poor in the winters in New England paying their heating bills.

    7. Re:What power source instead? by tepples · · Score: 1

      a normal fridge (1400 Watt-hr/day) would use up a car battery (12V * 50Amp-hr) overnight.

      I think FranTaylor's idea is that a bank of car batteries would bridge the time from one period of solar power generation to the next.

  16. The FUTURE of the United States by p51d007 · · Score: 1

    If they shut down ALL of the coal fired plants. FACT!

  17. 2000 of ~130M, lolz by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Lets' see here...200 protesters in a country of almost 130 million.

    There are no caps big enough to spell LOL the way it should be.

    1. Re:2000 of ~130M, lolz by hcs_$reboot · · Score: 1

      The Japanese are indeed not very protestative. And when someone highly ranked commits a mega fault (eg at tepco), he gets away with a sorry and a few televised tears. Those two accepted behaviors are highly complementary. And I suspect the 2nd class (ranked) abuses the first (common people). But that doesn't seem to bother anyone in Japan.

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  18. A gallon of uranium??? by davidwr · · Score: 1

    Uranium is more expensive than gasoline per gallon, but you get much more energy out of a gallon of uranium.

    *scratches head*

    --
    Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
    1. Re:A gallon of uranium??? by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      I am trying to picture a gallon of Uranium, and what it would take to move it.

      It weighs around 150 lbs/72kg, it would be quite unwieldy at that weight/size, but not too bad I guess.

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
  19. They can predict tomorrow's energy prices??? by davidwr · · Score: 1

    Japan To Restart Nuclear Power Tomorrow After Energy Prices Soar

    So they are going to restart the nuclear plant tomorrow, but not until after energy prices soar (compared to what, today's end-of-trading-day spot prices?).

    What if energy prices don't soar tomorrow?

    --
    Yes, know what the title means in context. But if I can't send a *cough*subtle*cough* reminder to the editors to choose their headlines a bit more carefully, well, then /. might as well be owned by a corporate behemoth that doesn't care about its readers. *cue "oh wait" in 3...2...1...*

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    1. Re:They can predict tomorrow's energy prices??? by hcs_$reboot · · Score: 1

      Importing energy is costing a lot to Japan, currently. So this is not a proactive solution. Anyway politics do not usually act proactively. They react to events that'll have an impact up to when their term ends (except maybe for climate stuff, hopefully).

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  20. Was I too subtle? by davidwr · · Score: 1

    When I made my subtle friendly-jibe at the summary's title, I was pretending to mean "tomorrow" literally - as in "What if energy prices don't soar on August 11, 2015? Will they wait until August 12 or later, 2015 to restart the plant?" Of course not, that would be silly.

    My whole statement was a rhetorical response to the /. editor's choice of headline and it had nothing to do with the Japanese energy market.

    I'm sorry if I was too subtle.

    --
    Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
    1. Re:Was I too subtle? by hcs_$reboot · · Score: 1

      I'm sorry if I was too subtle.

      No need to be sorry. Subtlety is a very subjective and relative matter.

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      Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
  21. Supply vs Demand by Karmashock · · Score: 1

    Why is rocket science to people? I'm not beating up on the Japanese here. The American people are pretty f'ing clueless on this score as well.

    Cut supply... prices go up.
    Increase demand... prices go up.
    increase supply... prices go down.
    cut demand... prices go down.

    So what did we do with housing issue? We pumped money into the market... aka demand... without doing anything meaningful to increase supply... result... prices went up until we had that little market crash.

    What are we doing with education? Pumping money into loans and subsidies without expanding the university system instead... result... prices go up. Shocker.

    And medical care... how much energy has been put into expanding the number of hospitals? Increasing the number of doctors? Seeing that new pharmacy factories have been built to increase the drug supply? Nothing?

    No... well just throw more money at it... which is just demand.

    People understand that if the supply of oil goes up on the global market that prices come down. Everyone knows this... we see examples of supply and demand in our market all the time and people understand.

    But when it comes to a few issues... energy is one of them... people's little brains turn off.

    "oh lets turn off the nuclear reactors that are pumping out 4000 mega watts. We'll just make up the difference with wind"... You're going straight to coal.

    The anti nuclear lobby needs to change from their PETA like radicalism and just advocate SAFE nuclear power and there is such a thing. Just do that. I'll join you. Everyone wants safe. Safe is great. But abolition of nuclear power? Just stop it.

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    1. Re:Supply vs Demand by MrKaos · · Score: 1

      just advocate SAFE nuclear power and there is such a thing. Just do that. I'll join you. Everyone wants safe. Safe is great. But abolition of nuclear power? Just stop it.

      I call that Responsible Nuclear Advocacy, since at least 2006 - you just get hounded by both sides, the debate has become so polarised people have forgotten how to carry on a meaningful discussion any more.

      --
      My ism, it's full of beliefs.
    2. Re:Supply vs Demand by Karmashock · · Score: 1

      ... the foaming at the mouth abolitionists are the only ones that are being unreasonable. There isn't a contrary faction saying "lets have unsafe nuclear power".

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    3. Re:Supply vs Demand by MrKaos · · Score: 1

      ... the foaming at the mouth abolitionists are the only ones that are being unreasonable. There isn't a contrary faction saying "lets have unsafe nuclear power".

      True that, but the existing faction arguing for N.P does that because they resist *any* criticism of the industry's flaws. Whilst the faction against wants to shut it down and but doesn't recognize that that approach leaves us with an industry that has no capacity to sort out it's mess.

      If you rationalize it and take an 'issues' based approach then acknowledging the flaws of the industry is the first step to fixing it. You start to recognize that what both parties want is the same thing but for different reasons.

      Whichever side you are on, there are deep structural issues with the Nuclear Industry and everyday we allow those problems to continue is another day the radionuclide load in the environment increases the exposure of the human genome to the likely hood of transgenic disease. We can probably fix the problems but we have to start acknowledging them and do it before our society loses the capacity and expertise to do so.

      There is nothing pro or anti in those observations.

      --
      My ism, it's full of beliefs.
    4. Re:Supply vs Demand by Karmashock · · Score: 1

      There's no significant faction that is arguing against all flaws in nuclear power. You're trying to create a balance where it doesn't exist which would justify the behavior of the anti nuclear lobby.

      There is no balance and no justification. Of course you'll find SOMEONE taking that position but no significant faction.

      As to the problems with nuclear power... so far as I've seen, the biggest issue is the cost structure due to out of date fear based regulations actually makes nuclear power less safe because it becomes impractical to replace old systems with new ones or to even examine what is going on for fear that political elements will exploit that to shut the system down.

      Oh... and the the issue with warehousing nuclear waste which isn't a big deal unless the radicals make it a big deal.

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    5. Re:Supply vs Demand by MrKaos · · Score: 1

      There's no significant faction that is arguing against all flaws in nuclear power. You're trying to create a balance where it doesn't exist which would justify the behavior of the anti nuclear lobby.

      Ahh, so pro nuclear. Well the anti-nuclear lobby does have justifiable fears, which the pro-nuke lobby don't believe exist.

      There is no balance and no justification.

      A centre position to either side of the argument appears opposite to their position as a matter of perspective. So you will call me anti-

      Of course you'll find SOMEONE taking that position but no significant faction.

      Indeed.

      As to the problems with nuclear power... so far as I've seen, the biggest issue is the cost structure due to out of date fear based regulations

      So are you arguing to abolish the Price-Anderson act?

      actually makes nuclear power less safe because it becomes impractical to replace old systems with new ones or to even examine what is going on for fear that political elements will exploit that to shut the system down.

      I think you'll find that it is too expensive to replace Nuclear plants and Wall st prefers wind because it is a more reliable return on investment. Peer reviewed studies show there is a diminishing Energetic Return on Energetic Investment in the Nuclear fuel cycle which is a limitation based on several design aspects. Below 200grams Uranium per ton of rock Nuclear power is no longer viable because of the amount of energy you need to produce the fuel.

      Oh... and the the issue with warehousing nuclear waste which isn't a big deal unless the radicals make it a big deal.

      That view is only sustainable if you are unaware of the effect of radionuclides on the human genome or how they propagate through the food chain via bio-accumulation. It is also a key issue for any expansion of the nuclear industry so I would actually argue that it is a core issue to both sides of the debate.

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    6. Re:Supply vs Demand by Karmashock · · Score: 1

      As to being pro nuclear... What the actual fuck?

      We just got done with this and you agreed... safe nuclear power is reasonable. That is my position.

      Pushing me into the strawmanned camp created as the polar opposite of crazy people is not valid.

      if you have one group of crazy people the people opposing the crazy people are not themselves necessarily crazy in the opposite direction or crazy at all.

      I reject the notion that I have to be in two polar opposite camps because one of them doesn't actually exist. There is no pro nuclear at any cost camp.

      Where as there is an anti nuclear at any cost camp.

      As to price anderson, I have no problem with it. That's not the issue. Its that we can't build new plants, that existing plants cannot be upgraded, that it is basically impossible to store the spent fuel anywhere because of the anti nuclear lobby, etc.

      As to wind being better than nuclear... You can't possibly believe that. First, most reactors tend to generate about 1000 mega watts... power plants with more than that tend to just have multiple 1000 mega watt reactors. Wind farms are rarely over 500 mega watts and doubling up the plants isn't practical. You can't just stack them on top of each other. And then the expense of 500 mega watts of wind versus 1000 mega watts of nuclear isn't comparable. Here you might cite maintenance... but which type of plant has been shown to ACTUALLY be more sustainable? We have dead wind farms all over California going back to the 1970s. They tend to die when the subsidies run out.

      Look, I want an "all of the above" approach. You want wind? Super. Lets do that. We're also going to do everything else at the same time without biasing the system one way or the other. If your wind stations with their stop and go power can compete with nuclear reactors then you won't need a political lobby or massive subsidies to do it. You can just get investors from the private sector to build it and win in the market place.

      If your system is actually not as competitive as you suggest then it won't be able to do that. I'm very happy to let the market prove one of us wrong. We're seeing the Japanese restart their reactors.... not build huge wind farms. And are the Chinese scrapping their reactors for Wind? If wind were ACTUALLY cheaper wouldn't they be doing that? It isn't cheaper. Everyone with a clue knows that. You know it too. Why tell a fib to me? I'm obviously too well informed for that to be interpreted as anything but a fib.

      As to radiation on DNA... who says we're exposing people to radiation? We're putting the nuclear material in a specially designed bunker where it isn't going to touch you. What is your problem?

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    7. Re:Supply vs Demand by MrKaos · · Score: 1
      You did not acknowledge the peer reviewed study I sent you. Understanding the EROEI on nuclear power is key to understanding it's viability.

      We just got done with this and you agreed... safe nuclear power is reasonable. That is my position.

      And mine is that the current iteration of the nuclear industry is unsafe. If it was safe then we would not need the Price-Anderson act.

      There is no pro nuclear at any cost camp. Where as there is an anti nuclear at any cost camp.

      Oh I assure you there is a 'pro nuclear at any cost camp', they are focused on profiting as much as they can from the existing infrastructure and consequences be damned. That is why you have the 'anti nuclear at any cost camp', and they have good reason to be afraid - even if people don't understand why.

      The pnaacc don't actually give a shit about nuclear power or the infrastructure to do it safely, they want money, now. Then you have the tools of the pnaacc, the fanbois who's dogmatic scepticism and moral superiority require no fact to support their argument and accept no facts that disprove it.

      I have never met a fanboi yet who has presented facts to back up their argument, only ad hom attacks and weird mental gymnastics. They're very hard to take seriously so I guess the pro-anti sides balance out.

      As to price anderson, I have no problem with it. That's not the issue.

      Well you said: the biggest issue is the cost structure due to out of date fear based regulations actually makes nuclear power less safe because it becomes impractical to replace old systems with new ones or to even examine what is going on for fear that political elements will exploit that to shut the system down.

      That's a pretty specific thing to say, so specifically which regulations are you referring to?

      basically impossible to store the spent fuel anywhere because of the anti nuclear lobby, etc.

      That is a common myth however there are specific legal constructs that prevent rate payers and local councils from interfering with the location or installation of nuclear facilities. Would you like references to the legislation?

      As to wind being better than nuclear... You can't possibly believe that...We have dead wind farms all over California going back to the 1970s.

      The difference between a dead wind farm and a dead nuclear power station is you need a lot of electricity to run a decommissioned NPP while the spent fuel cools over decades. A dead wind installation just sits there and eventually falls apart, if you do that with a NPP then you have released a lot of radionuclides into the environment. I foresee a day where decommissioned plants are run on wind energy while they cool over decades.

      They tend to die when the subsidies run out.

      And what do you think will happen to the nuclear industry when it's subsidies run out? If it was commercially viable it would not need support either.

      If your wind stations with their stop and go power can compete with nuclear reactors then you won't need a political lobby or massive subsidies to do it. You can just get investors from the private sector to build it and win in the market place. If wind were ACTUALLY cheaper wouldn't they be doing that? It isn't cheaper. Everyone with a clue knows that. You know it too. Why tell a fib to me? I'm obviously too well informed for that to be interpreted as anything but a fib.

      If you are referring to baseload power that is a grid function as opposed to a function of any particular generating source, like Nuclear or coal, however EROEI. Wind is actually quite an elegant and scalable technology and I don't understand why it receives as much criticism as it does. There are infrasound issues so I don't think it is appropriate to place them near people. I re

      --
      My ism, it's full of beliefs.
    8. Re:Supply vs Demand by Karmashock · · Score: 1

      What is your specific problem with the Price Anderson Act when it has never been invoked so far as I know?

      As to your study... you want me to read that whole thing? Shall I list 50 peer review studies and demand you read them? You can either make a quotation from the study and paraphrase the argument or I'm not going to go reading through in detail anything you post. Its not time effective. I get dozens of these things EVERY DAY. I can't read them all and I think it is incumbent on you to make a point that does not require I read that unless there is actually something in there that I need.

      Given that the study was published in Holland and you keep referencing US legislation... I'm not seeing the connection.

      As to pro nuclear at any cost, I categorically reject your assertion. I've never seen such a camp nor seen any indication that one has ever existed. I find the assertion on your part to be unsupportable, specious, and frankly damaging to your credibility.

      As to your use of the term fanboi... I assume that means "fan boy"... then you say other people use ad hominem... hmmm... You're coming off as irrational. That's my honest read as of this portion in your post.

      As to regulations, the issue is that the regulatory process is exploited by people that just don't want nuclear to make the process expensive. Look at how many plants have been approved. Why is that? Look at how long it takes to develop and then build them and how much of that time is spent getting all the paper work filed.

      And then of course there is the whole issue with the storage for the spent fuel. I'm sorry, you can't claim that there isn't fucktarded opposition to nuclear power in the west.

      As to your rebuttal to my point about nuclear storage... you have not even one fucking leg to stand on in this case:
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

      ""
      The location has been highly contested by environmentalists and some Nevada residents[2]. It was approved in 2002 by the United States Congress. Federal funding for the site ended in 2011 under the Obama Administration via amendment to the Department of Defense and Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act, passed on April 14, 2011.[3] The Government Accountability Office stated that the closure was for political, not technical or safety reasons.[3]
      ""
      Quote: For political not technical or safety reasons.

      You lose that point. Touch it again and I'll slap your hands for touching other people's stuff. That one's mine.

      Common myth? I can't believe you said that. Seriously. That issue is categorically lost to you.

      As to the decommissioning cost, it depends on how you build the plant. You keep talking about the old 1960s nuke plant designs. That's not what anyone is talking about at this point. Your entire concept is obsolete. If we go with a pebble bed for example then the fucking plant literally can't melt down with or without power. There are many other designs that likewise are failsafe.

      One of the better designs that I like is one that has the reactors as small sealed modules that are not opened at the power plant. They are delivered from a factory prefueled, operate for so many years, and then are unplugged and sent back to the factory. Another reactor is clicked into the spot where the old one was and generation continues. The reactors are relatively small. Around the size of a nuclear submarine's reactor. A power plant would ideally have many of these operating at once and they would ideally not need to be replaced all at once but rather in series. So a given year you replace a couple reactors, the next year a couple others, and so on. Never all of them at once. And they're small enough that a given reactor can fit onto the back of a heavy semi truck.

      What I also like about that system is that it is exportable. various nations want nuclear power. You sell them this... they don't need special training. They don't need a nuclear program. They

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    9. Re:Supply vs Demand by MrKaos · · Score: 1

      You've mentioned a few things there so I'm going to break down your arguments into threads based on the points that you are making because a linear thread will be too confusing. What I invite you to do is make or defend your point in the thread with actual fact. I'll introduce the fact I've collected. If you are able to defend that point with fact or references I'll argue them on that basis.

      If you are unable to counter my rebuttals with suitable fact then I will consider that you concede the point because you are unable to support or defend you point with fact. If you introduce additional arguments, they will be seperated and answered in kind however I challenge you to think if you can find the proof to support your point before you post it.

      I am not going to attempt to counter any of your points about nuclear power in this thread. That way we short circuit the polarization present in this debate and that gives us both the opportunity to evaluate the points raised based on their merit.

      As to your study... you want me to read that whole thing? Shall I list 50 peer review studies and demand you read them?

      I want you to support your argument with fact. If you have 50 peer reveiwed studies that support your point then send them if you have read them and it supports what you are saying.

      You can either make a quotation from the study and paraphrase the argument or I'm not going to go reading through in detail anything you post.

      That's exactly what I did.

      Its not time effective. I get dozens of these things EVERY DAY. I can't read them all and I think it is incumbent on you to make a point that does not require I read that unless there is actually something in there that I need.

      You're entitled to your own opinions, however you're not entitled to your own facts.

      I support my opinions with the facts from which they were derived. If you cannot do the same then it is just your opinion and not based in any fact and you should not try to imply otherwise. If you are unwilling to evaluate your opinion in face of the facts then that's evidence of social proof, not proof of your argument. If you get DOZENS of them and you've read them, they support your case and, they are based in either science, law or evidence that is credible, then make your point.

      Otherwise if you have nothing to support your argument then you should not claim that you can when you don't. If you are honest and concede the point you can uncover your assumptions, like I did.

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    10. Re:Supply vs Demand by Karmashock · · Score: 1

      This had no reason to be in a separate post. My other post to you addressed this issue. You're talking about old reactor designs.

      An example of what I'd suggest for nuclear power:
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

      You keep assuming I want to build 3 mile island. Your position is out of date. Obsolete.

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    11. Re:Supply vs Demand by MrKaos · · Score: 1

      You brought up a lot of things so it was necessary. I answered this point here.

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  22. except there aren't any ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Generation IV reactors (Gen IV) are a set of nuclear reactor designs currently being researched. Most of these designs, with the exception of the BN-1200 reactor, are generally not expected to be available for commercial construction before 2030-40 ...
    there are only a dozen or so Generation III reactors in operation (2014) ...
    they're coming, just not here yet ...

  23. Let the protesters OFF the grid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Have the protesters sign a petition and have themselves removed from the grid. They should be prohibited from buying Petrol powered generators because thousands of those would be too much air pollution. The lower demand would lower the price.
    Problem solved.

  24. Eye-Opener by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Your point is a real eye-opener.

    Well, maybe not for the Japs, but then again, they can't help it if they were born that way.

    Cheers.

  25. New means newer by Firethorn · · Score: 1

    Oh, I fully understand that, thus the comment that it's sad that a 31 year old nuclear plant could be considered the 'new' one.

    I'd be much happier if that number was around 5 instead.

    --
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    1. Re:New means newer by wallsg · · Score: 1

      Maybe if the anti-nuclear energy crowd wasn't so litigious that number would indeed be lower.

  26. Volcanos and Tsunamis, Oh my by Firethorn · · Score: 1

    Strat,

    The problem you have here is that people at this point are STILL going on about Fukushima. But the disaster itself killed over a thousand. But nobody talks about them.

    --
    I don't read AC A human right
  27. No Man is an Island.... by Badlight · · Score: 1

    ...and you can't look at something out of context.

    Compared to any other energy source, nuclear power remains the cleanest and safest option currently available. Fusion power might change that, but everything else...

    -Coal is hands-down the worst, and I hope no one is stupid enough to deny that;

    -Oil is pretty bad, but less than a third of all petroleum goes to fuel; if you don't like it, quit using plastic, taking medicine and eating food grown with fertilizer;

    -Natural gas is not good, even if it's cleaner and safer than coal or oil; the issue is that it is unnecessary, unless you plan on using solar or wind;

    -Solar power is expensive, dirty and dangerous, mostly on the mining and manufacturing end, cannot possibly scale to meet demand in any reasonable time frame, and has such a low capacity factor that it has to either be load-followed with natural gas or use energy storage which completely negates the benefits;

    -Wind is actually the best competitor, but like hydroelectric, it has a low capacity factor which requires load-following, but unlike hydroelectric, it cannot be stored and used on demand without the same kind of energy storage which makes solar so problematic, and like solar, it cannot possibly scale up to meet demand. In any case, is still dirtier and more dangerous than nuclear power.

    We are at the exact moment when we should be massively expanding nuclear power, but instead we are letting neo-Luddite, faux-environmentalist scaremongers lead the discussion away from the best option available to us. I'm sure the gas, oil and coal companies appreciate it.

  28. Personal anecdote. by Firethorn · · Score: 1

    Another thing - CRT could be more efficient than many thought.

    About 5 years ago I finally got rid of my 32" CRT TV and replaced it with a 42" LCD. Given the time mind you, it's a CCFL lit one, not LED.

    However, both were energy star rated for their time. I no longer remember the exact figures, but I used a Kill-A-Watt energy meter on it.

    To my surprise, the new TV used more power than the old. I no longer remember the exact measurements, but my first thought was 'well, it's bigger!', so I calculated it out by square inch of [i]visible[/i] screen, just to be meaner to the CRT. The LCD TV still used 30% more power per square inch than the CRT!

    --
    I don't read AC A human right
  29. Soaring energy prices? by BurningFeetMan · · Score: 1

    Says who? Coal is dead cheap, and is certainly not "soaring" in price.

  30. Re:Supply vs Demand - peer reviewed study on EROEI by MrKaos · · Score: 1

    You can either make a quotation from the study and paraphrase the argument or I'm not going to go reading through in detail anything you post.

    That's exactly what I did. I said Peer reviewed studies show there is a diminishing Energetic Return on Energetic Investment in the Nuclear fuel cycle which is a limitation based on several design aspects. Below 200grams Uranium per ton of rock Nuclear power is no longer viable because of the amount of energy you need to produce the fuel.

    I can't read them all and I think it is incumbent on you to make a point that does not require I read that unless there is actually something in there that I need.

    Support for my statement. You can read for yourself or beleive me.

    As to your study... you want me to read that whole thing?

    Try reading i12-i16, four pages, and see how you go on the EROEI thread. You might actually find it interesting if you actually *are* interested in nuclear technology. I personally find it fascinating.

    Given that the study was published in Holland and you keep referencing US legislation... I'm not seeing the connection.

    No need to make one. The study examines the energetic inputs and output and uncovers the diminishing energetic return of the nuclear industry. The P-A legislation enables the industry to exist as the government assumes the liability for accidents under the bill.

    Paraphrase: The evidence from peer reviewed studies is that the Nuclear industry energetic contributions is greatly diminished by the energetic inputs it requires as it becomes less viable day by day due to increasing energetic inputs.

    --
    My ism, it's full of beliefs.
  31. Re:Supply vs Demand - peer reviewed study on EROEI by Karmashock · · Score: 1

    We have many designs that can operate on spent fuel much less requiring highly refined uranium.

    Again you're assuming 1960s designs. Its not valid.

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  32. Re:Supply vs Demand - Price-Anderson and law by MrKaos · · Score: 1

    What is your specific problem with the Price Anderson Act when it has never been invoked so far as I know?

    The way government deals with the risk and liability of the Nuclear Industry is via the Price-Anderson act. It underwrites the Nuclear industry with $600 Billion of Taxpayer money and closer to a trillion if you factor the huge amount of land you are going to lose in the event of an actual accident.

    Actuaries and Risk Assessors are professionals in the insurance industry and their assessment of the Nuclear Industry is that they won't insure it without the Price-Anderson Act. They're impartial to the way evidence is presented, just making an assessment of the risk based on the facts available. They're not 'against' Nuclear power, they're just paid to asses the risks, professionally.

    Take away the Price-Anderson act and the Nuclear Industry ceases to exist because it can no longer be insured. This is a true measure of it's financial viabiliy.

    Paraphrase: The P-A act remains a legal construct that is in place to support the existence of the nuclear industry. Consequently investors are only interested in investing in Nuclear power because the government guarantees the returns, not because the nuclear industry is capable of delivering them.

    As to regulations, the issue is that the regulatory process is exploited by people that just don't want nuclear to make the process expensive. Look at how many plants have been approved. Why is that? Look at how long it takes to develop and then build them and how much of that time is spent getting all the paper work filed. Political elements like to be dishonest and play games. This is not a new thing. The environmental lobbies in general do this with some frequency.

    Hate to burst your bubble however the 2005 energy act prevents environmental groups from doing that. You can check the legislation yourself. Sec. 600 onward.

    As to the subsidies for nuclear... most of that goes to placating the anti radicals at this point.

    What it is spent on is laid out in the sections I refer you to.

    Every time you build a bridge these days it takes 10 years to get approved. Where as in the old days you'd plan the bridge for maybe six months and have it built in a couple years. And that was for big fancy bridges.

    We knew less in the old days, we avoid killing people to build something nowadays. That seems pretty reasonable to me.

    But these days, every little fucking thing requires an "impact study" and that takes for god damn ever and the criteria for these things is arbitrary and often contradictory. The garbage you can get shut down for is absolutely fucking retarded.

    It's a nuclear power plant, not a car park, you expect the process to be complex and the bill has specific clauses to deal with that too.

    Paraphrase: Many of the complaints you've raised about regulation don't apply to the Nuclear industry because the law exempts them.

    --
    My ism, it's full of beliefs.
  33. Re:Supply vs Demand - Yucca and Disposal by MrKaos · · Score: 1

    As to Yucca being unsafe for nuclear waste according to the DoE... cite that please. I can't find anything that says that. What I found was report after report after report after article after article saying it was safe. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10... [nytimes.com] What are you talking about?

    You are mis-quoting me. The DOE's own 1982 Nuclear Waste policy Act reported that the Yucca Mountain's geology is "inappropriate to contain nuclear waste". So the most appropriate way to move the Nuclear Industry forward is to develop a geologically stable containment facility (I am reluctant to call plutonium 'waste') inside a mountain. That could also, potentially, house a reactor facility, and an infrastructure plan to move that 70,000 tons of plutonium to that facility would begin to look like sound nuclear policy.

    As for safe, well its seismic stability is a good measure of that and I doubt the NYT is qualified to make that assessment.

    And then of course there is the whole issue with the storage for the spent fuel.

    First of all lets clear up the time frame here, plutonium is radioactive for 25000 years before it decays into it's daughter product, which will then be radioactive for ??000 years and iterate 20 odd times. That's why I refer to it as 'geological time frames.

    Yucca mountain is not a appropriate because it is made of pumice and geologically active evidenced by recent aftershocks of 5.6 within ten miles of a repository that is supposed to be geologically stable for at least 500000 years. The DOE's own 1982 Nuclear Waste policy Act reported that the Yucca Mountain's geology is inappropriate to contain nuclear waste, and long term corrosion data on C22 (the material to contain the Pu-239 and mitigate the ingress of water - yet another Yucca problem) is just not available.

    As to your rebuttal to my point about nuclear storage... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] "" The location has been highly contested by environmentalists and some Nevada residents[2]. It was approved in 2002 by the United States Congress. Federal funding for the site ended in 2011 under the Obama Administration via amendment to the Department of Defense and Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act, passed on April 14, 2011.[3] The Government Accountability Office stated that the closure was for political, not technical or safety reasons.[3] "" Quote: For political not technical or safety reasons.

    Studies of the Yucca mountain hydrology revealed that the passage cl-36 from atmospheric nuclear testing took less that 50 years in ground water through Yucca mountain so the reality of Yucca is it is inappropriate to contain *any* kind of radioactive products. Yucca is pumice and volcanic ash, you *need* granite if you want a serious facility. Even the Swedish test facility is better designed than Yucca and the design of the actual facility shows the U.S how it *should* be done.

    Go look up the wiki on the act if you are not convinced and you'll see that Yucca was *put* in Nevada because their represenatives did not attend.

    Common myth? I can't believe you said that. Seriously. That issue is categorically lost to you.

    Act

    --
    My ism, it's full of beliefs.
  34. Re:Supply vs Demand - Price-Anderson and law by Karmashock · · Score: 1

    As to the act... its never been invoked. All its doing right now is keeping premiums down. Frankly, it was put in place from what I understand to keep activists from fucking over the industry through insurance.

    Which is something you find in many situations. I said previously about executions, the anti execution lobby has interfered with the supply of lethal injection drug supplies as a means to stop executions prompting some states to threaten to go to firing squads, hangings, or electrocution should the supplies not be left alone.

    The law hasn't been invoked. So I'm not seeing where you're getting so excited. All damage claims have been paid out of private insurance funds thus far.

    If you truly care about government spending we can talk about what 70 percent of the US federal budget is spent on... it isn't nuclear power.

    I rather suspect you'll lose interest in government spending quickly should I do that... which... frankly undermines the relevance of the citation. And really if we want to talk about subsidies... solar and wind can't survive without subsidies either. And they get far more than nuclear does. Want to cut off the solar subsidies? Mostly what nuclear is getting is protection from trolls. I think everything should have that protection. Trolls are annoying.

    As to 2005.. so between 1972 or when ever hte last reactor was commissioned to 2005 you'd concede that such groups could and did interfere with that process? And I'll noted that we've just recently gotten our first new reactor commissioned just in the last couple years.

    So... I wasn't wrong... it was just fixed. Whether the fix is complete is another matter. People have ways of getting around laws like that. We'll see.

    Regardless, the DOE did confirm that the nuclear storage project was shut down for political reasons. Not for safety. Aka... activists.

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  35. Re:Supply vs Demand - peer reviewed study on EROEI by MrKaos · · Score: 1

    We have many designs that can operate on spent fuel much less requiring highly refined uranium.

    Again you're assuming 1960s designs. Its not valid.

    Incorrect. SNUPPS is the basis for the design of the AP1000 reactor which is the only legally approved reactor design available for the U.S. and it has all of the same energetic input and problems mentioned in the study.

    And irrelevant, even with the above it's the energetic input from mining, enrichment and decommisioning that make Nuclear power not viable.

    If you can't point to any legally approved reactor design then you have nothing to support your argument here.

    --
    My ism, it's full of beliefs.
  36. Re:Supply vs Demand - Price-Anderson and law by MrKaos · · Score: 1
    I see no mention of anything to support your claims of interference. Are they difficult to find?

    As to the act... its never been invoked. The law hasn't been invoked.

    A bill of law is invoked and functioning as law when it is passed into law. Ergo: It is invoked and I see nothing to support your point here.

    --
    My ism, it's full of beliefs.
  37. Re:Supply vs Demand - Yucca and Disposal by Karmashock · · Score: 1

    I'm not misquoting you. I'm updating you. My citation was more recent. It was killed recently under the Obama administration for political reasons and not safety reasons.

    My citation made that clear.

    We're done. You're clearly an anti nuclear zealot and I frankly don't have the patience to go back and forth with you on this issue.

    Think whatever you want. I am not a nuclear at any price person. That's just strawman bullshit. I am not however a blind anti nuclear activist. Sorry. I don't agree.

    I'll advocate for reasonable applications of nuclear power. Until we get a better method of sinking/storing renewable power we'll need nuclear or we're going to keep burning coal, gas, and natural gas.

    Choose.

    Fossil fuels or Nuclear? Because until we have a way of storing the power... those are our options.

    This will be my last post to you in this thread.

    Good day, sir.

    *tips hat*

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  38. Re:Supply vs Demand - Reactor Design by MrKaos · · Score: 1

    If we go with a pebble bed for example then the fucking plant literally can't melt down with or without power. There are many other designs that likewise are failsafe.

    Proposed Pebble Bed Modular Reactors (PBMR) are designed with exactly the reduced containment that Chernobyl was built with. Proposed new generation 'once-through' reactor series like the AP-1000 are designed with significantly reduced containment. They have been designed this way to reduce the expense of building them, as the sheer volume of concrete required to build a reactor containment is one of the highest input costs as well as the third greatest contributor of greenhouse gasses.

    There are a number of functional issues with pebble beds, like the mechanism jammin, which is what happened to the German PBMR. Also getting hundreds of thousands of the fuel balls uniform and of course the issues at the end of their service life with air leaking into the reactor and causing graphite fires.

    I compare proposed PBMR designs with RBMK at Chernobyl. You know, graphite covered fuel kernels, helium gas cooled, no containment building required, produce deadlier waste and have deadlier failure modes.

    IFR is a much better concept than PBMR, pity W. ordered it's demolition. Fantastic concept and actually worked. I was a big fan of the Integral Fast Reactor, and in a way I still am. But the reality is 3rd and 4th generation reactors are a pipe dream because our material science is not advanced enough yet to produce a reactor design that will overcome neutron bombardment. If you are going to build reactors then do it properly and build a Terra-watt scale nuclear reactor facility with an attached waste facility in the belly of a massive granite mountain that chomps up all your remaining plutonium or end all commercial nuclear activity altogether.

    Most of the 100 odd reactors in the U.S are approaching old-age and have to be de-commissioned so it's a future, rather than obsolete, issue. If you want to build a modern Nuclear Industry it starts with the geology of the spent fuel containment facility. If you do it in granite then you could power the US for at least 5000 years. A properly functioning Nuclear Industry is important and the one we've got is a total mess heading for either complete failure or disaster.

    This had no reason to be in a separate post. My other post to you addressed this issue. You're talking about old reactor designs.

    An example of what I'd suggest for nuclear power: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    You keep assuming I want to build 3 mile island.

    The only reactors *legally* approved for construction is the AP1000 with all of the issues in the study. TWR is an interesting concept, however it doesn't exist, compared to IFR which *did* exist, functioned as planned, did what it was supposed to do yet was still funded for *demolition* by W.Bush.

    Your position is out of date. Obsolete.

    Your position is SyFy. Have you investigated the difference between a breeder and a burner reactor? Your argument is for breeder reactor with the same decommssiioning issues as current generation reactors, that doesn't exist and has no legal approval to operate? I think you'll find IFR is a vastly superior reactor design, that actually works and has all the features, and more(like built in medical isotope extraction) than TWR. Far from obsolete, my position is plausible.

    --
    My ism, it's full of beliefs.
  39. Re:Supply vs Demand - Reactor Decommisioning by MrKaos · · Score: 1

    As to the decommissioning cost, it depends on how you build the plant. You keep talking about the old 1960s nuke plant designs. That's not what anyone is talking about at this point. Your entire concept is obsolete.

    It is the current issue because it's the 1960s plant designs that are reaching the end of their service life now. Yankee Rowe, a controlled shutdown of a functioning reactor, cost half a billion dollars to clean-up and it was only 137 Megawatts, less than a quarter of the size of TMI-2 for example. You have to wait to allow the *really* radioactive elements to decay. This is because new and highly radioactive elements are created in the reactor core. It's still not something that has been addressed in an industrially proficient way yet that makes the sites safe or 'greenfeild'. Considering the 104 reactor sites around America are multi-core the United States will be looking at a conservative estimate of a quarter of a *Trillion* dollars, at todays prices, on reactor decommissioning alone.

    And as I mentioned SNUPPS is the basis for the design of the AP1000 reactor which is the only legally approved reactor design available for the U.S. And it has all of the same energetic input and problems mentioned in the study.

    The high costs of nuclear come from the high back end costs of decommissioning and that has turned into a shitshow because people go out of their way to make it as impractical as possible.

    No, it is a function of it being an enormous mound of concrete containing radioactive isotopes. Decommissioning and demolishing a reactor takes about about the same amout of energy the reactor generated for a third of its service life. Check the study around i14-i16.

    I posit that if we *have* to have nuclear power then the plants should be designed to much high standards with lifespans that are more in line with the geological time-frames of the elements they are tasked to contain. I am yet to see that happen, nor have I seen a reactor design that meets those criteria. Current reactor design is not good enough, they MUST be designed to overcome what we have learned about them in the first fifty years of operation, franky the current generation of nuclear power plants proposed do not even meet the minimum requirements, wrt decommissioning, so how is it possible to support commissioning new reactors if they are just as bad (indeed worse wrt containment - but you're not ready for that conversation) than the very 1960's design of currently commissioned reactors.

    --
    My ism, it's full of beliefs.
  40. Re:Supply vs Demand - Wind by MrKaos · · Score: 1

    As to the problem with wind, the maintenance and depreciation of windmills is radically understated and has been for decades. The machines are always sold as being able to do X and then after they're in place for a few years the maintenance costs start radically changing the cost structure. Also the power is not consistent. Aka... it only works when the wind blows.

    Maybe so. Wall Street doesn't like nuclear because its a risky investment, investors don't like that sort of risk, solar and wind are way ahead simply because the return on investment is much better than nuclear, i.e. Solar and wind satisfies the criteria that makes an investment "economically viable" nuclear power does not without substantial regulatory support.

    You need a way to store wind and solar or they're more an irritation for the traditional grid than anything. Most of that power has to be backstopped with coal and nuclear. I'm okay with having a small percentage of renewables in the network. We can load balance them. But if you start increasing them radically without having adequate storage... then you're just sabotaging the grid.

    It's obviously a medium-term solution that will fit into a broader energy plan for the US and other developed countries well into the future. I expect to see nuclear providing a boost to our base load power 10-20 years from now, dwindling off as reactors are taken off-line.

    The choice now is whether any of the lessons from the past 50 years have been learned.

    And once you add the costs of the batteries on to your wind mills... the cost structure becomes even less attractive.

    America has Terrawatts of wind energy. I'm sure if the U.S can put a man on the moon then she can make a few wind turbines work.

    --
    My ism, it's full of beliefs.
  41. Re:Supply vs Demand - Advocacy by MrKaos · · Score: 1

    As to the NRC... specify your issue. You're obviously contrary to what you said a strong anti nuclear proponent and that's fine... everyone is entitled to their opinions but don't misrepresent yourself. It undermines your credibility. I'm very happy to talk with someone that is anti nuclear. Just don't tell me you're not and then pull this nonsense.

    As I said, if you are pro-nuclear I will appear anti-nuclear. You have said little to indicate you even understand my position, let alone be in a position to judge me. I've ever been saying is that we really need to have a complete and pragmatic end to end look at the way the Nuclear Industry operates. It deserves our skepticism because we can't afford to be reckless with these systems as they age anymore, and why do it when America is luckier than most countries when it comes to wind, solar and geo-thermal power which doesn't have the baggage of nuclear, oil or coal? Serious investments into these have been taken up by nuclear oil, and coal so where is the return for the everyday person? Failing Nuclear power plants and expensive fuel. Money for the big end of town from the taxpayers pocket.

    Where is the anti in that? Anyone who can read and add numbers can get the information by just reading the appropriate acts of law.

    I'm mostly annoyed because you misrepresented yourself and you've used some pretty fallacious arguments to support your position. Any valid point shouldn't require deception to support it and pretty much your first statements to me were a lie. So... not feeling super confident in your good faith in this discussion.

    Well that's what you say and I haven't seen much evidence supporting the other things you say. I've supplied the information with sincerity and you have said yourself it is too much for you. Well welcome to the complexity that is the Nuclear Industry. Stop whining to me that it is too hard to read the facts presented and then try to claim that I am deceiving you.

    Nothing in

    I call that Responsible Nuclear Advocacy, since at least 2006 - you just get hounded by both sides, the debate has become so polarised people have forgotten how to carry on a meaningful discussion any more

    is a lie. If you can't carry out a meaningful discussion based in fact, that's your problem and not mine.

    --
    My ism, it's full of beliefs.
  42. Re:Supply vs Demand - Yucca and Disposal by MrKaos · · Score: 1

    Ok, I'll just accept that you have conceded these point as you have no other information to counter the facts placed before you, that Yucca mountain is inappropriate to contain nuclear waste.

    --
    My ism, it's full of beliefs.
  43. Re:Supply vs Demand - Yucca and Disposal by Karmashock · · Score: 1

    You can accept whatever you want. Stick a purple dildo up your ass with or without the lube. I really don't care.

    What is obvious is that you're going to cite anything you can think of to argue against nuclear power in any capacity under any circomstances.

    And that's fine. My issue with you is that you misrepresented yourself as open to nuclear power if safety concerns were met. However, you merely used such concerns as a pretext to disallow any use of nuclear power. What is clear is that you don't think nuclear power can be safe at all. Thus you saying you'd accept it if safety concerns were met is identical to saying you'd not accept it under any circomstances.

    Tell me... where would you sequester nuclear waste if not Yucca Mountain?

    Name a place we can put it. And you say you're okay with nuclear power? Okay... cite a reactor design you find acceptable.

    All you do is gainsay everything which is easy to do. I can do that with ANY other energy source. I can sit here and talk about how wind or solar or anything else is shitty by citing problems with it. But unlike you "I actually have constructive solutions" for all these things. I'm fine with any energy source so long as it is done reasonably. And unlike your statements, that isn't merely a lying shithead pretext to disallow stuff I don't like.

    So... I don't concede the fucking point.

    I said, GOOD DAY, sir.

    *slams door*

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  44. Re:Supply vs Demand - Yucca and Disposal by MrKaos · · Score: 1
    No need to get emotional.

    Tell me... where would you sequester nuclear waste if not Yucca Mountain? Name a place we can put it.

    I'd suggest the geology of the Rocky Mountains is closer to what is required, however I'm sure that there are other granite mountains that are suitable in the US in line with DOE's original 'defense in depth' parameters and what we have learned in the meantime about how granite captures radioisotopes and filters it from the water table.

    As I said Yucca mountain is pumice, that's why it is inappropriate *geology* and hydrology.

    And you say you're okay with nuclear power? Okay... cite a reactor design you find acceptable.

    I already did that, IFR.

    But unlike you "I actually have constructive solutions" for all these things. I'm fine with any energy source so long as it is done reasonably.

    Well I'm yet to see you even demonstrate a knowledge of the issues, like the water table of Yucca let alone the capacity to tackle more complex issues regarding reactor and infrastructure design that lead to solutions.

    So... I don't concede the fucking point.

    So, instead of considering the facts presented in a balanced way you've become emotional once confronted with whats required to *actually* gain an understanding. You don't have fact to support your argument and I have produced information to support mine, for you, about the issues.

    It's ok, I know it is difficult and confronting to take it in but if you want to maintain an opinion that doesn't stand up to examination then that reveals that your opinion is based on social proof, not actual proof. I won't take your insults personally.

    Not conceding the point just reveals that you probably haven't reach the mental maturity required to have this debate, let alone contribute to it so it is unlikely that your opinion will evolve much further until you do - I've seen it before.

    Now that I have proven your beliefs to be false, perhaps it would be wise to keep your opinions to yourself until you have had time to evaluate the information presented lest people think that you are a nuclear fanboi.

    I'll accept that *you're done*, you cannot defend your argument and that you aren't honest enough to concede the point.

    --
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