Should Japan Restart More Nuclear Power Plants? (thebulletin.org)

Lasrick writes: Seth Baum, executive director of the Global Catastrophic Risk Institute, writes in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists that Japan should restart more of its nuclear reactors (the Sendai nuclear plant was restarted in August). The reason is simple, writes Baum: "Japan is now building 45 new coal power plants, but if it turned its nuclear power plants back on... it could cut coal consumption in half. And coal poses more health and climate change dangers than nuclear power."

Comments

Re:Fukushima wasn't WORTH IT

[slashrio]

...abandoning nuclear because of things like that is like abandoning air travel...

I beg to differ. Air travel can't wipe out the whole human race. An apocalyptic nuclear event can.

Re:What's with this headline?

[oh_my_080980980]

Or they're morons with no grasp of the topic - which is often the case.

I mod anti-nuclear posts down.

[bigpat]

I realize this sounds weird and paranoid, but from years of experience on Slashdot, I have gotten the strong impression that there is some kind of pro-nuclear lobbying going on on this site. Articles with a pro-nuclear tone, well formulated posts critical of nuclear energy being modded down rather insistently...
But of course there is the possibility that its the Slashdot crowd itself who is on average very pro-nuclear, giving this kind of impression.

I am pro-nuclear and I go out of my way to use my mod points whenever I get them to mod down anti-nuclear posts. It isn't a conspiracy I just think the anti-nuclear crowd are dangerous fools and idiot technophobes that are endangering everyone on the planet and unless you are offering a real alternative then you are part of the problem.

Re:What's with this headline?

[MrL0G1C]

Solar Thermal or PV? Sure, let's take advantage of it on structures and stuff. Using it on an industrial scale isn't quite practical, though, considering the massive areas required. Large scale thermal installations are also hazardous to birds. Doesn't work all the time, either.
Wind? Wind can be unpredictable, and it's supposedly a very big hazard for birds.

Wind is not a big hazard to birds, 1000x bigger hazards are windows and cats.

Solar and wind don't need much space and the are needed keeps shrinking as the technologies improve.

AreaRequired1000.jpg (JPEG Image, 1000ÂÃ--Â706 pixels)
AreaRequiredWindOnly.jpg (JPEG Image, 1000ÂÃ--Â753 pixels)