| Are you opposed to building more nuclear power plants? Please comment. |
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Asked 2 years ago
by suzannabanana1  Germany |
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About
I don't have any particular political affiliation but will attach myself to certain issues. I don't like "jargon" to describe people or issues, like "liberal"; I think it's lazy and replaces critical thinking. I read a lot and I put polls up on issues when I want to compare my opinions against those of others. Often I'm surprised and that's what I like about Ask500. I'm back in Maine (thank god) now after having spent 8 months in Germany and 6 weeks in Krakow, Poland. I did go back to Poland, near Warsaw, for six weeks but am back. I'm home for good now.
After years of mostly ending up on the "liberal" side of things, I'm tending right a little over this illegal immigration issue and I'm becoming more jaded about our Congress. I have to fight feeling hopeless about our country.
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6 Points
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I think it's been over 30 years. I hope we know more about building and safely operating a plant now. I use oil to heat my home and the price is getting astronomical; also the price of natural gas and propane are going nowhere but up in the future. No one in their right mind would consider heating a home with electricity right now. I like wind and that is probably going to come to pass up where I live; alternative fuels I keep reading about but it will take years to make them available for a reasonable price to the public e.g. fuel from algae. I would prefer green sources but in the meantime we need something that is plentiful and cheaper. Thus, nuclear energy. Meanwhile we continue to rely more and more on coal. A dirty and dangerous (to mine) fuel.
Actually in Switzerland right now many new built homes are heated with geothermal energy instead of oil or gas. But guess what: Hydro-extractors need electricity to function. This is a good solution for the heating pollution in Switzerland, because we get 60% of our energy from our dams in the Alps. Nuclear power is a way of doing that for countries that don't have mountains or other geographical opportunities. Same goes for electric cars: they're only good if the electricity used to reduce carbon dioxide is green too.
Of course I prefer wind and solar energy over nuclear. But although these alternative energies are gaining ground fast, they're not fast enough to fill the gap.
Yes, for the simple reason that if something goes wrong, we cannot fix it or take it back. And the storing of the waste is problematic.
I am not opposed to nuclear power plants, I do however see some major problems with nuclear over solar/wind.
* They cost more then wind/solar over their life time -- http://www.claverton-energy.com/killer-wind-graphs.html
* They require stringent government and international oversight. (We would not want countries to have bombs or dump waste in the oceans)
* The nuclear fuel costs will increase as more and more plants come on-line, while wind/solar is on a decreasing cost scale.
* The Surplus energy from wind/solar can be converted to hydrogen to run the cars on and heat homes.
The main advantage of Nuclear is that they are able to operate on windless days and at night.
None in Australia
1. Over 2000 nuclear accidents, including many in this country, some resulting in death.
2. The top two investors in nuclear power owned 2 of the TV networks until December of last year, when Westinghouse sold ABC. This is why we had no reporting on nuclear problems.
3. We have no way of dealing with the waste. If we had been told the truth about storage problems (see #2 above), we would know about Hanford and the radiation poisoning of the Columbia River.
4. A power plant is amazingly expensive and has a relatively short lifetime.
5. Not too long ago, California decided to build one very near a fault line. Politicians and bureaucrats haven't magically gotten smarter.
Take a look what happened in Chernobyl when the unthinkable happened:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5384001427276447319#
Doesn't matter what causes the accident, there is no good way to clean it up. And I think people should see this video so they understand what heroes the people cleaning it up were.
This comment was deleted.
[5 points] 2 years ago by deleted user ReplyThat is what I was having trouble with also, my answer would be the same as yours.
Sorry. It was poorly worded. And could be confusing.
Here's my comment. Just because you asked.
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[-8 points] 2 years ago by deleted user ReplyI'm opposed to building new nuclear plants because the waste it produces remains radio active for hundreds of years. There are only so many places we can store waste, so I say reduce waste.