The Fate of Nuclear Power

[Azrael]

[Sennacherib]

[crashtech]

Maybe it depends not on the math, but on whose "facts" you use.

[Torchwood]

If you live in a granite area, you will probably be exposed to as much as the latter in a lifetime from the pockets of radon which the natural radioactivity creates. No sign that living in such areas shortens your life on average, although it will contribute to a few cancers.

That's not going to stop people hyperventilating on nuclear risks. It's like the risk of terrorism (tiny) or the risks of flying v driving (where the difference in risks is massive)

[Azrael]

[Azrael]

[crashtech]

[crashtech]

[Azrael]

[lzzrdgrrl]

......nuclear power plants, that is?

Well, suppose Japan, France, Israel and every industrialised country that has nuclear power facilities successfully closes them all down. Then what? The energy shortfall will have to be made up with either coal or petroleum, solar or wind not being anywhere near a feasible option for the immediate future. How much do you want to pay for a barrel of oil? Two-hunnerd, three-hunnerd buxx. Three-fifty? Is that all? The American lifestyle is based on cheap petroleum, and eight or nine bucks a gallon is not cheap. You will live in a three-room flat on the ninth floor with your four children and stand on a platform every day to go to work. And like it......

I don't have too many friends at my school........

[Azrael]

[Azrael]

[crashtech]

[lzzrdgrrl]

[Mr. Perfect]

So, how many people are dead in Japan?

What percentage dead because of flooding/buildings vs nuclear death rays?

[Torchwood]

So you don't like nuclear power?

Then please rank in order of preference:
1. Oil. Then please learn about and even they may not have so much of it - and perhaps there is something in MMGW after all.
2. Gas. Better, but add learning Russian to your course in Arabic, unless you are lucky enough to live over shale (you don't mind a drill in your garden, do you? Only for a year, till we move to your neighbour)
3. Coal. Dirty, dangerous, and as for the carbon content - if you want something scarier than Chernobyl, then please read up on the .
4. Clean coal (carbon sequestration). Looking at the costs, go straight to (8).
5. Wind power. Ah, huge pretty windmills everywhere, which don't work half the time.
6. Biofuels. Let the poor starve, I need to fill my SUV.
7. Other alternatives - go slowly to (8), or for photovoltaics, go quickly.
8. Holy poverty and famine, as espoused by the devotees of Gaia.

This forum has been getting too cheerful and positive recently, we seem to have forgotten our Spenglerian training.

[Rhapsody]

Maybe we worry too much. All energy sources have their pro and cons. And only the reality of the day decides on our actual behavior, directing our paths to the future. For now, there is still oil. One day it will be finished and we'll deal with that, reorganize our societies, economies because we then have to.

[Caskhades]

[Torchwood]

Fusion power is Brazilian: "the energy of the future, and it always will be"

(although that is not fair to Brazil these days)

[Sennacherib]

[crashtech]

[Colonel Sun]

[Endovelico]

[Colonel Sun]

[Endovelico]