Posts Tagged by nuclear power
Fukushima — An Update
| May 15, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Nuclear |
Our short attention span for news caused us long ago to bid goodbye to Fukushima as a story of interest and importance, yet the situation is quite dire – in fact, probably more so now than it was a few months ago. Here’s a good summary, including a piece on Fukushima Reactor #4 — well worth the six minutes.
Energy Policy’s Difficult Choices
| May 10, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Science |
I recently wrote a post critical of radical environmentalists who take rigid positions and refuse to make the tough choices that confront us all in the real world. In particular, I stand in disagreement with people’s unwillingness to exile the tortoises from 4613 acres (about five square miles) in the California desert that would have been used for a gigawatt of solar photovoltaics, an almost exact replacement for a full coal-fired power plant. Read More
End Of Nuclear Power in Sight?
| May 4, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Nuclear |
It’s good to see the world of nuclear power showing concern about seismic activity that may endanger their reactors – especially in California, where we’ve been known to have a temblor or two. Elsewhere in the news, Japan is shutting down its last nuke this weekend. Perhaps we really are making the transition from a Type Zero to a Type One civilization, in the parlance of physicist Michio Kaku (the video linked here is quite good).
From Guest Blogger Kelly Marsh: Earthquakes Can Damage Nuclear Power Plants
| April 18, 2012 | Posted by Kelly Marsh under Nuclear |
Throughout the history, earthquakes are known to cause high level of destructions and damages to our planet. Depending on the intensity of seismic waves, an earthquake can just shake our ground or literally cause ground rupture. The severity of damage is high in the case of ground rupture as it can dislocate large engineering structures like bridges, chemical plants, power plants, and very importantly nuclear power plants.
You’ll Never See Another Nuclear Power Plant Commissioned in the US
| April 14, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Nuclear |
Frequent commenter/author Frank Eggers writes on my piece on subsidies for nuclear:
Nuclear power has been demonstrated to be far safer than fossil fuel power. Coal plants cause health problems that, while severe, are difficult to pinpoint because generally they simply greatly increase the health problems which would exist anyway whereas nuclear accidents, though infrequent, have a more concentrated and obvious effect.
Frank: I’m not one of the hysterical anti-nuke people who grossly over-estimates the danger. Having said that: Read More
Frontline on PBS: Nuclear Aftershocks
| April 11, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Nuclear |
I hope everyone gets the opportunity to catch this episode of Frontline on PBS: Nuclear Aftershocks – one that essentially claims that nuclear energy is both unacceptably dangerous but completely necessary. I’m reminded of the way Amory Lovins begins his current-day presentations: “Which would you rather die from? Nuclear holocaust, drowning from rising sea levels, respiratory disease, or terrorist attacks and social chaos from the demand for increasingly scarce oil?” I have to admit; it’s a great way to capture an audience’s attention.
“Aftershocks” did a great deal to explore the dangers of nuclear energy Read More
How Clean Is Nuclear Power?
| April 10, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Nuclear |
True to form, Glenn Doty writes a thorough and quite helpful comment on my piece about measuring the increase in the use of renewable energy. He closes with two ideas on which I would like to comment in return:
1) Of course, natural gas is far better than coal, and slightly worse than nuclear.
Personally, I think it’s impossible to put nuclear on a scale of “goodness” or “badness,” because we are incapable of knowing its implications to our health and safety. I’ll go out on a limb here and guess you haven’t polled the people living around Fukushima, Chernobyl, and Three Mile Island. And what might the future bring? More operational disasters? Catastrophes with handling nuclear waste? Rogue states with small dirty nuclear weapons? It’s impossible to predict, but it can’t be good.
2) At least coal power is plummeting. That’s good any way you wish to calculate anything.
Amen, my friend.
Is Renewable Energy Growing Stronger? It Depends on How You Look At It
| April 9, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Business |
EVWorld has a wonderfully encouraging article on renewables that begins:
Pop quiz time. The fastest growing energy sector in terms of percentage of growth in the United States between January 1, 2009 and December 31, 2011 was: A) natural gas, B) nuclear power, C) renewable energy?
The answer is C, renewable energy (RE) by a huge margin. According to the U.S. Energy Information Agency (EIA), RE grew by 27.12%. That includes biofuels, biomass, geothermal, solar, water, and wind. By comparison, natural gas production increased 13.66%, while crude oil grew 14.27%. Nuclear power, in contrast, shrunk 1.99% and coal dropped 7.16%.
All true, but one can find different facts that would support a different conclusion. E.g., under 5% of the U.S. grid mix is renewable energy (if you don’t count hydroelectric dams), so talking about percent growth of this small number may not be the most relevant stat.
Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactors
| December 10, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Nuclear |
Frequent commenter and all-around smart guy Frank Eggers points out that there has been no discussion of liquid fluoride thorium reactors here at 2GreenEnergy. He’s absolutely right, and I propose we attempt to rectify this.
Personally, I don’t know what to make of thorium. The brilliantly made two-hour-long video linked above is quite compelling, in that the main presenter, Kirk Sorensen is a super-articulate spokesperson for the technology. Of course, I can find articulate spokespeople for all types of yo-yo stuff. Having said that, I learned a great deal from the video, and again, I invite conversation.
When the Architect of Fukushima Reactor 3 Is Scared, So Am I
| November 19, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Nuclear |
About once a week, someone asks me for my take on the latest about Fukushima, how concerned we should be, or what the upshot will be in terms of world energy policy (as if there is such a thing). I immediately refer them to Ace Hoffman of Carlsbad, CA, who’s been studying the nuclear power industry for more than 40 years — since he was about fourteen years old. He writes with depth and passion, and I recommend that anyone interested in the subject follow his blog here.
He’s testified at over 100 nuke hearings, and written over a thousand essays, including the one I’ve excerpted here: Read More
