One thing that people don’t really get is that we get exposed to radiation all the time. Here in the states the DoE is charged with regulating radiation that is lower than the background radiation emitted by the ground. You get exposed to more radiation on airplanes, especially on transcontinental polar routes, than you do from nuclear power plants even if you happen to live right next to one.

I don’t deny that we need to be smart about our next foray in to nuclear power, but foolproof designs have been developed and have been ready for the word “go” for years now.

As far as the waste is concerned, we’ve known what to do with it for a long time now, but NIMBY litigation based on irrational fears of radiation have prevented us from doing it. Take the waste, mix it up into glass ingots, embed the ingots in concrete and then stainless steel, and drop the suckers several miles down a big borehole. And waste is another reason to decommission the existing plants – new designs produce a LOT less waste and there are some thoughts that some of the existing spent fuel rods could be recommissioned as either breeder fuel blankets or reprocessed into breeder reactor fuel.

“KASHIWAZAKI, Japan (AP Jul 17) – A long list of problems, including radiation leaks, burst pipes and fires, came to light Tuesday at the world’s largest nuclear power plant, a day after it was hit by a powerful earthquake.

“The malfunctions and a delay in reporting them fuelled concerns about the safety of Japan’s 55 nuclear reactors, which have suffered a string of accidents and cover-ups.”

In addition, there are ways to make nuclear power plants to reliable that it literally takes a failure of the laws of physics to get one to melt down. Reactors like this didn’t exist (they didn’t have the technology and understanding of reactor dynamics at the time) back in the 1960s and 70s.

8. ExNavy Nuke Rx Operator, thanks for bringing this up. This is why I try to say that nuclear is relatively carbon emission-free, not totally free. But most of the time, the cost of production isn’t included in the CO2 emissions. So the CO2 costs of mining, drilling, and, in the case of renewable fuels, fertilizing and growing aren’t usually included. This is starting to change, thankfully, since we really need a total picture of CO2 emissions, but how we define “total” is somewhat arbitrary. The problem is where to stop tracking back the emissions – do we include the manufacture of the bulldozer and the CO2 emissions of the dynamite plant? I don’t know, but everyone can and should come to an agreement on a reasonable stopping point.

And they’re both dirty!

It

I think we can do better than nuclear energy. Don’t forget free energy. (Don’t laugh.) With peak oil rushing at us as fast as climate change, we’ve forgotten about all the work done in that field. Perhaps out of necessity, we’re reaching for solutions that are close to hand.

Free energy comprises:

Radiant Energy/Cold Electricity
Permanent Magnets
Mechanical Heaters
Super-Efficient Electrolysis
Implosion/Vortex
Cold Fusion
Solar Assisted Heat Pumps

For more, go here: http://free-energy.ws/index.html

I’d classify this one as “so cutting edge that the wound hasn’t even had time to start bleeding yet,” but it could be interesting nonetheless. We definitely need more research into this one.

So don’t come down on nuclear power – there’s no other technology that’s ready for prime time and that emits almost no CO2 at the same time. Nothing else can produce the power that nuclear can, and nothing else will be able to for quite some time.