Posted on 01/14/2016 11:43:55 AM PST by Kaslin
This seems to be the law of unintended consequences coming home to roost in Wisconsin for both the EPA and the environmental lobby in the Badger State and it’s hard to suppress a bit of a smile over it. New EPA regulations and the relentless attacks on the coal industry have led to the state needing to make some adjustments in how they produce their power. That probably sounded like a big win for the Green lobby until legislators took a look at their available options and determined that they might have no choice but to put in some more nuclear reactors at some point. (Daily Caller)
The lower-house of Wisconsin's state legislature passed a bill Tuesday lifting a 33 year-old restriction on the construction of new nuclear power plants in an attempt to comply with federal regulations phasing out coal plants.
Lawmakers who voted for the bill claim the state needs as much flexibility as possible to reduce coal use in order to comply with Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) mandates to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. The bill's Democratic opponents, on the other hand, say natural gas power plants are a better way to comply with EPA mandates than nuclear power.
The bill "doesn't say we're going to go to nuclear energy, it doesn't say we’re going to build a plant," Republican Representative Kevin Peterson, the bill's author, said when introducing it.
In order to meet the mandates of the EPA, Wisconsin will have to make some steep carbon cuts. That’s going to come at an estimated cost of as much as $2K per year for the voters and a serious reduction in the amount of power they get from coal currently. (That’s almost 60% of their grid right now.) They get around 15% of their power from the state’s one operational nuclear plant, the Point Beach reactor complex. The environmentalists might have hoped the state would turn to solar and wind, but those are kicking in a grand total of 3.8% of their power and there’s no profitable way to expand that very much in the near future.
The other true bit of irony here is that the EPA and the environmentalists may be forced to take some medicine which may wind up being a fine cure, no matter how distasteful they find it. Nuclear plants produce essentially zero greenhouse gas output and they don’t really “burn” anything in the conventional sense. The two primary byproducts are warm water and energy. Of course, the other thing they produce is spent fuel rods which have traditionally been problematic, but new advances in the science are allowing modern plants to convert their spent rods into new fuel with far less to dispose of. This could be a win win for Minnesota while simultaneously sending the Green lobby into an alcoholic coma.
Who says the EPA never does anything worthwhile? (Well, okay… that’s usually me. But they might produce something good in Wisconsin, albeit unintentionally.)
Nuke-you-leer power who seem to be the wave of the future.
More nuclear power isn’t a bad thing, but being forced into it is always a bad thing.
If the EPA had their way we would have people sitting on a porch working a string pulley like 19th century India and south Pacific.
If the Wisconsin legislature wants to invest in nuclear power for energy production, in the absence of coal for fuel, they would do well to consider authorizing Thorium fueled Molten Salt reactors.
Many of the problems associated with Nuclear Reactors are solved with Thorium Molten Salt Reactors. They were built and developed by a team led by Alvin Weinberg over a twenty year period starting in the 1950s.
TMSRs also known as LFTRs (Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactors) or DMSRs (Denatured Molten Salt Reactors) are important because they:
(1) are safer and more stable and cannot meltdown because they are already in a liquid state and therefore do not require expensive containment that normally deals with highly pressurized hot water.
(2) can consume waste nuclear fuel. TMSRs in the modern view are actually two nuclear plants in one. They can provide energy and burn up nuclear waste and like all nuclear reactors have no polluting emissions or CO2.
(3) are less expensive than traditional reactors because the byproducts are far less toxic and do not require expensive containment. They can be built in all sizes.
(4) the left over products contain valuable ingredients that can be resold that are good for industrial as well as medical purposes
(5) are much more difficult to to use to produce fuel for nuclear weapons
(6) will produce far more energy than wind or solar power ever could. It does seem somewhat inevitable that Thorium will be an important part of our future the question is when?
(7) can potentially help in the desalination process, assist in Hydrogen Production and heat buildings. The heat generated can also provide a means for heat process needed by other industries.
(8) provide a means for third world countries to improve their economies by providing reliable cheap electricity (cheaper than coal plants) and will replace high carbon emission methods with far cleaner technology and almost no nuclear waste and the neglible amount of waste can be processed further for valuable isotopes and other rare elements.
(9) eliminate the need for fuels that produce carbon emissions therefore removing one of the root causes of war. It’s true we fight to defend what we need. And for too long we have needed energy in the form of fossil fuels. And that needs to change. Our military leaders know that and more than anything they want to change that basic story. That is why our message of thorium-based power enabling US energy independence resonates so strongly with them. It will also resonate well as a deterrent to allowing countries such as Russia from bullying other countries in need of their fossil fuels.
(10) Thorium is abundant and stockpiles are already stored so very little if any mining is required in North America for decades. After that mining Thorium is plentiful enough to keep the whole planet supplied for thousands of years.
(11) Robert Hargraves makes a convincing argument that it will lower the worlds population.
energy=industry=jobs=education=birth control=population control
Much of the battle we wish to achieve with clean nuclear energy is in re-educating the public. Getting funding has a lot to do with public opinion.
There’s no stopping countries like China and other nations from polluting the environment beyond return without showing them a better way and TMSRs are the form of nuclear energy that is the better way.
Feds authorize, not states.
The Kewaunee nuclear plant in Wisconsin was shutdown in May, 2013.
How’s that working out for you, Wisconsin?
Drinking the kool-ade?
Do we still have the technical knowledge and skilled workers to build and manage a nuclear power plant?
I have never understood the fanatical resistance thrown up by the left to nuclear power plants. They are a very reasonable answer to most power issues and are available to almost everyone. Nuclear power plants have a small footprint, don’t decimate the bird population like windmills, don’t fry the environment around them like solar farms and nukes are quiet. And unlike the ‘green’ solutions, nukes produce power 24x7, rain or shine, wind or no wind. Those qualities sound like just the items the left could support.
But then we are talking about liberals ...
Lawmakers do not have the constitutional authority to make laws forcing Wisconsin onto more nuclear power.
Lawmakers cannot protect their voting records by letting lawless presidents steal legislative branch powers that Congress does not have to force Wisconsin onto more nuclear power.
Lawmakers likewise cannot protect their voting records by letting non-elected federal bureaucrats, such as those running the constitutionally undefined EPA, steal legislative branch powers that Congress does not have to force Wisconsin onto more nuclear power.
Remember in November !
So if patriots elect Trump, or whatever conservative they elect, they will also need to elect a new, state sovereignty-respecting Congress that will work within its constitutional Article I, Section 8-limited powers to support the president.
In fact, note that such a Congress will also probably be willing to fire state sovereignty-ignoring activist justices who likewise help to empower bad-apple presidents to do unconstitutional things.
The Thorium Molten Salt plants depend on a much different, and far less complex, technology. The problem is in getting them authorized and built. There is a crying need, right now, and all over the world, for this source to be much more fully developed. The concept works, even better than ever expected, but there are still none who believe in its ultimate superiority.
India is probably at the forefront of design and construction of these plants. If they get a number of them up and running, that would make them truly a leading industrial power.
And without all that much coal, petroleum or natural gas.
First thing about liberals and the idea of plentiful, relatively cheap power - somebody might grow wealthy from the widespread industrial application, and that is STRICTLY against their religion of Equality, Fraternity and Liberty.
Since there are already WAY too many people on the earth, anything that will drive the world into widespread poverty, and its resulting pestilence, war, famine, and death, is a good thing in their eyes. Even if liberals do not believe in the Bible, they take Revelations seriously.
But there is serious development going on, right now of Thorium molten salt nuclear plants. In India, and soon to be China.
http://www.nei.org/News-Media/News/News-Archives/india-turns-to-thorium-as-future-reactor-fuel
The other problem is that there’s not much sunshine in WI, particularly in the winter. It is pretty darn North, as Denmark is also learning to their billions of wasted dollars.
New nuclear plants are estimated to cost up to $20 billion. A coal plan, $2-3 billion. Several nuclear plants in the midwest are in danger of shutting down due to the high cost of producing power.
New EPA regulations forcing WI to consider more expensive nuclear power. Didn’t doyle just shut down and sell one of our nuclear plants a few years ago>
FReep Mail me if you want on, or off, this Wisconsin interest ping list.
“Thorium fueled Molten Salt reactors”
Amen brother.... very scalable and probably the most important aspect is it will pretty much decentralize the power industry.
better than windmills and solar panels
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