Posted on 06/10/2011 7:42:19 AM PDT by bananaman22
As the dire news continues to leach out of Fukishima, the silver lining in its nuclear cloud is that renewable energy technologies, despite their daunting start-up costs, are receiving renewed scrutiny.
Make no mistake - given the trillions of dollars invested over the last five decades in nuclear energy, the industry and its lobbyists will not go down without a fight, promoting new, “safe” reactor designs, etc. etc. etc.
But the Fukushima debacle has finally bared the industry’s darkest secret, it inability to manage its nuclear waste. The six reactor TEPCO Daichi Fukushima stored all its waste onsite, and the spent fuel rods and their lack of cooling have been a major contributor to the high radiation levels observed around the facility. Worse for nuclear power proponents has been the reluctant admission by TECPO that three of the complex’s six reactors apparently did in fact suffer a meltdown.
So, what’s next?
Hydroelectric facilities are a proven technology, but expensive and take years to construct.
Wind power also has substantial start-up costs, is erratic, and faces environmental opposition.
With the notable exception of bioethanol, little real money has gone into biofuel renewable, particularly in the U.S., where bioethanol produced from corn has a hammerlock on both subsidies and crop insurance, despite rising concerns about shifting land from food to energy production is driving up costs of foodstuffs. The leading contenders for bio-renewables, camelina, algae and jatropha, all are starved for investment as a result. Full article at: Why Japan will turn to Solar Energy
Mega dittos.
What the idiots who write to the papers who think that a future solar collector the size of a cellphone can light up a city don’t realize:
A square foot 100% efficient solar collector at the equator at noon generates only 100 watts. And a 100% efficient collector is impossible.
“going to Thorium reactors and actually building waste repositories”
Don’t the French reprocess used fuel rods to cut down on the waste?
The Japanese will spend trillions on solar power only to find it will not replace their nuclear power program in any large part. Solar might work on a small scale but cannot supply the power needs of an industrial nation.
“I see solar on rooftops mainly for solar heating/hot water until efficiencies improve.”
I am not sure about solar for water heating. It may work if you use electricity for heating. I am not sure that rooftop solar makes sense for natural gas heating.
“If anything demonstrated the overall safety of nuclear power, the accidents in Japan did.”
A truly pathetic statement, that takes away my faith in the human race. With reasoning like that then we can consider it impossible to fix anything in this country or the world.
Maybe the Japanese know something the rest of the world does’nt about solar energy. But I doubt it or they’d be marketing it.
I think some 80% of Japan’s electrical energy is generated by nukes. Not sure what that translates to in kws, but if they shut down their nukes it’ll be decades before the country ever has a chance of regaining its industrial footing.
Solar technology is just not viable as a replacement energy generation system And it will be decades before it gets there—if it ever does.
My money is on more practical heads prevailing as time elapses and emotions calm down. There has always been a vociferous Japanese anti-nuke crowd in the Land of the Rising Sun. Partly because of the a-bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Partly because of that island nation’s vigorous Marxist contingent.
As we watch the “lost decade” evolve into the lost century.
Isn’t real estate a very precious commodity in Japan? About the only open place to host a solar panel array will be in the Fukishima Exclusion Zone.
I think they should power their country with American coal.
Solar power doth not steel make.
Not only are you correct ...but the basic article is incorrect - in that the Japanese send their spent fuel to France for reprocessing!
Obviously, spent fuel has decay heat - and it might sit in a spent fuel pool for cooling for 5 to 10 years - and then is shipped off for reprocessing, but NO - not all spent fuel remains on-site (unlike our American reactors - where the federal government promised to support - reprocessing (then stopped by the idiot peanut farmer) - planned off-site fuel storage - Yucca Mountain - stopped by the present idiot who makes the idiot peanut farmer look competant!)
Note - go back and read some of the discussions during the initial time frame after the tsunami - there were discussions of the impact of Mixed Oxide (MOX)Fuels contributing to the problem. MOX fuels use reprocessed spent fuel...plutonium from spent fuel, maybe some “fresh” enriched Uranium so that the new fuel can provide power over an 18 to 24 month operational period before the next refueling.
Thanks for the details. I believe I read that the French waste stockpile is much, much less than ours, because of this.
You offer no facts at all. You cannot possible offer facts to support your position. Because you only have propaganda on your side. I will offer some. But you will have to read-sort through and Analise to separate fact from noise. But their are plenty facts here:
A lot of people are going to get sick and die in the future because of this. And it is far from over. And then there will be the birth defects, and the radioactive concrete that is about to be made. And some people in Seattle have a few “Hot” particles in their lungs. The governments lying about it and covering up the truth every step of the way.
And the the fuel “Melted Through” and into the ground.
Physician and Epidemiologist Say 35% Spike in Infant Mortality in Northwest Cities Since Meltdown Might Be the Result of Fallout from Fukushima
Don't get me wrong, if there is a cheaper or more efficient way of producing power fine, let's go that direction, but the sad fact of the matter is that there isn't, and even given the potential problems it's worth the risk.
Let's see what happens in 5 years from this problem in Japan. Like the oil spill in the gulf, the situation could be serious but isn't likely to be as severe as all the doomsayers want it to be.
You have your “Facts” I have mine. At least I read the news.
Physician and Epidemiologist Say 35% Spike in Infant Mortality in Northwest Cities Since Meltdown Might Be the Result of Fallout from Fukushima
http://www.counterpunch.org/sherman06102011.html
“say”? Science is about proving.
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