Much of what is said here is patently false the rest could speciously be applied to any form of energy generation. What was flawed was not the source, it was the business model... this is no cogent argument for deciding U.S. Nuke Power policy.
Modern plant designs don’t change fueling for demand, It isn’t like you turn the fission up or down, but certainly can change power output to match demand.
The thing is they are so damned efficient that you don’t have to concern yourself with that waste. Further the energy in the fuel is so concetrated waste is not really an issue anyhow.
The amount of Uranium required and expended to provide a family of four their energy needs for a year fits in a Coke Can! For coal, it measures tons and fits in train cars.
There is enough known Uranium deposits in New Mexico alone to run the country for 200 years. Uranium mining has a bad rap as it has never truly taken place under modern circumstances outside the environment of the Cold War in the 50’s and 60’s. But if restarted would not be a malaise of “tailings” as yellow creeks.
There has never in the history of the US been a death attributable to Nuke Power Generation, including 3 Mile Island where modern studies even actually put the cancer rates as not just lower than prophesized but lower than much of the nation. The meltdown itself is as much a creation of comic books as it is of the Russian Politburo as Chernobyl did not even have a Containment Vessel and had no buisiness running as a facility!
There have already been deaths this year in the hydrocarbon energy production game and every year prior, not to mention the estimated 40,000 a year that die from the fallout of Coal Pollution. When I say fallout I mean fallout, not just the dust, acid and cinders (I don’t care about CO2) as there is of course Atomic Radiation related to Coal Power production as well. Like anything pulled from the ground there are many isotopes that find there way into coal stocks naturally. Yes you can find a Coal Power Plant with the right Geiger counter.
Modern Nuke like France uses, or soon to complete engineering like the pebble bed systems from South Africa are scalable and safe, repeatable and designed to run on 100 year cycles.
This article is the one that is cynical pessimistic bunk! 13 years from now we in Texas will prove it to you when our next Nuke Plant opens furthering still our clean energy independence from the rest of the US Grid.
— lates
— jrawk
For coal, it measures tons and fits in train cars.
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And for all the greenies out there they can add to nuclears benefits that COAL releases much more radiation when burned by the railcar than a nuclear plant ever will,, and the waste fuel from a nuclear plant is completely recyclable into new fuel.