THEY'LL SOON BE DEAD!
(I HOPE THEY'RE DEAD!)
Today, March 30, 2012, the global Nuclear industrial complex was dealt a stunning blow.
Add to that, and to the serious debate in Japan (where the people do not want the nukes to restart), this, from US News & World Report:
| Expert: Nuclear Power Is On Its Deathbed The disaster insurance for nuclear power plants in the United States is currently underwritten by the federal government, Cooper says. Without that safeguard, "nuclear power is neither affordable nor worth the risk. If the owners and operators of nuclear reactors had to face the full liability of a Fukushima-style nuclear accident or go head-to-head with alternatives in a truly competitive marketplace, unfettered by subsidies, no one would have built a nuclear reactor in the past, no one would build one today, and anyone who owns a reactor would exit the nuclear business as quickly as possible." Read more |
Of course, its going to be a long slow exit if they have their way. Check out the ad next to that first screenshot: 'Obama Administration Banking on Next Generation Nukes.'
Nonetheless: I'm going to celebrate.
Be seeing you!
This article is misleading at best. People are being kept in the dark about safe nuclear power - LFTR reactors - based on thorium. I suspect this is mainly due to the oil, natural gas, and coal lobbies. There is enough thorium in the earth to meet the planet's energy needs for thousands of years, without the worries of meltdowns.
ReplyDeleteThe most destructive force on this planet is greed.
I guess this article is kind of true, as long as you discount the current (written in stone) plans of new plants in Kaliningrad, Belarus (on a fault line, no less) and the replacement in Lithuania to come on line before 2020.
ReplyDeleteAnd that's just Europe, not to mention China...
anon # 1: i wasn't including thorium, at least in my ow mind, because its a form of power generation that, AFAIK, makes sense. so perhaps i need to make that clear in the post. i was referring to the obscenely stupid processes now accepted as the norm.
ReplyDeleteanon#2: perhaps i was naive in thinking that if the nuclear industry in the US finally conceded the financial stupidity of traditional nuclear power generation, that, coupled with the people's disapproval in Japan and the abandonment to nuclear power in several European countries, would be the end of the road.
How could China make it affordable? is it just b/c of the 'necessity' for weapons materials?
I don't think the coal, oil, and gas lobbies keep the thorium reactors in the dark. Actually it is probably the nuclear lobby itself. Back in the fifties the industry had a choice. They chose uranium over thorium (yes some of the engineers suggested it for its safety way back then.) It couldn't possibly be for the production of weapons fuel, could it? Hmm... how many ways are there to create significant amounts of plutonium?
ReplyDelete