Nuclear Industry

[mobl09]

Is the nuclear industryreally the way forward? I thought Nuclear powerstations were dangerous for many reasons. One is the amount of waste they produce clearly is not beneficial for the environment and two, they are surely large targets for terrorism?

[clv101]

There's no reason to be worried about their danger, it's not beyond the wit of man to avoid accident. The amount of waste isn't that big a deal when seen in context of the amount of waste we are already committed to. We already have a waste problem - adding a bit more waste to it doesn't change things much. Terrorism - I think should basically be discounted from any serious decision making process.

Nuclear power is a low carbon source of energy. Without it we would almost certainly be over 400ppm CO2 by now as more electricity would have been generated by coal over the last 50 years and electricity would have been cheaper leading to larger consumption.

The future of nuclear rests on its relative cost and greenhouse gas emission per unit.

[kenneal - lagger]

There's no reason to be worried about their danger, it's not beyond the wit of man to avoid accident.

A French reactor was closed down a few years ago because a maintenance electrician went into a cable duct, with a candle to light his way, to effect some repairs. He managed to burn through some safety cables in his work and the reactor was, luckily, shut down before the place overheated. With wit like that, I would be very worried about our safety.

Also, is nuclear a low carbon source if you take into account all the carbon used in the mining, purification and transport of nuclear fuel. There are also the unknowns in the "?safe?" long term storage of all the waste.

[biffvernon]

I like the argument 'electricity would have been cheaper [without nuclear] leading to larger consumption'.

We really need to seek out expensive ways to generate electricity and promote them to the exclusion of cheaper methods. That way conservation is forced upon us.