Merged nuclear power safe?

[r-j]

How much waste do you think nuclear plants produce, anyway ?

Based on the nuclear plant that's on fire right now, which has stored all of it's spent fuel there since it started, it seems to be about 100 tons a year for each reactor. But that's just the fuel rods.

 

[BenBurch]

Actual numbers on waste;

http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/inf04.html

 

[Java Man]

Why is that a problem ? How much waste do you think nuclear plants produce, anyway ?

That's the problem, I don't know. Do you?

 

[BenBurch]

That's the problem, I don't know. Do you?

Read the link in the preceding post.

 

[Java Man]

Read the link in the preceding post.

I did and although very insightful it doesn't provide estimates of the number of nuclear power plants and nuclear power demand over the next 10 millenia. I'm wondering if he can bring in numbers for the next ten thousand years.

 

[BenBurch]

That won't matter as we only have a couple thousand years of fuel. I figure by then we will have gotten that fusion thing happening.

 

[Sword_Of_Truth]

interesting.
the tone of the discussion is changing 30 pages and a few days into the crisis.
it is now not so benign......

You want a change in the tone, BD?

Think about this, I got an email from Dr. Meneley today. He was on Dale Goldhawks show in Toronto (50% of Ontarios electricity production is nuclear) discussing the future of nuclear energy in Canada. Of the viewers and listeners who responded, 69% were in favor of nuclear energy while only 31% opposed.

Alberta is geologically stable and landlocked. There is nothing that can happen in Fukushima that has even the remotest bearing on on proposed Peace river reactor complex. You can cross your fingers and hope for as many deaths as possible from the situation in Japan, but they won't stop you from getting four brand new ACR-1000s as next-door neighbors.

The future is coming...

Expect it.

EDIT: Send me your real world address and I'll talk to Bruces Alberta office and get you a hat and some pens that glow in the dark (not kidding, the pens have LEDs that glow in a rotating color pattern).

 

[Sword_Of_Truth]

That won't matter as we only have a couple thousand years of fuel. I figure by then we will have gotten that fusion thing happening.

Scientifically illiterate petty fascists will oppose that too.

 

[Sword_Of_Truth]

That book is insane. None of the numbers presented conform with reality and none of them have a good source.

Be advised, we have a couple 9/11 truthers in the thread. Their approach to nuclear science and engineering is little removed from their approach to everything else.

 

[bikerdruid]

Alberta is geologically stable and landlocked.

there have been 3 minor earthquakes in the peace since i have lived here.
this one in 2001 was over 5 on the richter scale.
http://www.calverley.ca/Part17-Geology, Archeology/BN17-14.htm
can you guarantee there will be no more, or stronger?

and i'll pass on the bruce power bling...
.......it'll clash with my 'keep alberta nuclear free' apparel.

 

[Sword_Of_Truth]

there have been 3 minor earthquakes in the peace since i have lived here.
this one in 2001 was over 5 on the richter scale.
http://www.calverley.ca/Part17-Geology, Archeology/BN17-14.htm

The fukushima quake was between six thousand and seven thousand times stronger and a 40 year old GE reactor rode it out just fine.

can you guarantee there will be no more, or stronger?

Vancouver will be annihilated between now and 2100 by a ~9.0 but we will be fine. Chew on Fukushima all you like, there's no meat for you on those bones.

and i'll pass on the bruce power bling...
.......it'll clash with my 'keep alberta nuclear free' apparel.

Well the hats and pens are already made, so the project has to go forward. You're getting the reactor, you should get the hat too.

Oh, and tell Adele Boucher Ryhms that the big bald guy from the 2009 CNS conference in Calgary says "Hi". She loved Jay Harris presentation and thinks putting nuclear reactors in aboriginal communities is a great idea.

EDIT: Canadian earthquake history and future risk from CBC (Alberta is not mentioned).

 

[r-j]

Reports: Lax oversight, 'greed' preceded Japan nuclear crisis

Reports suggest that greed within the worldwide nuclear industry, combined with an insufficient UN watchdog and lax oversight of Japan's nuclear plants, contributed to the Japan nuclear crisis.

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia...oversight-greed-preceded-Japan-nuclear-crisis

 

[Sword_Of_Truth]

So corporate corruption and mismanagement, a quake strong enough to knock the planet 4 inches off its axis, the biggest tsunami in history and you still can't squeeze a chernobyl out of that?

Nuclear engineering fraqqin ruulz!

 

[Java Man]

So corporate corruption and mismanagement, a quake strong enough to knock the planet 4 inches off its axis, the biggest tsunami in history and you still can't squeeze a chernobyl out of that?

Nuclear engineering fraqqin ruulz!

I take it your definition of "secure" is anything that's not a Chernobyl. Not a very good definition to hold if you're planning on being pro-nuclear.

 

[DC]

So corporate corruption and mismanagement, a quake strong enough to knock the planet 4 inches off its axis, the biggest tsunami in history and you still can't squeeze a chernobyl out of that?

Nuclear engineering fraqqin ruulz!

pls? source? It was not the biggest tsunami in history.

 

[gumboot]

Based on the nuclear plant that's on fire right now, which has stored all of it's spent fuel there since it started, it seems to be about 100 tons a year for each reactor. But that's just the fuel rods.

Are you claiming they have some 18 kilotons of spent fuel rods sitting in tanks above the reactors?

Sorry, I mean 24 kilotons.

 

[Nosi]

Living in earthquake country, we've discussed plans for our cat if we need to get out quickly. Best option so far seems to be shoving her into a pillow case and tying it shut so she's can't freak out and run off (then releasing her into our car, assuming that's an option). Could you bag the bird without causing permanent injury to either party?

I recommend you buy a cat carrier to put your pillow case full of hell into.

 

[Java Man]

Are you claiming they have some 18 kilotons of spent fuel rods sitting in tanks above the reactors?

I heard it was in the order of 1800 tons of fuel among the 6 reactors.

 

[gumboot]

I heard it was in the order of 1800 tons of fuel among the 6 reactors.

Yeah, that's my understanding also. According to this article there's 647 tons of spent fuel in tanks above the six reactors and a further 1,097 tons at ground level.

I would questioning the absurdity of r-j's claim that they've stored all of their spent fuel on site, and that r-j has used this apparently invented total to calculate average waste output - arriving at 100 tons per year per reactor.

According to BenBurch's link the average 1,000MW reactor produces about 27 tonnes (29 tons) of spent fuel a year, and the reactors at Fukushima I are 460MW (x1), 784 MW (x4) and 1100MW (x1) which would suggest less than that.

Of course when we're talking room for fuel disposal, actual mass is fairly irrelevant. 27 tonnes of spent fuel amounts to 20 cubic meters, but if that's processed it is reduced to 3 cubic meters of end-product waste (again, from BenBurch's link). 3 cubic meters a year of waste isn't a particularly arduous volume of material to dispose of.

 

[Bluespaceoddity]

Based on the nuclear plant that's on fire right now, which has stored all of it's spent fuel there since it started, it seems to be about 100 tons a year for each reactor. But that's just the fuel rods.

http://www.nirs.org/reactorwatch/accidents/6-1_powerpoint.pdf


[Edit: What is on fire? What is your source of information this time?
Edit 2: NHK reports that the temperatures in the spent fuel pools [surface temp. of the water inside] are below 100 degrees Celsius.Do you have info that contradicts that? Are you talking about fires in other parts of the compound? Please be specific.]