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Merged nuclear power safe?


Hmm, while i appreciate that someone made a map showing that the comparison between Fukushima and Chernobyl is bunk, i can't help but notice that this map isn't really sincere as well. I mean, look at the color-coding. It uses different spans for same colours. That simply doesn't look right. In the Japan map, red is 1000+, while in the Chernobyl map it is 1480-3700. I guess that using the same "colour-scale" would make Fukushima even less severe.

Good find anyways, thanks!

Greetings,

Chris
 
This was just on the radio:

The Green party here has proposed a referendum on the building on a new nuclear reactor in the Netherlands.

If 30% of the voters vote "no", building will not commence.
Even if only 30% bother to participate.

Link. (Dutch, run it through Google Translate)

Don't know what to think of this yet.

On the one hand the strongly anti-nuke watermelons may be motivated to show up, and rally the troops.
On the other hand it could lead to end the political games surrounding the permits (but don't count on it).

Thoughts?
 
They better allow to build it. And preferably some more. They will be almost guaranteed to make a fortune by selling that electricity to Germany soon.

Greetings,

Chris

You mean something like this:

Czech policy draft proposes big nuclear expansion

A Czech draft policy paper seen by Reuters on Thursday proposes to build a string of new atomic plants in the central European country, in a stark contrast to a wide pullback from nuclear power following the Fukushima disaster in March.

link
 
Just found this:

UK public confidence in nuclear remains steady despite Fukushima
Benefits of nuclear power outweigh risks, say 41% of the British public, according to poll

The survey, carried out by Populus last month and commissioned by the British Science Association, found that 41% of respondents agreed the benefits of nuclear power outweighed the risks, up from 38% in 2010 and 32% in 2005. Those who said that the risks greatly or slightly outweighed the benefits of nuclear power in 2010 numbered 36%, and in 2011 this dropped to 28% of respondents.

Link

Such a stark contrast with Germany.

How can the perception be so different?
 
Just found this:



Link

Such a stark contrast with Germany.

How can the perception be so different?

I guess that is because here in Germany we some kind of tradition to "care" for the environment. Want to stop a big project/factory from being built? Just find a hamster somewhere nearby. We are one of a few (if not the only?) countries which puts insane amounts of money into such things for little gain in return. We have a green party in the parliament since a very long time, which is well connected to all sorts of green stuff/organizations, and which has gotten far too much influence in a lot of things.

We have that luxury here and throw lots of money at that. A luxury that, by the way, is something that only a small minority keeps going, but they also have enough money for that. The John Doe can not afford to install PV, for example. For one (s)he does not have the financial means, but most important: (s)he simply does not have the roof/space to install it on/in. It is only a very few here who can do that, and those few already have enough money, and make all the others pay for their feel-good stuff.

Maybe too many people have invested too much in all that "save the environment" stuff by now so that they mentally can no longer get rid of it: Too much (money) is already gone. "Too big to fail" mentality or somesuch.

Oh, and don't forget the media hysteria here. They work really hard to make people afraid of things like nuclear plants. You will almost never see any facts in such reporting, but almost exclusively only fearmongering, out-of-context dramatization, etc. And then all these "experts" they show. "Experts" from organizations like GreenPeace - Who today are experts for X, and a week later the very same person is supposedly an expert of Y.

Greetings,

Chris
 
Just found this:



Link

Such a stark contrast with Germany.

How can the perception be so different?

Hard to say, but it might have something to do with ČEZ (Czech energetic company) and fact that some companies would be able to get loads of money on such projects.

It doesn't have anything to do with either enviroment or price, because there is no planned shutdown of coal powerplants. (or of gas plants)
Unfortunately...

With few tweaks it would be sensible plan,but as is it is msotly free money for state in state known as ČEZ. (Yeah, there is a problem)
 
Just got this from the comments section at the Guardian:

@£wanB

Let's hope we can follow France's successful example and get a long term sustainable, low carbon and secure electricity supply.

Where did you get the idea that France is a successful example of nuclear power?

Last year EdF had to sell prime assets to reduce its mounting debt, while reducing its annual revenue by ca. Eur 5 billion, thus worsening its financial meltdown.

Also it has been severely criticised by the nuclear regulator ASN for its lax attitude to safety, see the report on the state of nuclear safety in ASN's 191 Review, April 2011

"However, in the field of nuclear installations, ASN considers that EDF needs to improve its forward planning of a certain number of maintenance and component replacement operations. Belated decisions of this nature meant that EDF had to submit files to ASN to justify continued operation in degraded mode. These files were not felt to be acceptable by ASN from the safety standpoint. This type of management is neither efficient nor optimised, be it for ASN with regard to safety and the mobilisation of its resources, or for EDF"

Right now 19 of its 58 reactors should be down for their 10-year three month inspection, which is why ASN describes EdF as operating in "degraded mode".

By 2018, 48 of EdFs 58 reactors will be more than 30 years old, of which 4 will be more than 40 and due for closure. Is it successful to preside in "degraded mode" over an ageing fleet of reactors?

This argument gets thrown around a lot by the Greens.

Is there anything to these claims?
 
At least one Japanese firm hasn't lost its balls due to hysteria:

Hitachi Ltd. announced Thursday it will tie up with the provincial government of Saskatchewan, Canada, over development of nuclear energy and radiation technologies.

Hitachi and the provincial government will work on projects developing small nuclear power reactors, technology to re-collect uranium for nuclear fuel and medical technologies that use radiation.

It will be the first time since the crisis at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant that a Japanese company has established a business partnership over practical nuclear projects.

A nuclear-related business joint venture between Hitachi and General Electric will also take part in the projects.

A total of 10 million Canadian dollars (about 780 million yen) will be invested in the projects over the next five years. The parties plan to put the small nuclear reactors into practical use some time from 2023 to 2025.

There are currently 18 nuclear reactors operating in Canada, providing about 15 percent of the country's electricity.

Canada is one of the world's largest uranium producers, with all uranium in the country produced in Saskatchewan.

The development of small nuclear reactors would be a huge boon for neighboring Albertas oil sands industry.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/sns-rt-us-japan-tepcotre7882e7-20110909,0,446054.story

Sea radiation from Fukushima seen triple Tepco estimate
TOKYO (Reuters) - Radioactive material released into the sea in the Fukushima nuclear power plant crisis is more than triple the amount estimated by plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co, Japanese researchers say.

Japan's biggest utility estimated around 4,720 trillion becquerels of cesium-137 and iodine-131 was released into the Pacific Ocean between March 21 and April 30, but researchers at the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) put the amount 15,000 trillion becquerels, or terabecquerels.

Government regulations ban shipment of foodstuff containing over 500 becquerels of radioactive material per kg.
 
Do you know what a bequerel is, BD?

It is 1 atomic disintegration resulting in the emission of a radioactive particle per second.

Wanna know something that will scare the @#$% out of you? You... an average adult human being, with the average amount of naturally occurring radioisotopes in your system, will weigh in at around 8,000 to 10,000 becquerels. Your body is under a constant assault, suffering at least 700 million atomic disintegrations every day. Eating a kilogram of food that is banned in Japan will only add roughly 5% to the existing radioactivity that's in you right this second.

Eating food that is banned in Japan is completely safe by the way... the US limit is 1,200 Bq/kg.

Oh... and the 15,000 trillion Bq of radioisotopes in the pacific ocean? That's nothing compared to the 4.5 billion tonnes of uranium dissolved in Earth's seawater. We didn't do that... that's the fault of the Earth Goddess you worship, she put it there. Bitch to her about it.
 
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...and 4,720 trillion becquerels is a bunch of them.

Not in an Ocean. The Pacific has roughly 7,400,000,000,000,000,000,000 litres. That's roughly one Bq per 1,500 litres.

Not surprised that you completely missed my point.
 
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Not, really. No. In fact wind power receives more than fourteen times more subsides than nuclear does.

And what meager subsidies nuclear receives are more than used up by artificial and unnecessary factors in the construction:

Darlington was designed and built by Ontario Power Generation (then Ontario Hydro), and brought into service between 1990 and 1993 at a final cost of CDN$14.5 billion (1993 dollars). This represents almost twice the estimated final cost (capital + construction) of CDN$7.4 billion (1993 dollars) projected at the time that construction started in 1981 [1]. About 70% of this cost increase, and about 40% of the total cost, was due to interest charges alone. This arose through a stipulation of Ontario's Power Corporation Act (RSO 1990), and originating with Ontario's historic Power Commission Act (SO 1906), which precludes the paying down of capital debt through the utility's rate base, until the capital asset is in service.

The final cost of a large generating station like Darlington is thus sensitive to schedule delays. In the case of Darlington, eleven major delays (amounting to about five years of net lost time per unit) were experienced after the project's initial approval by the utility's Board of Directors in 1977 [2]. The single largest cost increase occurred in 1983, when Units 3 and 4 were deferred for two years due to low-growth in the electricity forecast. This relatively early delay in the project, along with changes in financial policy and worsening economic conditions, increased the final capital cost estimate by about CDN$4 billion, to CDN$11 billion. Reduced load growth accounted for the most significant delays to the Darlington project, but other contributors included labour actions, staff shortages, and two unforeseen technical issues requiring the replacement of generator rotors and pump impellers.

In the end about 70% of Darlington's final cost increase was due to schedule delays and financial policy changes. The remainder of the increase is attributable to changes in scope, including that imposed by an evolving regulatory environment over the course of the project.

If you could pass a law stating that once a shovel hits dirt, work goes ahead non-stop until the plant is ready for it's first fuel load, the build costs of nuclear energy would drop dramatically.

Another swing and a miss, Jihad.


Hi Ruth ;) I notice you haven't included decommissioning costs or clearing up the mess when things go wrong. Who pays for that?


Any proof for that assertion? Or just babbling what you have been told to babble?

It's interesting that you feel the need to support your arguments with childish, playground incivility and immediately resort to a conspiracy theory. What might that say about the underlying strength of your arguments?

Nuclear power is so expensive that in France the people pay half the price that we pay here in Germany, while France has about the same level of taxes, etc. Yea, must be because it's so expensive compared to renewables.

Show the numbers that prove your assertion. You know, real, existing numbers. Compare that to renewables. Can you do that?

ETA: Just as a reminder: In 2011 there will be 17 billion Euros pumped into PV alone here in Germany. PV contributed 1.1% of the overall electricity generation here in Germany in 2009. It's not much more now. 17 billion for 1.1%. In one year alone. Yea, nuclear is soooo expensive.

ETA2: Here you can see what contributes how much to the electricity generation here. 1.9% for PV. Also take a look at the table "Stromerzeugungskosten in Deutschland". There it tells you the "Gestehungskosten". That is how much it costs to produce electricity. 2.65 cent per kW/h for nuclear. 2.9 - 4.6 for wind. And 21.11 - 28.74 for PV. Nuclear is the second cheapest source, the cheapest one being lignite (Braunkohle). Funny how all the renewable sources are way more expensive than nuclear.


'MPs attack government's covert subsidies for nuclear industry
Select committee criticises attempts to hide hundreds of millions of pounds of funding as 'deeply irresponsible'
'


'Nuclear Subsidies – how the market is rigged in favour of dangerous nuclear electricity'


'The nuclear industry's secret subsidies'



1st, it allows humans a much higher quality of life.

2nd, humans who don't have a high quality of life don't care about the environment. Environmentalism is a hobby of the rich.

In addition to your apparently compulsive personalization of issues, your claims to be able to speak authoritatively on the subject matter of this thread (or anything else for that matter!) are undermined by writing propagandistic rubbish like that hilited above.

A high quality of life doesn't have to depend on high energy consumption.

 
Oh. Please. One of your source is "no2nuclearpower" you'll excuse me if I distrust a source which proheminentely announce such a bias. Try to cite independent source. But even THEM put the whole nuclear subsidy BELOW what is spent over the same time period in PV subsidy in germany.

Where are we for all that money spent in germany ? *NOWHERE*.

But frankly I give up. You luddite go play in the wood, with your few solar PV and in a situation most common man cannot afford in a lifetime, and when the **** hit the fan, I'll bet all you want you will be using the modern convenience you decry.

Me, I'll watch *your* (impersonal you) luddite decision melt down german economy , and will strongly reconsider going to other country with a more sane politics (read : reality based on what the tech can afford today) on energy and economy.
 
I notice you haven't included decommissioning costs or clearing up the mess when things go wrong. Who pays for that?

Who pays for the massive destruction and poisoning of the environment that comes with fossil fuels? Who pays for the thousands of dead people every year due to coal use?

Here in Germany decomissioning is payed for by the operators. Here in Germany they also have to pay for the mess, if things would go bad. They are forced by law to but billions into a common fund that is used as immediate money for that purpose, and beyond that, they have to pay with all they have.

It's interesting that you feel the need to support your arguments with childish, playground incivility and immediately resort to a conspiracy theory. What might that say about the underlying strength of your arguments?

It says about them that i had the right gut feeling, after all you immediately used a site called "no2nuclearpower" as a source, thus confirming where you get your arguments from.

See, you people always make many mistakes. One of them, for example, is comparing the subsidies that nuclear got during it's _whole_ existence to subsidies for, lets say, renewables. That's what they do here in Germany. They include money that goes into research of nuclear in general (yes, that includes medicine as well). They include every cent since day one. But still they fail to come up with numbers that would get close to what renewables get. Not by a long shot. Now consider that renewables did get that for much, much less time.

If anything, that would have to be compared to either a year-by-year basis for both, or compared to the kW/h produced during the selected timeframes. But they vehemently avoid doing that. You know why? Because it would make their unfounded assertions and over-inflated fantasy numbers even more ridiculous than they already look. As an random example with no relation to reality: Sure, 10 billions for nukes look more than 1 billion for renewables. But if the 10 billion were for 20 years, and the 1 billion for only one year, it would actually be 0.5 billion for nukes vs. 1 billion for renewables. And if then the nukes produce, lets say, 100 TW/h during one year, and the renewables only 10 TW/h, all of a sudden it would be only 0.05 billion for nukes vs. 1 billion for renewables.

As i have mentioned, in 2011 we are throwing 17 billion Euro at PV, a technology that makes absolutely no sense in Germany. And the operators of these PV systems get between 57,4 down to 21,1 cents per kW/h, depending on the size of the installation and what year it went online. And that for 20 years fixed since the time it went online. With absolutely no connection to real world prices. Oh, and they put none of that money into extending the grid or building storage. They are truly parasites. And who are they? They are the people who can afford to install such systems on their own roofs or on their own land. That is, all the small people have to pay insane amounts of money into the hands of a few who already have enough money to afford such installations.

See, if nuclear would be so expensive, and if they got so much subsidies, how comes that countries like France can provide electricity for almost half of the price we have, while they have comparable tax rates in general? Since they mostly use nuclear, they would have to have skyrocketing high taxes to subsidize that. But they don't. And still provide electricity for almost half the price. Care to explain how that fits together with that "nukes can only live because of the massive subsidies" stanza?

Right, it doesn't. But fact checking was never the strength of the irrational anti-nuke fraction. Really, before you talk about the strength of the arguments of others, you really should educate yourself a bit better about the topic. Using a calculator really isn't that hard, and the numbers are available. Try it one time, you will be surprised about the lies you have been told from the anti-nuke crowd. It's really eye-opening. That's what i did, and that's what changed my mind about this topic completely. I did no longer use the numbers the anti-nuke crowd was spewing, but neither used the numbers the pro-nuke folks were spewing. I simply went to the source (like the "Statistisches Bundesamt" and the "Bundesnetzagentur", among others, here in Germany) and did the calculations myself.

Really, give it a try. Do something yourself, and stop repeating what you have been told. Both sides are lying, but it's the anti-nuke folks who lie the most and completely misrepresent and twist the facts. Playing down a few billion of subsidies, like the pro-nuke folks do, is peanuts compared to what the anti-nuke folks do. Again, i highly recommend you to do the calculations on your own.

ETA: To give you an example of the dishonesty of the renewables-proponents. In the past months you could read and hear lots and lots about how the installed capacity of PV in Germany is already more than the capacity of all our nukes. Telling the people that we could just shut them all down immediately. But saying that is just not grossly misleading, it's a flat out huge lie. PV just does not produce that much at all, despite the nameplate capacity being higher. Simply because the sun does not shine long enough for that, because that would mean it has to shine 24 hours a day, no clouds ever, etc. Reality is that PV contributes only around 2% while nuclear contributes 22%. Thats 11 times more, even though the raw capacity numbers are higher for PV. But what did the folks do? They cheered and went all-so-happy about that, declaring victory and getting all smug. Reality? No, they never checked that one.

ETA2: Forgot to mention that even that 2% vs. 22% number does not reflect reality completely. Since grid operators are forced by law to feed in renewable first, disconnecting conventional plants in the process, the real numbers would be even more shifted slightly towards nuclear/coal/gas.
 
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1st, it allows humans a much higher quality of life.

2nd, humans who don't have a high quality of life don't care about the environment. Environmentalism is a hobby of the rich.
In addition to your apparently compulsive personalization of issues, your claims to be able to speak authoritatively on the subject matter of this thread (or anything else for that matter!) are undermined by writing propagandistic rubbish like that hilited above.

I'm afraid the hilighted portion is absolutely true. Compare the size and influence of the environmentalist movement in the USA (per capita GDP 47,132$), Canada (per capita GDP 46,215$) and the UK (per capita GDP 36,120$) with Somalia (600$), Bangladesh (638$) and Haiti (673$).

Poor countries don't have chapters of Greenpeace or the Sierra Club.

A high quality of life doesn't have to depend on high energy consumption.

Also not true. Quality of life is directly tied to wealth. Which is in turn tied to energy supply. Kilowatts are the only currency that you can make as much as you want and they never lose value.
 

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