Energy

[Tahoe]

I have no idea how to start this thread of if its worth of the bytes it takes up, but...

I was surprised to hear that France is now selling some of its power to Britain. France might be the leader in nuclear power. China is up there too. When the oil crunch happened in the 70s, they started their nuclear power endeavor and it worked out fine for them.

The good ol US did not pursue it, imo, cuz it listened to the protests. 3 mile island happened in the 70s and it was a big no no for a while.

So now we need to get that going again. I read where the application fee is 25 million in the US. Nice. Also that the Nuclear regulatory dept or something staff has increased. Well there hasn't been an application for a new Plant since the early 70s. So I'm sure the peeps that do the applications have made a nice living over the last 30 years. Hope they weren't too busy.

Thats enough for now.

[Big Swami]

Because all of our plants are either torn down or out of date, nuclear energy isn't really going to be that cheap for a while. It takes a lot of money to put up those plants. The good news is that there is demand for it, but you know how the energy companies work - they only provide just slightly less than what's needed, so they can artificially inflate the demand.

[Tahoe]

We need to get started on it nonetheless. I didn't want this to turn in the Iraq thread, but if what peeps say that we are there for the oil, NEnergy could help us out, right?

Apparently the Gov't has agreed to back the loans to build plants. But the Gov't should friggin streamline itself so it can be done immediately. If we can send our kids to war, then we can wave the fucking 25million dollar application fee for chrissakes.

Wouldn't/shouldn't this be considered in the National Interest of our country or whatever that saying is?

[Uncle Mxy]

Few states want the plants and even fewer want the toxic waste. Chernobyl didn't help matters much.

I had family members stuck in Hershey, PA owing to Three Mile Island, and I ate the radioactive chocolate to prove it.

[Tahoe]

I don't know much about how electricity is produced but the thing I read said there are bad things with every source of energy.

Coal? Air pollution, etc.

We can't stop cuz of 3mi Island. We didn't stop exploring space when the first astronaut died.

[Big Swami]

See? That's what I'm talking about. America. We don't puss out and produce weeks worth of television mourning tributes just because a few (very brave) people sacrifice their lives for progress. We keep rolling. That's what makes America great. We get up in the morning and go to work.

[cruscott35]

The libbies are so funny, they hate that we are dependent on oil, but they snuffed out the nuclear power thing years ago. Yes, you're right, there hasn't been a new application for a nuke plant since 3 mile island, and really, that incident was no big deal. There was a containment issue, released a few fission products into the air, but it wasn't a public health issue until the libbies made it seem like one.

[Uncle Mxy]

The anti-nuke stuff started well before Three Mile Island. Three Mile Island just validated their concerns, and came on the heels of The China Syndrome movie. It was the nuclear power industry's perfect storm.

Cleanup of the power plant itself afterwards was a public health issue. It could've easily been wider-scale, though. There were a ton of wrong turns that could've easily been taken. The fear that "we don't really know what we're doing" was justified.

Few are totally opposed to nuclear power, as long as it's in someone else's back yard. That's the biggest issue.

[Tahoe]

I'm gonna go ahead and disagree that few are opposed...

Maybe now...and thats what I'm saying originally. The lefties were out in force protesting this stuff. Now they've come around.

[Uncle Mxy]

First, you hear one kind of food is bad for you. Don't eat that.

Then, you hear that another type of food is bad for you. Don't eat that, either.

Eventually, you come to realize that everything is bad for you, and you say "fuck it" and do what you want.

I think that's where energy consumption is going today. You burn oil, and you get global warming and smog. You do nuclear, and you get waste products with scary half-lifes. Grow enough corn for ethanol, and deplete the soil. Solar, wind, and water are unpredictable and inefficient. It's all bad for you,