There Has Been An Error!

[Doktor Howl]

BUT ITZ NUKULUR!
   \

"The only physics I ever took was ex-lax."
- Founder of the Peoples' Lobby, a CA-based anti-nuclear power organization.

[Salty]

I used to have a strong fear of nukes, sort of an irrational impulse, I suppose.

Nukes aren't the cleanest power in the world, but they are the cleanest power that can be placed anywhere.

The minor risk of an accident vs the certainty of freezing to death in the dark.  Choose.

Hey, I'm all about it. I don't want to freeze, and I especially don't want to be turned into a living pocket warmer for some gorilla with a gun.

It was an irrational fear. I got over it.

[Jasper]

Surprised nobody has mentioned this yet.  Thorium plants are the way nuclear power could have always been, but plutonium plants gave the military a ready supply of fissionable material for bombs, so that's what we went with.

Also, it's really going to have to be a variety of solutions.  The quest for the silver bullet will usually fail.

[Requia ☣]

Hmm, the one India is designing is very interesting, the thorium is exposed to plutonium to maintain the reaction.

Which means we get a double benefit of having something to do with all that plutonium waste the ancient reactors in the US put out.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

If you are really interested in solar energy or wind energy you could look into it now.

With the massive government kickbacks these things are getting you can get solar panels/shingles or wind turbines installed for close to that price now.

If you ask me, the technology that REALLY needs to catch up is energy storage (read: batteries).

THIS

A low or no-loss battery would change everything about how we work with our energy production and needs.

[Jasper]

There's no such thing as a 100% efficient battery, I'm pretty sure.  Isn't that sort of business supposed to be impossible?

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

There's no such thing as a 100% efficient battery, I'm pretty sure.  Isn't that sort of business supposed to be impossible?

Of course there is no such thing as a 100% efficient battery, or we wouldn't be having this discussion. "Impossible" according to current knowledge, yes, and probably actually impossible. However, a low-loss battery would still change EVERYTHING.

[Doktor Howl]

There's no such thing as a 100% efficient battery, I'm pretty sure.  Isn't that sort of business supposed to be impossible?

Yes, 100% efficiency is impossible.

And we're not even close.

[Doktor Howl]

There's no such thing as a 100% efficient battery, I'm pretty sure.  Isn't that sort of business supposed to be impossible?

Of course there is no such thing as a 100% efficient battery, or we wouldn't be having this discussion. "Impossible" according to current knowledge, yes, and probably actually impossible. However, a low-loss battery would still change EVERYTHING.

Actually impossible.  Entropy and conservation of energy demand their cut, no matter how small those cuts may be.

Give me a 60% efficient battery, and I will rule the world.  DO YOU HEAR ME?  THE WORLD!  MUHAHAHA!

[E.O.T.]

Nuclear power is shear insanity.

Why?

I'm not taking any heads up from the French unless it's cheese.

I tolerate pissing on the French when it's tongue-in-cheek. Please don't do it in a serious argument. I'm not sure what to make of this, but it makes you come off as a bit bigoted "hahah lol french they stink lol" They're just a country like anybody else. Would you say the same thing about China or Germany? No, if anything you'd say something you could back up with something else than just the dumbest prejudice.

Sorry I don't meant to pick on you again, but this unwarranted bitching on the French just ticks me off.

JUST FOR

          your uptight panty concerns. Yes I would. I don't consider this such a serious "argument" that i can't be light-hearted. Some of my favourite writers and philosophers are/ were French. some of my favourite smut is French. I do not think, as a nation they are exemplary in all that much, currently they seem to be Europe's California. However, all the time I spent in France was enjoyable.

AND BECAUSE

          the trail of epic disaster follows nuclear power everywhere it goes, I think it's insane to continue fucking with it.

[East Coast Hustle]

Umm, what trail of "epic disaster" are you talking about? Chernobyl? Once incident, which was the result of a shitty reactor design that's no longer in use?

Learn 2 Science. 

[E.O.T.]

Umm, what trail of "epic disaster" are you talking about? Chernobyl? Once incident, which was the result of a shitty reactor design that's no longer in use?

Learn 2 Science. 

O.K. MR. "SCIENCE"

           look into Washington.

OR

           go swimming in the Willamette.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

The biggest and best argument against nuclear energy (aside from the frequent and rather alarming "failures") is that it's really expensive. Ideally it could be cheap, but in practice it's never been.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

EOT, the Willamette is only contaminated with sewage. There's a good reason we don't eat shellfish from the mouth of the Columbia, though, or eat berries grown in the fertile floodplains. Thanks, Hanford!

http://www.doh.wa.gov/Hanford/publications/overview/columbia.html

I remember watching them haul the Trojan core upriver on a barge. Never did find out where they put it, in the end.

http://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/entry/view/trojan_nuclear_power_plant/

Worth noting that it was a huge money hole, as well. I'm still sad they demolished the cooling tower, though. That thing was neat, and a visual reminder of just how fucked-up that whole project was.

And then there's WPPS, which was merely expensive and pathetic. And Three-Mile-Island, Chernobyl, Karabolka and... well, we don't really know about all of them.

Here's a good (probably partial) list of nuclear accidents in the US: http://www.lutins.org/nukes.html

I'm not against nuclear, I just think that the human track record with it has not been very good so far.

[Jasper]

Yeah, but again, that's because so far the approach has been to use plutionium so that the military can have it's horrible byproduct for bombs.  Not all possible nuclear reactors do that.