Nuclear power

telegraph.hill · Joined: 09 Jul 2006 Posts: 211 Location: Leeds, England

As part of my recently completed Physics course, I had to research a topic and write a paper on it, and I chose nuclear power. I'm really glad that I chose it, because doing the research taught me just how dangerous nuclear power can be. The main problem is the disposal of the highly radioactive products of the fission.

I found loads of info at the Greenpeace website.

I reckon that the way forward is in terms of renewable energy sources such as solar, wind and wave power.

Anyone else interested in this topic?

Thumperfive · Joined: 10 Jul 2006 Posts: 55

hasn't nuclear power pretty well fallen by the wayside thanks to Chernobyl showing how BAD things can get?

are they still building new plants?

telegraph.hill · Joined: 09 Jul 2006 Posts: 211 Location: Leeds, England

Yes, I think that Chernobyl and other accidents have clearly indicated how dangerous and difficult to control the whole process is.

Unfortunately, here in the UK, the Blair government is proposing to build more nuclear power stations. Creating heat by means of nuclear fission is in itself an energy-hungry process, and the problems of disposal of the highly dangerous fission products make it even more so.

I think that groups such as Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth play an important role in highlighting these facts.

Thumperfive · Joined: 10 Jul 2006 Posts: 55

as long as they dont' go overboard - they lose me when they get too outragous and start prattling like PETA!

Dolly · Joined: 13 Jul 2006 Posts: 170

Nuclear power is heading for a big revival here in the UK.

And by the time the government and power companies have finished with price rises most people will be pleading for it back, whether it's dangerous or not.

Electricity prices here have over doubled in the last couple of years. As gas, the energy type not the full type, has.

Also with our own sources of energy diminishing, we are having to buy in from other countries, who can charge what they like.

telegraph.hill · Joined: 09 Jul 2006 Posts: 211 Location: Leeds, England

I think that's why it is important to develop the renewable sources of energy, as more nuclear power stations will mean more risk of accidents such as Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, etc, as well as an increasing stockpile of fission products that we can't get rid of.

Oh, and add to that the reprocessing plants that would be needed, plutonium particles that would end up in the air, and transport of dangerous materials.

Thumperfive · Joined: 10 Jul 2006 Posts: 55

interesting about the renewal - haven't seen much of that in the US - do you think the Brits are less enviromentally aware, then?

Dolly · Joined: 13 Jul 2006 Posts: 170

I think they are probably more environmentally aware, but when you can't afford to put the heating on, your ethics tend to fly out of the window.

It's all a bit of a con at the minute anyway and gas and electricity prices needn't be that expensive. But it is getting so difficult to funtion here that people will eventually be forced to select the cheaper alternatives - Which, I think, has been the governments game plan all the way along.

telegraph.hill · Joined: 09 Jul 2006 Posts: 211 Location: Leeds, England

I don't think people in Britain are as environmentally aware as people are in countries such as Germany, where people do a lot of recycling of their rubbish (garbage).

I don't think the nuclear power question is one of ethics, but of safety. The bits of split atom that you end up with have too many neutrons for their size, making them really unstable. So they decay giving off high energy electrons that can ionise living tissue, and cause cancer.

Also fission of U-235 produces plutonium, which is about the most poisonous substance known.

Dolly · Joined: 13 Jul 2006 Posts: 170

Your right, Germany and such countries are much more aware than us.

Trouble is with 'safe' energy, it's not, at the moment, a reliable source. My neighbour is just getting a wind turbine installed. I really don't think he's done enough research into it and is going to be very disappointed in the results. Mind you, he'd already ordered the system when I spoke to him so I wasn't going to say much.

I don't know about nuclear. There is the fear factor, but then there is also the pollution from carbon fuels as well.
I'm trying to have an open mind on it at the minute.

Now what we all really need is a cellar full of pig manure! Do you know how much heat is generated from that stuff. If only I could think of a way, not only to heat water to run around a heating system, but also to turn it off before it explodes, then I'm onto a winner!

Thumperfive · Joined: 10 Jul 2006 Posts: 55

I got a good laugh out of Ted Kennedy, one of the loudest (and largest) Liberals here in the US demanding that a wind farm NOT be placed near his home - it'd destroy his beautiful view of the sea!

what a hypocrite!

it's funny how politicians are always for things when it doesn't have any effect on them...

Dolly · Joined: 13 Jul 2006 Posts: 170

Actually, there was a very interesting programme on here just last night.

It was about Chernobyl and the after effects of the melt down.
What it showed, was that only 47 people died as a direct result of radiation poisoning.
There is evidence to suggest that low amounts of radiation actually trigger the gene that prevent cancer.

The previous assumptions on the effects of low level absorbtion had never been tested and they had only been guess work. They were able to use Chernobyl as a testing ground for the first time.

rattitude · Joined: 14 Jul 2006 Posts: 101

Nuclear power is by no means a dead issue. new plants are springing up across Europe. I understand why people go this way especially in small, highly populated countries. But if just a fraction of the research going into nuclear, coal etc went into using wind and tide the technology *would* be available for use even in these more difficult settings.

But no energy is trying free. In new Zealand hydroelectric is the main methid whivh is clean and renewable but has driven many species to extinction by totally changing the riparian environment.

Dolly · Joined: 13 Jul 2006 Posts: 170

It seems that everything has it's drawbacks.

At the end of the day most people don't care what happens as long as they have cheap power.
But those days seem to be dwindling fast.

I wish they would put more effort into wind turbines out at sea where they are most effective, but apparently companies don't want to do that because they are too expensive to erect and maintain.

telegraph.hill · Joined: 09 Jul 2006 Posts: 211 Location: Leeds, England