4 thoughts on “Nuclear Plants, Despite Safety Concerns, Gain Support as Clean Energy Sources”
It is a crying shame when Governments and legislatures are in the business of determining what power source we should use.
The incident in Fukishima was a disaster however the public has been spared the dreaded release of radiation because of the excellent design of western nuclear reactors. The earthquake and resulting Tsunami were extraordinary events. One of the very most powerful quakes ever. It destroyed the switchyard and with it the redundant source of off site power. All of the reactors scrammed and EDGs took over until they were swamped by the Tsunami. All of a sudden there was no source of power for the coolant pumps.
This disaster morphed into a drastic over-reach by the NRC and regulatory requirements which sapped funds available to power companies who were planning productivity upgrades for various plants to make them more efficient and cost effective. Now they had to plan for emergencies that will never happen and then install all of the changes which amounted to tens of millions of $$ that cannot be recovered.
The nuclear regulatory requirements for new plants make it almost impossible to plan and implement a new nuclear plant. What financing agent will want to wait ten or more years for a return on investment?
To date, there is not one single health issue that is traceable to the accident at TMI yet the fear persists.
The new modular reactors are smaller and safer than ever yet….
It is a crying shame when Governments and legislatures are in the business of determining what power source we should use.
The incident in Fukishima was a disaster however the public has been spared the dreaded release of radiation because of the excellent design of western nuclear reactors. The earthquake and resulting Tsunami were extraordinary events. One of the very most powerful quakes ever. It destroyed the switchyard and with it the redundant source of off site power. All of the reactors scrammed and EDGs took over until they were swamped by the Tsunami. All of a sudden there was no source of power for the coolant pumps.
This disaster morphed into a drastic over-reach by the NRC and regulatory requirements which sapped funds available to power companies who were planning productivity upgrades for various plants to make them more efficient and cost effective. Now they had to plan for emergencies that will never happen and then install all of the changes which amounted to tens of millions of $$ that cannot be recovered.
The nuclear regulatory requirements for new plants make it almost impossible to plan and implement a new nuclear plant. What financing agent will want to wait ten or more years for a return on investment?
To date, there is not one single health issue that is traceable to the accident at TMI yet the fear persists.
The new modular reactors are smaller and safer than ever yet….
Build MSRs eGeneration.org
good news from poland: Small modular nuclear reactors to be deployed in Poland https://tallbloke.wordpress.com/2016/06/01/small-modular-nuclear-reactors-to-be-deployed-in-poland/
If we could just get government out of the stop energy development business we would have an abundance of cheap reliable energy.