New Mars Forums

Official discussion forum of The Mars Society and MarsNews.com

You are not logged in.

Announcement

Announcement: This forum is accepting new registrations by emailing newmarsmember * gmail.com become a registered member. Read the Recruiting expertise for NewMars Forum topic in Meta New Mars for other information for this process.

#26 2021-12-09 05:58:03

Mars_B4_Moon
Member
Registered: 2006-03-23
Posts: 9,776

Re: Why I've Turned Against Nuclear

'NASA And China Want To Put Nuclear Reactors On The Moon, What Could Go Wrong?'
https://hothardware.com/news/nasa-and-c … n-the-moon
Biden executive order nudges US toward ‘net-zero emissions’ by 2050
https://nypost.com/2021/12/08/biden-exe … s-by-2050/
Are We At The Dawn Of A Nuclear Energy Renaissance?
https://news.yahoo.com/dawn-nuclear-ene … 10626.html

Similar propaganda ionce came from the cigarette tobacco industry, the hidden carbon subsidy Untaxed negative externality?

Maybe figures are down with Covid and the Corona Lockdowns but

How much to we pumping into the air, in kilo tons? in Mega Ton? or we pumped about 35 GIGA-Tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
https://www.extraordinaryfacility.com/seeing-co2/

GW Johnson wrote:

I saw in the discussions some fears that the reactor might fail,  I guess based on incidents like Three Mile Island,  Chernobyl,  and now Fukushima.


France has a much better track record but I guess living in a geologically active area in Japan does not help.

Last edited by Mars_B4_Moon (2021-12-09 06:45:05)

Offline

#27 2022-03-04 09:16:28

Mars_B4_Moon
Member
Registered: 2006-03-23
Posts: 9,776

Re: Why I've Turned Against Nuclear

Quoting from Spacenut's reply in the politics thread

'Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant Fire Extinguished'

'The plant is Europe's largest'

During Russian shelling a fire broke out at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and raised concerns over a potential environmental disaster.

Offline

#28 2022-03-04 11:48:52

kbd512
Administrator
Registered: 2015-01-02
Posts: 7,850

Re: Why I've Turned Against Nuclear

Mars_B4_Moon,

The only type of 24/7/365 power plant is a thermal power plant.  That means nuclear thermal, solar thermal, geothermal, or fossil fuel.  There is no technologically advanced human civilization without these power plants, and historically that always meant great suffering and short life expectancy.

           35,000,000,000t <- 35 gigatons of CO2
5,500,000,000,000,000t <- 5.5 quadrillion tons of O2/N2/Ar/CO2 mix

Should we endeavor to cut down on how much CO2 we put into the atmosphere?

Yes.

Will that happen without nuclear power?

Well, I'll put it this way.  Now that Germany has shut down their nuclear power plants, their CO2 emissions are going up, not down.  That was very predictable.  The Sun don't shine in Germany.  There's no geothermal power, either, so where is all that energy supposed to come from?

Harnessing nuclear power demands responsible users.  If the users or their next door neighbors are absurdly irresponsible, as is the case with Russia and its neighbors, then nuclear power may not be in their best interests.  This is a human-caused problem, not a problem with the technology itself.

Offline

#29 2022-05-03 04:28:07

Mars_B4_Moon
Member
Registered: 2006-03-23
Posts: 9,776

Re: Why I've Turned Against Nuclear

more politics?

Finnish group scraps nuclear plant deal with Russia's Rosatom
https://news.yahoo.com/finnish-group-sc … 58726.html

Ended a contract for the delivery of a nuclear power plant under construction
https://www.ft.com/content/5e7730b5-be5 … 7d6fb80d77

Finland's Fennovoima ends plans for Russian-built nuclear plant
https://uk.movies.yahoo.com/finlands-fe … 45809.html

Offline

#30 2022-07-26 04:29:21

Mars_B4_Moon
Member
Registered: 2006-03-23
Posts: 9,776

Re: Why I've Turned Against Nuclear

With a Tsunami and Newsheadlines, the name 'Fukushima' will hold fear for years.

High anxiety as Japan takes another step toward releasing wastewater from crippled Fukushima nuclear plant into sea
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/japan-fuku … -approved/

The water will be filtered first to remove about 60 radioactive isotopes, with the exception of tritium, which can't be extracted using existing technology.

    Tokyo has said levels of tritium — the one isotope that can't be filtered out — will be diluted to below 1/40th of the allowable level for discharge in Japan, and 1/7th the WHO ceiling for drinking water.

Perhaps having a badly designed reactor in a fault zone and so close to the sea was a bad idea

or maybe Japan could have exploited other resources, the sea, the winds, its potential geothermal resources that remained untapped why they enjoy the locals enjoy a tradition of the hot spring sauna

Offline

#31 2022-07-26 06:19:08

Calliban
Member
From: Northern England, UK
Registered: 2019-08-18
Posts: 3,789

Re: Why I've Turned Against Nuclear

They could and did build better reactors - the plants at Fukushima were some of their oldest BWRs built in the 1970s.  The incident in Japan has tended to advance further the case for passive safety in new reactor design.  But of course, older plants are what they are.  When making decisions about future energy, we attempt to balance the cost against risk.  If energy costs are too high, then economic models do not function and populations are plunged into poverty and misery.  The need to keep energy costs low and limit problems associated with supply disruptions and air pollution, is why the Japanese built nuclear reactors.

There is of course always the possibility that reactor accidents can release pollution of a different kind.  But it must be remebered that air pollution in Japan results in tens of thousands of premature deaths every year.  Far more than any nuclear accident ever will or could.  Nuclear accidents are unlikely if power reactors are intelligently designed to contend with local hazards.  Should they occur, then realistically a country is going to have contaminated land to deal with, on which background radiation doses will be higher than they otherwise would be.  Whilst that isn't ideal, we need to weigh it against the reality that burning fossil fuels gives us a pollution problem all of the time, simply by operating.  This is why the risks from fossil fuels are so much greater than from nuclear power.  With a nuclear reactor, an accident has to occur in order for radioactive pollution to reach the population.  Fossil fuel plants spew out air pollution all of the time.

If by 'other' resources, you mean renewable energy, then the Japanese already do make use of this.  But their wind and solar resources are relatively poor.  Wave and OTEC are poorly developed technologies and again, practicality of these techs varies enormously depending upon where they are built.  Geothermal is already used, but its potential is limited to specific locations and its economic potential depends upon steam quality.  This isn't something that is applicable everywhere or in infinite quantities.  Iceland derives a large portion of its electricity from geothermal.  But its population and power demand are miniscule compared to Japan.  To get the same proportion of geothermal electricity as the Icelandics, the Japanese would have to generate hundreds of times more.

Last edited by Calliban (2022-07-26 07:07:38)


"Plan and prepare for every possibility, and you will never act. It is nobler to have courage as we stumble into half the things we fear than to analyse every possible obstacle and begin nothing. Great things are achieved by embracing great dangers."

Offline

#32 2022-07-26 07:10:59

kbd512
Administrator
Registered: 2015-01-02
Posts: 7,850

Re: Why I've Turned Against Nuclear

If the site improvements were made (sea wall height and generator placement), which is what they hired the US team of evaluators and investigators to do, instead of being ignored by TEPCO on cost grounds, then Fukushima would not even be in the public lexicon of today.

Offline

#33 2022-08-07 01:36:08

Mars_B4_Moon
Member
Registered: 2006-03-23
Posts: 9,776

Re: Why I've Turned Against Nuclear

UN's nuclear watchdog warns on Ukraine plant as Russia shells 'dozens' of towns

https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/uns … /75gp1p7pi

Offline

#34 2022-08-12 10:50:08

Mars_B4_Moon
Member
Registered: 2006-03-23
Posts: 9,776

Re: Why I've Turned Against Nuclear

Very strange statement to make

'Accidents can happen at European nuclear plants too,' Russian ex-president says
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ac … 022-08-12/

Offline

#35 2022-08-25 15:44:34

Mars_B4_Moon
Member
Registered: 2006-03-23
Posts: 9,776

Re: Why I've Turned Against Nuclear

Ukrainian nuclear plant is disconnected from power grid after shelling, officials says

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/zapo … -rcna44765

Offline

#36 2023-06-16 06:18:16

Mars_B4_Moon
Member
Registered: 2006-03-23
Posts: 9,776

Re: Why I've Turned Against Nuclear

If we go to Mars will we culturally evolve? Perhaps imagine on Mars you have access to 5.7 Gigawatts but then a dictator comes along and the humans de-evolve to fighting and murdering while your power station now is at risk of dying.

The nuclear plant used water from the destroyed Nova Kakhovka dam.

The Power Station in southeastern Ukraine is the largest nuclear power plant in Europe and among the 10 largest in the world, has been under Russian occupation since 2022. Built by the Soviet Union near the city of Enerhodar, on the southern shore of the Kakhovka Reservoir on the Dnieper river, the nuclear plant used water from the destroyed Nova Kakhovka dam

The stupidity of this war and deaths and environmental disaster after Russia's invasion

'Zaporizhzhia' nuclear power plant

U.N. nuclear chief's visit to Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant delayed
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/u-n-nuclear-c … 08984.html

U.N. nuclear chief Rafael Grossi delayed a trip to the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power


'security reasons as Moscow and Kyiv reported heavy fighting in southern Ukraine.'


Grossi had been expected to visit the plant (ZNPP) in southern Ukraine

Nameplate capacity 5700 MW. Annual net output 38,000 GWh

Last edited by Mars_B4_Moon (2023-06-16 06:24:02)

Offline

#37 2023-06-16 08:40:12

Calliban
Member
From: Northern England, UK
Registered: 2019-08-18
Posts: 3,789

Re: Why I've Turned Against Nuclear

Who remembers the scene from Total Recall when dictator Vilas Copenhagen cuts off the air supply to the mutant districts?  Arnold Schwarzenegger saves the day by activating an alien terraforming machine.

Last edited by Calliban (2023-06-16 08:43:22)


"Plan and prepare for every possibility, and you will never act. It is nobler to have courage as we stumble into half the things we fear than to analyse every possible obstacle and begin nothing. Great things are achieved by embracing great dangers."

Offline

Board footer

Powered by FluxBB