Karen Street

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    Reid: toxic wasteland?

    Compare the relative dangers to Nevadans and the world, not counting climate change:

    • Yucca Mountain accepts nuclear waste from all over the US, perhaps from outside the US, up to its technical limit, which is much higher than its legal limit, compared with

    • Nevada keeps the smallest of its coal plants open.

    Obama has advanced the cause of science significantly, with impressive changes from the Bush times. However, he has decided to end the scientific evaluation of Yucca Mountain. (Actually, I don't understand this--if NRC's questions are going to be answered, does that mean the scientific process will continue, but the scientific evaluation will not be part of Obama's decision-making, or that Obama is ending the scientific process before it can produce a result not to his liking?)

    A Musing Environment

    Karen Street

    On Obama budget proposal would cut off funding for Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump posted 8 months, 1 week ago 8 Responses
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    tritium worries?

    Ok, guys, time to talk about something important.

    Exposure to radioactivity for someone living near a nuclear power plant is less than for someone who smoke one cigarette/year.

    A Musing Environment

    Karen Street

    On Can Obama stop the nuclear bomb in the Senate stimulus plan? (Part 1) posted 8 months, 4 weeks ago 53 Responses
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    cost comparisons

    Cost comparisons are all over the map. For those who would like to see International Energy Agency numbers, you can search on a technology, say wind, IEA, and Energy Technology Perspectives.

    Using this, I found that IEA estimates wind costs at $75 - $97 MWh for high to medium wind sites, not counting upgrading grid or backup (generally expensive natural gas). Since 2004, turbine costs increased 20 - 80%.

    I found nuclear costs to be $30 - $57/MWh. Presumably this has risen as well, with commodity costs. Transmission costs, which are lower than for wind, are not included.

    Wind should be cheaper in US than Europe due to greater capacity factor here. IEA numbers assume economic lifetime of 25 - 40 years for a nuclear power plant, which means that the rest of the 80 years or so expected lifetime with operation costs below 2 cent/kWh is gravy.

    Karen Street

    On Proposed renewable-energy bill is better than nothing posted 9 months ago 26 Responses
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    waste energy

    David,

    You're right, it's about waste energy. One problem is that that's not the argument that any of us intend to have, we all believe in using waste energy, up to a point. I visited a waste dump where the methane that used to be flared was now producing electricity, but it required a fairly substantial subsidy.

    But the numbers do come across as non-mainstream analysis, including the current percentage of electricity that comes from coal. Since we're not going to get 25% of our energy from waste, and it's not clear to me that old coal with scrubbers counts as waste, and coal with scrubbers produces more GHG/kWh than the old polluting kind, and biopower pollutes but for some reason is called clean, the question is, where is the 25% clean electricity coming from?

    I also don't believe that policy people believe in getting rid of subsidies for wind. Last I read, and this may no longer be true, a GHG tax that eliminates coal is insufficient to bring wind into the mix, and we want to bring wind into the mix. Even though wind must be subsidized, and even though wind uses fossil fuel backup (hopefully with CCS within a decade or two), it will be an important part of our energy portfolio.

    I'm not really sure we want to go back to the days when anyone laid wires--it used to be chaotic when our population was much, much smaller.

    Karen Street

    On Proposed renewable-energy bill is better than nothing posted 9 months ago 26 Responses
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    keep arguing?

    John, You haven't, so far as I know, read any link I've provided, or others, nor apparently some of your own.

    So it would not be a discussion that would follow, but another meaningless argument.

    Sorry. I will respond to your arguments if you find a way to become seriously engaged in the discussion.

    Start by reading Sustainable Energy Future: The Essential Role of Nuclear Energy, from all 12 lab directors, posted on http://change.gov/open_government/yourseatatthetable/C16/ ...

    Do you assume that a group that includes all 12 lab directors A) has studied the issue, and B) makes sure the i's are dotted before writing such a report? Let me know after you read the report.

    Karen Street

    On Can Obama stop the nuclear bomb in the Senate stimulus plan? (Part 1) posted 9 months ago 53 Responses
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