Comments WineDrkSea has made

Don't worry too much about that Zogby poll

Colin,

I'm not a big Hillary supporter, but Zogby's online polls are not thought to be very sound methodologically. It's worth noting that the same day as that poll came out and got major media play, a Gallup poll showing Clinton beating her Republican challengers got little or no media play. For more details, see:

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/horsesmouth/2007/11/medi ...On The next president needs to move with speed and clear vision on mitigating climate change posted 2 years ago 10 Responses

Are Nukes the Answer?

You advocate nuclear power to mitigate the problems of CO2 while decrying short-term thinking driving long-term policy decisions. This seems problematic to me for several reasons.

Most obviously, while you are correct to point out analogies between sequestering CO2 indefinitely and radioactive waste, the fact is no one has successfully demonstrated long-term storage of large amounts of high level radioactive waste. See Mountain, Yucca. The cost estimates for the Yucca Mountain facility keep going up geometrically, while the opening date recedes constantly. All this for a facility, if it were ever to actually open, that would  only be able to handle waste for the relative handful of nuke plants we have now for couple of decades at most. After that, it shuts down and we start the process over again.

Then there is the issue of fuel. I don't have the cites handy, but it's my understanding that there isn't enough world supply of uranium ore for nukes to be a major source of energy. Unless perhaps breeder nuclear reactor technology is used, which has its own set of problems: excess supplies of fissile plutonium, with attendant worries of nuclear proliferation and possible nuclear holocaust.

And, according to Amory Lovins at least, there is the issue of cost. Yeah, I know, dirty coal is cheap, but Lovins claims that, other technologies are better and cheaper, even if you don't count waste fuel disposal costs for nuclear.

Believe it or not, I'm not unalterably opposed to nuclear power. It may, and I think it probably will, be a small piece of the puzzle. But when it gets trotted out as a major answer to climate change, as it appears you have here, I do wonder if all the costs are being considered. On A strong and realistic energy policy is not dependent on any one fuel, technology, or supplier posted 2 years ago 22 Responses