Comments eilonwy has made

skeptic or fundamentalist?

For R&E, that's 30 years of efficiency improvements, grid upgrades, R&D on thin-film solar and wave energy and batteries, deployment of solar thermal and solar PV and geothermal and offshore wind, domestic job creation, and behavioral changes as communities adjust themselves to increasing energy independence.

If you were an investor, where would you put your money?

First of all the life of modern nuclear plants would probably be 50 years or so minimum.  I wish you had the courage to just openly admit you favor renewables for the fairly radical social and economic changes they entail.  I find anti-corporate sentiment (not immune myself at times) lurking in many nuclear 'skeptics' (is your mind really open?).  While 'a nation of small wind/solar farmers' may appeals to you and me, do you think this vision will apeeal to Wall Street and Co.  They're going to follow the proven base-load, centralized, corporate approach until some day when renewables can compete or defeat the corporate energy sector without subsidies.

Perhaps you think nuclear will win that race, but is there any good reason we're pouring billions of dollars into the first option and a pittance into the latter?

Why do anti-nuclear environmentalist insist on seeing a competition?  Maybe both technogical areas should both receive billions while spending less on utterly useless things the government pours money into.  Unless you have a completely arrogant and unfounded belief in the absolute ability to deploy renewables on a scale to replace fossil fuel in the 50-60 years why would you handicap what is currently the most wide-spread and proven non-fossil technology? On It ain't just 'beat coal' posted 2 years, 9 months ago 28 Responses

pot calling kettle

"I'm the scientist, you're the romantic" amounts to "I'm right, you're wrong, nyah nyah." Such things are not settled by edict.

Romanticism (perhaps more aptly post-modern thinking) does rule the current political climate in Western nations and I find opposition to nuclear power takes on a quasi-religious tone for many.  It is just like with Evolution where arguments based on tradition and superstition are held up by the media and politicians as being equally worthy of 'respect' regardless of the quality of evidence.

For all your smug posturing, you present no facts in favor of your position, nor verifiable claims.  Worse, you create a ridiculous straw man of a 'scientist' and pro-nuclear environmentalist with no evidence in tow, so regardez vous:
http://www.uic.com.au/nip43.htm

"The fearful don't make history. History passes them by."

That's why many environmentalists are giving nuclear a new look. rather than letting fear as opposed to rational thinking dictate the course of action.  I have never seen a nuclear engineer whip up fear in a lecture or article, whereas fear-mongering is the stock-and-trade of Greenpeace and co (just do a google images search on 'nuclear protest' and the like).

Only terrorism in a post-9/11 environment has come to rival nuclear energy in terms of being the subject of irrational, wide-spread fear.  Never mind that terrorists killed 3000 on 9/11 alone whereas less than 60 people have been conclusively shown to have died from Chernobyl in 1986 (and 0 from Three Mile Island).  Even if the 9000 or so cancer deaths predicted by the WHO as a result of Chernobyl prove true, how long does it take coal, car accidents, lightening or 'accidents involving furniture' over a 20+ year period to claim as many lives?  Look it up:
http://www.nsc.org/lrs/statinfo/odds.htm

I like renewable technologies, especially photovoltaics, and would like to see nuclear fission be unnecessary to harness some day, but that day is likely long off and nuclear is the only proven and throughly studied technology capable of replacing coal.  I have more faith in finding new uranium resources and re-processing fuel than 50 million giant wind-turbines sprining up in the U.S (and what are the unknowns in that scenario?).On Sigh posted 2 years, 9 months ago 22 Responses