Labor MP's want nuclear power debate

[Bronze_D]

to give a rough idea on how much difference in output u'd get from the plants, a single geothermal plant can produce 40-170 MW, really dependent on the wells location (some produce only several MW even)

they can compensate this by having multiple plants in a rich area...

the largest i know of is a complex that had 22 plants, with a total of 1500 MW maximum output.

in comparison, a single modern ABWR nuclear plant reactor has a maximum output of 1350 MW, some of the more advanced models in excess of 1500 MW... and that's from one single reactor, a single nuclear power plant usually have several reactors installed.

[TRB]

There are three reasons I would replace coal with nuclear.
1. We have the stuff and we don't have to sell it to China.
2. Less polluting than coal power. Possibly safer to mine as well.
3. Nuclear medicine.

1. "we" don't have anything, the rights are largely owned by companies who've likely already locked in contracts of sale for many years to come.
2. could be said of just about any electricity generation when compared to coal with the exception of petroleum based fuels.
3. We already have a reactor for that, you don't need 15 reactors in NSW alone to make meds.

[André Axe'm]

Oh that was a rhetorical question then...

[Ralph Wiggum]

I'm pretty sure Thorium based Nuclear Power Plants were brought up some time ago, but this is interesting:

Safe nuclear does exist, and China is leading the way with thorium

A few weeks before the tsunami struck Fukushima’s uranium reactors and shattered public faith in nuclear power, China revealed that it was launching a rival technology to build a safer, cleaner, and ultimately cheaper network of reactors based on thorium.This passed unnoticed –except by a small of band of thorium enthusiasts – but it may mark the passage of strategic leadership in energy policy from an inert and status-quo West to a rising technological power willing to break the mould.

If China’s dash for thorium power succeeds, it will vastly alter the global energy landscape and may avert a calamitous conflict over resources as Asia’s industrial revolutions clash head-on with the West’s entrenched consumption.

China’s Academy of Sciences said it had chosen a “thorium-based molten salt reactor system”. The liquid fuel idea was pioneered by US physicists at Oak Ridge National Lab in the 1960s, but the US has long since dropped the ball. Further evidence of Barack `Obama’s “Sputnik moment”, you could say.

Chinese scientists claim that hazardous waste will be a thousand times less than with uranium. The system is inherently less prone to disaster.

Link to rest of article

[Lurk]

viewtopic.php?p=2384385#p2384385
viewtopic.php?p=2406732#p2406732

[Ralph Wiggum]

Ah Well just to emphasise the point then

[drallim]

Wayne19540, with all the fearmongering that happen with anything nuclear, it has extremely good safeguards. You have nothing to worry about from being near a nuclear power plant.

Tell that to the 20km radius worth of japanese who can't go home.

[André Axe'm]

sigh

That would be the safeguards saying they can't go home...

Why is evacuating just in case something really bad happens seen as a failure of safety?

[Lurk]

To most people, safety is not having to do anything to make things safer or to take precautions.


If you go onto a building site but need a hardhat and boots as a precaution, people think that's obviously not safe and ridiculously dangerous.

[Bronze_D]

if you interpret it another way though he might mean that if it was another type of power plant, there wouldn't be a precaution needed to evacuate such a large area.

which is a fair point though unfortunately it falls on 2 part, 1 would be that in the event of a catastrophic failure of a power plant of say coal... they'd still have to evacuate the surrounding population as well since coal's plant byproduct is equally toxic and dangerous to environment.

2nd would be that in order to replace a single nuclear plant with the equivalent in coal or gas would require several plants to match the output capacity, which potentially exacerbates the 1st point. 1 Nuclear plant next to you, or 5 coal plant all around you... take your pick.

oh but any other type of power plant will not suffer such catastrophic failure they might argue, which they are PERFECTLY free to claim once such power plant survive an 8.9 earthquake and 6 meter high tsunami.

[André Axe'm]

One could also say that it is safe for those people to go home. (assuming there is adequate shelter and clean water available after the earthquake/tsunami)
The radiation level is low enough there to be unlikely to cause issues. As long as they take iodine tablets when needed they should be fine.

[TRB]

Except you can just shut off any other kind of plant within minutes.
No other system requires the dumping of 11tons of radioactive water weeks after the event because the reactor is still in runaway mode.


You'd have to wonder what kind of retard builds a nuclear reactor near known fault lines on the coast and then doesn't even build it to handle 8.9, seeing as there is on average 1 8.9 earthquake somewhere in the world every year.

[André Axe'm]

The reactor is in shutdown mode.

The earthquake didn't damage the reactor.
The tsunami didn't knock out the reactor, just the diesel backup generators. (which should have been protected anyway)

[Lurk]

Except you can just shut off any other kind of plant within minutes.
No other system requires the dumping of 11tons of radioactive water weeks after the event because the reactor is still in runaway mode.


You'd have to wonder what kind of retard builds a nuclear reactor near known fault lines on the coast and then doesn't even build it to handle 8.9, seeing as there is on average 1 8.9 earthquake somewhere in the world every year.

I love how you make that sound like a rational argument. Well played.

[BBlunt]

...doesn't even build it to handle 8.9, seeing as there is on average 1 8.9 earthquake somewhere in the world every year.

Really, I can only find reference to 9 of 8.9 or above in the last 200 years!