Nuclear power? Yes please...

[Flagg]

Read these articles today in The Independent, pretty good I thought. Here they are online:

http://www.istockanalyst.com/article...icleid/3059591

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion...r-1629354.html

Basically, in a huge U-Turn, a lot of enviornmentalists and greenpeace are finally waking up to the idea of Nuclear Power in the UK. Stephen Tindale former director of Greenpeace, Lord Chris Smith Chairman of the Environmental Agency, Mark Lynas author of the Royal Societies science book of the year and Chris Goodall, a Green Party Activist are all lobying for Nuclear power.

This pleases me. I study Environmental Science, and even though a lot of people think that equates to hippy, i've always been Pro Nuclear power. While I dont think it's a permanant longterm solution, I think its the only option Britian has now. Personally I think Solar Power is the future, but for now..Nuclear Power? Yes please.

Pity Johan isn't around anymore, im sure this would interest him.

[Kratos]

I'm a big fan of nuclear as long as they can sort or the waste disposal
in the US the answer may or may not be yucca mountain
I think currently some fault line is holding things up or something

I don't see why nuclear couldn't be a long term soloution. Solar could only ever be represented as a percentage of the power grid. Because of variations in available sun and off peak nightime people still use some power.

I'd like to see some PR done to move people away from fossil fuel heat in their homes in favor of electric. Oil heat seems so primative when you're already piping electric in. Why burn up all that sweet oil that could be better used in other ways?

[Flagg]

I'm a big fan of nuclear as long as they can sort or the waste disposal
in the US the answer may or may not be yucca mountain
I think currently some fault line is holding things up or something

I don't see why nuclear couldn't be a long term soloution. Solar could only ever be represented as a percentage of the power grid. Because of variations in available sun and off peak nightime people still use some power.

I'd like to see some PR done to move people away from fossil fuel heat in their homes in favor of electric. Oil heat seems so primative when you're already piping electric in. Why burn up all that sweet oil that could be better used in other ways?

The things that worry me about Nuclear powerstations is the cost. It can cost anything up to a half a billion pounds to decommision one of those babies. Then there is waste, and also can you imagine if everyone was just relying on loads of Nuclear powerplants? As safe proof as they are, the law of averages would dictate that somewhere, one could **** up in the worst possible way. Im sure the Safeguards today are much better than implimented in the Chenoble Disaster but it makes me wonder.
I read in Scientific America about a rather ambitious project in the States called the Great Solar Plan, which proposed that by the end of the century, 90% of all energy could be supplied to the National Grid by photovoltaic cells. Again though, this technology is expensive (420 billion dollars in subsidies to fund the infrastructure and make it cost-effective between 2011 -2050) but it also came up with a package on how the costs could be met. . Like the article quotes: "The cost is substantial but the payoff is greater"

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=a-solar-grand-plan

It also goes on to state how you would be able to supply energy during nightime or cloudy days, involving underground hydroturbines and compressed air.
The Japs have even been talking about making Orbital Solar Power plants in space.