I am a University student studying Engineering in Alberta Canada and here it’s all about OIL everyone wants oil but no one around here takes the time to think about how much that will impact us drilling up our famed tarsands is going to do more damage to Alberta’s environment then even a nuclear meltdown could do!

Nuclear has it’s dangers but doesn’t all new technology? Nuclear has only been around for a few decades and it has spent most of that time being shunned and feared and as such not studied… The more we oppress a technology due to fear the longer it will take to make it safe…

A

I sure hope people like you aren’t in charge of the energy production in the US.

Since a couple of people have expressed their opinions against Nuclear energy in the posts, I will take the liberty to do the same thing.

Nuclear energy is the safest, cleanest and most efficient form of energy we can get. Chernobyl was a fuck-up by the Russians. The hype that radiation is horribly deadly (and some studies that support tha cancer/radiation correlation) are quite biased. We’re bombarded by a lot more radiation from the sun, and many other sources.

Alas, for now, there are alternatives to using nuclear power, even though those alternatives aren’t better, they’re still able to match the cheapness and effectiveness of Nuclear power. In the future, however, many of these will run out, and we will be left with few choices. And, no, Solar energy isn’t going to be one of them, unless we get solar panels that derive _more_ than 80% efficiency (I belive currently the mass-produced ones have around 10% efficiency). Economic viability is the key here. If a solar panel cannot provide the energy it takes to produce it, plus extra to supply to humanity, then it is a net loss.

I am not against trying alternatives. Present me with an efficient solar panel, and I will accept it. Wind turbines have become greatly more efficient, and as we can see, they are employed a lot in the US. There is still insufficient land area to provide all the needed energy from just turbines.

Nuclear power will remain a quite effienct source of energy, but what I am really looking forward to is Fusion reactors – and I don’t know how you’ll feel about this, but its the next logical step.

As for the saftey of nuclear power.. There have been great engineering imporovements in plant-production over the past 15 years – not just in the Nuclear field. However, because of people who protest nuclear power, no new plants have been build in the US since the 1970s. Essentially, we are forced to use old and less safe plants because of people’s fear of Nuclear power. Besides Chernobyl, which, again, was a fuck up from the government, the only other significant incident comes from Three Mile Island. As far as that, a source from wikipedia states : “The average radiation dose to people living within ten miles of the plant was eight millirem, and no more than 100 millirem to any single individual. Eight millirem is about equal to a chest X-ray, and 100 millirem is about a third of the average background level of radiation received by US residents in a year.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Mile_Island_accident#Health_effects_and_epidemiology

I emplore you to try and research some of the positive sides of Nuclear energy, and to see if it really is worth it to not have any nuclear reactors. Fear of the unknown is often an issue, but radiation isn’t as dangerous as people fear it to be.

Good day.

I am an architect living in the US. I completely agree with you on all of the points you mention. Nuclear energy is, perhaps, mankinds greatest blunder. It is a really bad idea executed on a gigantic scale.

By using nuclear energy, we are forcing our descendants to be the stewards of our nuclear waste. They have no choice.

With no long term solution in sight, is leaving a legacy of nuclear waste fair to the unborn generations of the future, all because we will not change our light bulbs and use efficient appliances?

Nonetheless, the idiots are looking to pick-up where they left off. We are going to have to strike up the band to derail the oncoming train, just like we did in the 1970’s

See you on the street and thanks for keeping up the fight.