Having worked in the field now for about 12 years, I was wondering what everyone's take is on nuclear power. I work at a power plant in the NE U.S. and I hear many different viewpoints concerning it. I have found that most poeple are unaware of what the 'real deal' is. The media feeds poeple what they want to hear and then opinions are formed based on that. What are your feelings about nuclear power? Are you afraid? Do you feel safe? Do you think it's the best way to generate electricity? What do you know about it? What would you like to know about it? Feel free to PM me with any particular questions you might have, I will do my best to answer them the best I can. Justin
nuclear power, despite the media horror stories and scaremongering is a perfectly good engineering solution to the problem of providing efficient power for our society. providing the engineers and technical staff are given sufficient lattitude with regard to funding then there is no reason for any problems to occur. problems, such as the chernobel incident, only occur when the safety factors are neglected, if the safety procedures are followed in accordance with the govt regulations, then there is no real problem, other than the dangers associated with the contaminated waste products the nuclear process' produce. However, these by-products can be re-processed and made safe, providing there is the political will to ensure this re-processing is carried out sensibly and the public is reliably informed as to the lack of direct risk. it is the unfortunate consequence of well-meaning people who are ignorant with regard to the facts which has halted the further development of nuclear power within the UK and we will soon be facing an energy crisis as a result. Nuclear power is not a nuclear weapon, but the word 'nuclear' is loaded with such emotion that the general public can seldom differentiate between nuclear process' capable of solving the problems of powering our society and those which have been developed to destroy our society. As we are now not building new nuclear power stations in the UK, we are still reliant upon the burning of fossil fuels for the majority of our electricity and spending vast sums trying to make wind/wave power etc work as a viable alternative to nuclear power. And we still have the problem of middle class do-gooders who complain when the wind-farm spoils their view from the bedroom window!!! Just as they complain when material encased in vast concrete tombs needs to be buried somewhere. Instead of turning off lights and saving energy, they consume vast quantities of electricity with no regard for where it comes from and then proceed to bitch about the environmental problems our government cannot solve without the public taking responsibility for the energy consumption in their own homes. the green loby should be ashamed of themselves for turning a potentially workable solution for the global energy needs into a bogey-man which is no more real than the monster which hid under my bed when I was a toddler!! I could write about this subject all day, but I think you get my point
oh, and before anyone waves the 'Sellafield' stick at me, this in one of the few re-processing plants in the world, and the UK takes more than its fair share of the worlds radioactive waste and does a bloody good job at making it safe. The media don't aknowledge this of course. Instead, every minor incident is blown out of all proportion and the technical staff get the blame, instead of the beuracrats who pander to the misguided outrage of our 'Daily Mail' mentality idiots, who actually cause the damned problems with their pathetic cost-cutting methods! And then you get the idiots from greenpeace who think that breaking into a nuclear re-processing plant dressed in luminous green is a good way to instigate change. NO! It is a good way to magnify the dangers they claim to be so damned concerned about!! IDIOTS!!
Unless we as a first world nation decide to get serious about alternative energy, we're going to end up living in a cave. Nuclear energy is the only cheap, reasonable source of energy left in a world thats quickly running out of oil. Until the environmentalists can come up with another source, and fast, we're in big trouble.
Hehehe, I gotta say I agree with you here, I did my work experience at Sellafield in their waste management department!!
i assume you now have four arms, three noses and webbed feet? ooops, just caught the psychic wave of a daily mail reader there !!
I feel nuclear power is a viable alternative too fossil fules as a source of power, however, the security needs to be taken very seriosaly, not just from faults but from terrorist attacks and the likes. A better method of desposing of the waste needs to be created as well, not just dumping it in the bottom of the sea or blasting it into space (or whatever else happens ). I'm not entierly sure on the ways the waste is desposed, but whatever happens to it cant be good. I know this probably wont happen, but I think that alot more emphsis should be put on sources of energy such as wind or tidal, we have the money, and it would be a step in the right direction. If Britain was totaly self sufficiant when it came to energy, with minimal fossil fule use and an emphisis on renewable sources then we would be in a much better state when the fossil fules eventualy run out. Hope that made sense, I have a habit of rambling on this topic
daydreamer, you make a good point about security. it is unlikely that terrorists can make an actual nuclear device, but contaminated waste can be wrapped around a conventional explosive and can create real problems if blown in a high population area. but here we have problems with the liberal 'freedom of information' do-gooders nuclear waste is routinely moved around the world by cargo ships under a blanket of secrecy. That blanket is to minimise the danger of it being hi-jacked. Yet we have elements in the media/society who feel it is the general publics god-given right to know every detail about everything nuclear. While their intentions may seem honourable, it is dangerous and stupid to advertise the whereabouts of such potentially dangerous material prior to it being re-processed. Society has secrets to PROTECT the population, not just to cover-up things which are ethically questionable. People should be educated by the media, not terrified by it and whipped into a frenzy of indignant rage without the full picture being presented. This in itself is a form of covert terrorism as peoples peace of mind is damaged and groups such as greenpeace, while trying to make the world safer are in danger of playing into the hands of the most deplorable individuals and groups who have no other motivation than to spread chaos and confusion. Of course, sustainable, safe energy is to be prefered over any form of power generation which has the chance to cause environmental problems, but there is a lack of political will to inject sufficient funding to fully develop wind or tidal energy technologies. Until our leaders grow some cajones and tackle these problems head on we face a bleak future as the fossil fuels run out, nuclear power is continually discredited and the new potential forms of energy remain underdeveloped. We'll all be sorry when the lights start going out!
There is a Nuclear power-plant just down the road from me (nowt major), at Hartlepool. Down in Teeside though, there is ICI and loads of other petrochemical places. Which am I most scared of? Teeside going up, because the nuclear plant has a waaaaay better safety record than Teeside has.
eh...nuclear power aint nothing, i read a book scifi, that spoke of antimatter being used as an energy source, 100% efficient, .000000000000000001 gram is enough to power NY for one day, now theres a thought, back on topic, well, i guess nuclear power is an ok solution, but its dangerous, and so is everything else. Cars-exhaust-greenhouse-plants die-people die-end of the world..... There are many other major problems that could be prevented or imrpoved upon, there haven't been alot of nuclear power accidents( not to say they arent brutal) but imrovements are made upon that, and the benefit is much greater than the cost to maintain a nuclear power plant.
I personally live within one hour of three different nuclear power plants and two coal fired plants. Almost everyone in this area prefers the nuclear.
even nuclear fusion, if they ever get it working right, will have it's dangers. anything that involves creating the amount of energy that the world now needs is going to carry a certain inherent risk, it's a hole we've dug ourselves into and we're unlikely to ever get out of.
I’ve worked Nuclear Power for over 25 years. I’ve worked repairing components and refueling reactors on U.S. navel ships. I now work as a supervisor overseeing the refueling process. The media in general knows very little when it comes to Nuclear Power. I read and hear things from reporters that make them sound very uneducated on the simplest of things when talking about Nuclear Power. One example I have heard is a reporter saying that a worker got radiation on them. If you don’t know the simple difference between radiation and contamination then you surly can not understand much about Nuclear Power. There are a lot of people in the general public that believe they know what they are talking about when it comes to Nuclear Power but, their entire education comes from the media and others who have very little education in Nuclear Power. I also will be glad to answer any questions that I can about Nuclear Power.
I've been involved at looking into deep waste disposal for the nuclear industry and once again the process got hijacked by the greens who managed to not provide an alternative solution but just scuppered the scientific investigations going on. One of the key issues is containment of the radioactivity vs dispersion i.e. if and when it gets out into the environment. Say a nuclear waste disposal facility leaks very low levels of waste over a long period of time but the leaked material is indistinguishable from background radiation - is that technically a problem? Also, many granites around the world emit radon which is particular hazard in SW England and parts of Scotland. As long as you have proper ventilation it's not a problem but it's radioactivity that people have lived with since humans migrated to Britain and if it was really bad, no-one would be living in those areas. Ive lived in both and I'm alright - honest :Alien: Sellafield is OK since the Windscale days but there were a few more dodgy things going on at Dounreay in the past However, I would be more worried about what comes out of rusting Russian nuclear subs than I would about Sellafield or any other nuclear installation inthe UK.
Hear hear. In the eyes of the public the word radioactivity conjures up scary green things and mutated animals. Yes it's dangerous but so are electricity petrol if you don't treat them right. The fundamental problems are decomissioning and waste disposal because you can't neutralise radioactivity - just wait a very long time for it to decay. We've come a long way in radioactivity safety since the Curies kept lumps of highly radioactive material in their desks and people had radium parlours for taking in the health giving delights of radiation!
xenmaster: I was assuming that you saw the same program on the news that I had, it was a minor thing saying that none of the three political parties will take a solid stance on the issue (Surprise surprise). Regarding the ;liberal comment I have had a better idea, instead of blaming the "right wing nuts" or the "wishy washy liberals" let us instead berate: "Idiots" as this gets them all
