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Why are Aussies so against nuclear power? | by shminux | 2006-11-20 21:46:41 |
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because there is nowhere safe to put the waste | by LilDragon | 2006-11-20 21:57:25 |
| Bah. |
by run.dll |
2006-11-20 22:16:40 |
There are viable vitrification schemes (and others) which make the waste product quite stable against migration. I don't know much about Australian geography, but I doubt that there are _no_ sites which are suitable for long term storage.
The Chernobyl accident was a special case. The RBMK reactors are nothing like modern western reactors. That kind of incident couldn't happen to a western type reactor. (Not just very unlikely, but physically impossible). I've lived with reactors next door and worked on them. People are alarmed because of the alarmists' ill-informed warnings and unscientific arguments.
TMI was the greatest nondisaster in modern human history. Number of deaths? Zero. Excess release of radioactivity? Negligible. Great press for a while, but all the scenarios trotted out in the press at the time (hydrogen bubble explosion, etc) were understood to be nonsense even at the time by people with relevant technical backgrounds.
The NIMBY attitude may result in some territories declining to host a reactor, but the end result may be that those which do may decide to use the power to promote jobs and industry at home, leaving other territories to suffer the economic consequences of relying on less appropriate means of power generation. Tnis would depend on the legal status of the national power grid.
I'm not a nuclear power booster. Each situation has to be judged on it's own merits. In any specific case the overall most appropriate technology may be hydro, fossil fuel, tidal, solar, wind, or whatever. The point is, though, that sometimes nuclear is the best option and it is a mistake to take it off the table at the outset without proper consideration along with the others. |
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[ Reply ] |
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Thanks for a good, rational reply. | by nate_t_g | 2006-11-20 22:39:09 |
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