10% of all U.S. electricity comes from reprocessed Russian warheads.

[wtmusic]

3 times as much as from wind turbines; 10 times as much as from all solar.

Nuclear power is doing more to de-weaponize the world than any other thing that we do. - Stewart Brand in "Pandora's Promise"

"One of the least understood features of nuclear power plants is that they consume materials that might otherwise end up in nuclear weapons. Of course, activists that battle the use of nuclear energy generally try to turn that feature into a fault. They have convinced more than a few people that without nuclear power plants, the naturally-occurring material used to produce weapons would not be available.

They neglect the fact that the only two nuclear weapons ever used to harm people were created at least a dozen years before the first electricity producing nuclear reactor.

I wonder how many people really understand that about 10% of the electricity in the United States during the past 20 years has come from decommissioning nuclear weapons and turning the material into heat and elements that will never again be able to fission?"

Video at link.

http://atomicinsights.com/clip-from-pandoras-promise-explains-swords-to-plowshares/

[upaloopa]

1. So if Diablo Canyon up the road from me has disaster

like in Japan spreading radiation all over the Central Coast of CA I can be happy the nuclear material didn't kill me in the form of a bomb.

[wtmusic]

2. Absolutely.

If CA has an earthquake like Japan you're much more likely to die from that, so if you're that fearful you really should move away.

Earthquake/Tsunami 18,000 deaths
Fukushima radiation 0 deaths
American coal production 15,000 deaths every year
Climate change 150,000 deaths every year

[CreekDog]

3. so a little land and ocean near Fukushima got contaminated as a result, so what!

Japan has TONS and TONS of land.

[hunter]

6. Global warming will eat more land as the seas rise and the climate changes.

No good answers here.

[FBaggins]

7. The tsunami did quite a number on the countryside as well.

300,000 people still homeless... but let's just pretend that everything is back to normal except for the tiny areas impacted by falling radiation levels and preparations to return.

[CreekDog]

8. nuclear energy doesn't stop the sea from rising

[FBaggins]

9. Of course it does

Unless you don't buy into climate change?

[CreekDog]

10. Frodo Baggins was a Hobbit who left the shire to save nuclear energy from the evil environmentalists

dang. still doesn't work.

needs more tweaking to be plausible.

[hunter]

11. Let's put it this way...

... San Onofre, Diablo Canyon, and Palo Verde would have been replaced by coal fired plants, probably in Arizona or other states with less stringent environmental regulations.

That would have been worse than what we got. That's the choice the Germans have made -- to replace nuclear with coal. Solar and wind are a side show. Look! Sexy dancers! Pay no attention to that dirty old man coal.

In the USA solar is not so bad because it coincides somewhat with air conditioning loads. Wind energy has to be backed up pretty much one-to-one with nimble gas fired power plants since the strongest wind outputs do not generally coincide with demand.

I'm some kind of Luddite, I'd simply ban the use of coal. Leave coal in the ground, outlaw its use for power generation, and let the economy crash so long as people have homes, food, and medical care. Of course that would be socialism but I'm good with that.

It's the cult of Excel spreadsheet "economic productivity" and capitalism that got us into this mess and it's past time let this cult die. Free markets are great up until the point they start killing and maiming people and destroying our natural environment. They are killing and maiming people and destroying our natural environment. There's a "sweet spot" for free markets which is probably less than 49% of the entire market. Beyond that capitalism becomes cancerous and corrupt. Socialism can go rotten too, but it's less about the percentage market share. Small and medium scale free markets are a necessity in any free society. It's within the monster corporations and among the uber-wealthy where things go horribly, horribly wrong.

Realistically, most people are not ready for radical solutions. Therefore, given a choice, I'd rather live next to a modern nuclear plant than a fossil fuel plant, coal mine, or gas fracking field.

We could design and build nuclear power plants today that used nothing but old nuclear weapons, "spent" nuclear fuel, depleted uranium, and mining wastes, which would give us a few hundred years to decide as a species what we really want to be.

Today we're just dumb animals eating fossil fuels. If we live like dumb animals many of us will die like dumb animals. Exponential population growth inevitably ends with a horrendous crash.

[CreekDog]

12. So is nuclear energy in Germany a "sideshow"? --it's a lesser share of energy than renewables now

is nuclear A SIDESHOW A SIDESHOW A SIDESHOW!

Well, sir, there's nothing on earth Like a genuine, bona fide Electrified, Nuclear Power Plant!,
What'd I say?
Nuclear Power Plant!
What's it called?
Nuclear Power Plant!
That's right! Nuclear Power Plant!
Nuclear Power Plant! Nuclear Power Plant! Nuclear Power Plant!
I hear those things are awfully loud
It idles as quietly as a cloud
Is there a chance the fuel rods could bend?
Not on your life, my Hindu friend
What about us brain-dead slobs?
You'll be given cushy jobs
Were you sent here by the Devil?
No, good sir, I'm on the level
The ring came off my pudding can
Take my pen knife, my good man
I swear it's Springfield's only choice, Throw up your hands and raise your voice
Nuclear Power Plant!
What's it called?
Nuclear Power Plant!
Once again
Nuclear Power Plant!
But Main Street's still all cracked and broken
Sorry, Mom, the mob has spoken
Nuclear Power Plant!
Nuclear Power Plant!
Nuclear Power Plant!
Nuclear Pow- , d'oh!

[hunter]

13. Hell yes, it's a sideshow.

Fuck fossil fuels.

[CreekDog]

14. So why invest in nuclear if it's a side show?

i don't get it.

in Germany, nuclear is less of a source than wind and solar, yet you say those are a side show.

i guess the other thing you're missing is that we are bringing online renewable power at a faster rate than we could build nuclear power.

i understand the folks that think we shouldn't shutter nuclear power too quickly if coal will replace it, but those who decry the utility of building renewable versus building nuclear are completely unrealistic about both.

renewable has been growing by leaps and bounds, while nuclear is time consuming and energy intensive to build --worse to shut down!

the few hundred years you are proposing, that's how long it will take to build all the nuclear power you're proposing.

and by the end of that, decommissioning it will take far longer than that.

[hunter]

15. I don't "propose" nuclear.

I propose an end to our current economy.

Simply said, nuclear power bothers me much less than fossil fuels.

It's a negative one on my scale, compared to maybe a negative hundred for fossil fuels.

In my personal utopia there are no power lines and people usually walk to wherever they are going.

[upaloopa]

5. Nice to live in a simplistic world isn't it?

[wtmusic]

16. It's nice to live in a world without irrational fears.

I have a few too, but fortunately nuclear power isn't one of them.

[CreekDog]

4. if you smoke and die prematurely as a result

think of all the money you'll save on rent!