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In this matter, as usual, it seems that the perception is more important than the reality. Looking around this forum, it is clear that many here deeply oppose nuclear power. I think there is a large fraction of opponents in the USA as well.  So there will definitely be obstacles to widespread introduction of new nuclear plants in Western Europe and the USA, regardless of the actual merits (or lack thereof). I note though, that a dozen plants are being built in China and India.

I ought to confess here that I am a physicist by training, and perhaps not as opposed to nuclear power as some of the commentators. My main problem with nuclear power (somewhat allied to Mr. Lovins arguments) is the same as I have with all such technologies--there are long lead time in building these large plants; once built we are committed to fifty year lifetimes; and the consequences of failure of such large plants are correspondingly large. Rather I would favor a decentralized system with smaller, but more numerous generators (insert favorite technology here) coupled  with a more intelligent power grid than exists today.
This minimizes the effects of failure of individual generators and gridlines, and design errors in local implementations. But I suspect that such a scheme is more expensive, and may not allow the large institutional players to maintain their profits.

This may change if the environmental costs of electric power and transportation are internalized. Solar, windpower and microhydro are a good fit to distributed generation; biofuels, perhaps slightly less so.

And then there is the question of time. If Mr. Hansen is correct and the large continental ice sheets have indeed destabilized, we may not have the time, nor surplus resources to build giant new plants, or for that matter, a distributed grid. I rather think that the planners in India and China foresee quite well the results of multiple population migrations on the order of, say, ten million Bangladeshis, every twenty five years.

sidd

by sidd on Wed Jun 28th, 2006 at 03:16:01 PM EST
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