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Andris Piebalgs: Nuclear and the EU's Energy Policy | 51 comments (51 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)
Re: Andris Piebalgs: Nuclear and the EU's Energy P (none / 1)
On transparency there was a lot of discussion a year ago on this diary:

European Tribune - Terrorism, Nuclear power and Secrecy

Just heard (Wed. 7/18) swedish radio news about the earthquake and nuclear power plant accident in Japan. Apparently the spill was larger then first reported (no numbers) and IAEA has encouraged Japan to be more open about nuclear power. No surprises thus far.

Now comes the real news (to me anyway).

According to Jan-Olov Liljenzin, professor in nuclear chemistry at Chalmers university of technology (second largest technical college in Sweden) this is probably an empty gesture, and IAEA knows it. After september 11th 2001 nuclear companies has been ordered (by the governments) to keep secret anything that could help terrorists.

Apparently after the accident in Forsmark last summer Liljenzin encouraged Vattenfall to publicly explain the specifics of the electric system. They explained that they were not allowed too by law.



Sweden's finest (and perhaps only) collaborative, leftist e-newspaper Synapze.se
by A swedish kind of death on Mon May 19th, 2008 at 09:20:50 AM EST
Re: Andris Piebalgs: Nuclear and the EU's Energy P (none / 0)
They explained that they were not allowed too by law.

democracy at its finest...welcome to the new world order!

'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty

by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Mon May 19th, 2008 at 10:30:37 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Andris Piebalgs: Nuclear and the EU's Energy P (none / 1)
If the voters didn't like it they'd elect someone who'd fix it, right?
by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Mon May 19th, 2008 at 10:31:38 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Andris Piebalgs: Nuclear and the EU's Energy P (none / 1)
if there was a pol willing to pander to us, we'd vote for them

'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty
by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Mon May 19th, 2008 at 06:56:08 PM EST
[ Parent ]
As of last night, (4.00 / 3)
I am the official Democratic Party candidate for County Commissioner (District 2 of 3). I will gladly pander to your sustainability, conservation, demand-reduction, solar-based power-generation 'whims'. Can we use our timber 'waste' to generate bio-diesel, too? Just asking. (We're definitely not suited for nuclear-based power generation, as everything in this county is slowly slipping into the Columbia River.)

Actually, a central part of my 'platform' is local solar- and wind-based generation. (Jerome - get ready to finance a deal out here. All I have to do is win the election.)

paul spencer

by paul spencer (paulgspencer@gmail.com) on Wed May 21st, 2008 at 03:26:50 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: As of last night, (none / 1)
congrats paul!

i'll say one day, 'I met my first president on ET!'

panda away!

'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty

by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Thu May 22nd, 2008 at 06:22:48 AM EST
[ Parent ]
I don't know if congratulations (4.00 / 3)
are exactly in order. More like a super-pain-in-the-ass is likely. But I love my county, and it needs some help. Same with my country, but they're not sufficiently aware of how much help they need - yet.

paul spencer
by paul spencer (paulgspencer@gmail.com) on Thu May 22nd, 2008 at 11:32:56 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: As of last night, (none / 1)
Does this mean I have to careful about what pictures of you I post?
by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Thu May 22nd, 2008 at 11:34:18 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: As of last night, (none / 0)
I have never worried about that. In the days of COINTELPRO some of my friends were a little nervous about such things. I always figured that they had sources that I would never recognize, so what the hell? (Turned out I was quite right - they did have sources that I never did recognize.)

paul spencer
by paul spencer (paulgspencer@gmail.com) on Thu May 22nd, 2008 at 03:56:13 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: As of last night, (none / 0)
Congratulations! Let us know what you think we can provide to help.

Timber waste is much better burnt in some form of electricity + heat generation process. It can be done fairly cleanly, even in a minor plant - with the latest technology and scrubbers. Same with waste paper - better to burn it for the energy than go through an energy expensive recycling process (and transportation).

I am not really familiar with the N. American situation where newsprint and LWC demand is stable or falling. And none of this applies to the escalating paper demand in Asia. But in Europe, the unilateral recycling directives of the EU go against common sense. All the new fibre comes from Finland and Sweden. It goes down south and is expensively recycled about 5 times in large urban centres and ridiculously expensively elsewhere. But new fibre is needed continuously.

It would make more sense to burn the paper locally, but technologically correctly. Sweden and Finland can supply all the new fibre that Europe needs sustainably (from the forest POV).

A couple of million annual tonnes of papermaking capacity have come. or are coming offline in Finland. There'll probably be more.

You can't be me, I'm taken

by Sven Triloqvist on Thu May 22nd, 2008 at 12:38:31 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: As of last night, (none / 0)
Paul: email me, I have an interesting soundbite/headline for you that Chris and I have discussed.

You can't be me, I'm taken
by Sven Triloqvist on Thu May 22nd, 2008 at 12:40:25 PM EST
[ Parent ]
I want to hear it, (none / 0)
but what's your e-mail address? Do you want me to e-mail Chris and get the address from him?

paul spencer
by paul spencer (paulgspencer@gmail.com) on Thu May 22nd, 2008 at 04:25:58 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: I want to hear it, (none / 0)
Can you work it out from my user info? It's h***.p**@k***.fi

You can't be me, I'm taken
by Sven Triloqvist on Thu May 22nd, 2008 at 06:06:49 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: I want to hear it, (none / 0)
Oops that didn't work well.

You can't be me, I'm taken
by Sven Triloqvist on Thu May 22nd, 2008 at 06:33:46 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Information is just what I need. (none / 1)
I was thinking about asking for just such advice from ETers. I have to say that my knowledge of the energy cost of recycling paper is very low; I assumed - as most of us here - that there was a substantial benefit.

As to heat generation from wood waste - we are a very low-population density, somewhat spread-out county. Fitting heat generation from 'waste' logging detritus to our needs will be difficult, except for individual wood stoves (which make up a fairly substantial portion of home heating around here). Do you have any leads/information on the best approaches for this type of heating? (I have a catalytic stove, and I'm not happy with much of anything about it, but it does seem to put out a relatively low amount of smoke.)

About biodiesel - the point is that we have one bus that makes three trips per weekday from Stevenson to Vancouver, WA. I want to expand the service somewhat and reduce the number of cars and trucks making cold starts for short runs in this area. Biodiesel works from several points-of-view to make the whole project more attractive: local source, local labor, lower cost, and (so I'm told) cleaner-burning fuel.

As far as electrical generation - I'm 100% interested. One of my main 'planks' is to generate electricity locally. If you look at a wind chart, you will see that the Columbia River Gorge is rated highly, so that's where I see the main emphasis. However, we are 90% forested, so it's a huge resource, too. In any case - as I say - I'm 100% interested.

Another of my projects will be - assuming election - to kick-start regional participation in a conservation/generation consortium. We've had such a project before, and it was actually quite useful - house insulation, weather-stripping, and such - but Bonneville Power Authority was the main funding source, and you can imagine what's happened there since 1994 - one cutback after another in any project that made sense for the general population.

As to the woods and logging - we are the heart of the Douglas Fir forests. Our 'plantation' timber (we don't cut old-growth nowadays) is still some of the best structural wood in the world. There is a downturn in the market, but there is still demand for our lumber. We cut to metric and ship to Japan, which tells you something about the quality right there. I'd rather have a strictly local market, but with this type of product there will be a distant demand as well.

paul spencer

by paul spencer (paulgspencer@gmail.com) on Thu May 22nd, 2008 at 04:24:30 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Information is just what I need. (none / 0)
The most efficient stoves are the Russian/Finnish masonry stoves with a typical over 80% use of available BTUs. Properly built, you can put your hand over the chimney and feel only a slight warmth escaping.

They burn very clean - but it depends on the wood and how dry it is. I lived through several harsh winters  with two these at each end of a large wooden house in the forest. They are economical with wood: we had a winter's worth stacked up outside under the eaves.

The easiest biodiesel is locally pressed oil from say rape seed. Your diesel engine will have to be slightly adapted, but it is not major mechanics. It's much easier to adapt an older diesel engine. An old Perkins in a boat would probably burn the stuff as it is.

The building research division of VTT the Finnish state technical research centre was been developing new timber construction techniques. One of these is massive  laminated load-bearing beams that have been used to span 20-30 metres.

You can't be me, I'm taken

by Sven Triloqvist on Thu May 22nd, 2008 at 06:28:13 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Information is just what I need. (none / 0)
not these things?

the standard traditional heating in Polish homes, but they're generally coal fired

by MarekNYC on Thu May 22nd, 2008 at 06:42:22 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Information is just what I need. (none / 0)
Similar.  The point is the massive brick encasement to soak up and then radiate heat. And the somewhat convoluted flue path to expose as much surface area to rising heat, plus a method of closing off the flue when the fire has burned out to prevent cold air entering above.

You can't be me, I'm taken
by Sven Triloqvist on Fri May 23rd, 2008 at 04:22:25 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Andris Piebalgs: Nuclear and the EU's Energy Policy | 51 comments (51 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)
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