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I doubt there is a "water problem". To my knowledge and
understanding, nuke plants are not much of a net loss user of
water. They release heated water but that water provides some very
good fishing and in Florida it's a haven for manatee populations.
The spent rods are a problem of course but at least the problem can be
contained, unlike releasing pollution into the atmosphere. There is
also the new methods of burning coal cleanly but I'm less informed on
that process or cost.
A huge solar grid would be fine if you had some means to get the power
delivered around the country from a single location. Our power
grids are in horrible condition as they are now. Solar is not very
reliable and I know of no means of storing huge amounts of power of any
kind. It needs to be made as we use it and that just isn't
solar. All the above can be said for wind too.
There are different solutions to different power needs.
Transportation, home/commercial buildings, power generation itself,
etc. I believe I read recently that automobiles do not contribute
as much toward global warming as does livestock manure.
I believe that with what is available now, our power plants need to be
nuke plants and we build them where they need to be and there is no
protest provision or court interruption. We do it because it has to
be done and the "not in my backyard" folks will simply have to
go along with what is best for the country and the world.
As to what Ira said about the U.S. being a 3rd world country already, we
export technology by the bucket load. We just import the goods that
technology results in. Of greater concern is our ratings of 29th in
the world in education and 37th in health care. Policies like
"no child left behind" sound good but have dumbed down our kids
to where they can not compete in the world.
Bob.
At 03:38 PM 5/17/2008, you wrote:
I agree the problem is multi-faceted and must be treated as such to be
solved.
It's certainly an alluring thought to build 500 Nuclear plants across the
country. The scale of such a program would be good for the economy.
However, I do not believe we have the water resources necessary to
support such a large number of nuclear plants. Even if we did, I think
the environmental impact of all that heated waste water flowing into our
rivers and streams would have disasterous effects.
I do not know much fissable material a plant uses, but if we have
problems storing the spent material now with the limited number of plants
we have, what's the scale of the problem going to be with hundreds more
online. There are newer and safer nuclear technologies out there, but I
am not familiar with what their impact would be regarding the above
concerns.
Different parts of the country offer different potential solutions. Solar
and Wind do not pollute. I recently read it would only take 100 square
miles of solar panels to handle the entire electric demand of the US for
the next 50 years. I would certainly sacrifice 100 sq miles out of the
millions we have for a project like that.
There are numerous windy areas of the US where Wind power would be
advantageous. Granted, wind farms dotted across the landscape and
hundreds of then standing on all our great mountain peaks would be an eye
sore, but perhaps a couple square miles here and there could be devoted
to wind generation.
Every new house built in the sun belt areas could have their own
supplemental solar system. If they are in a windy area as well, a small
wind turbine on the roof I'm sure could be made attractive or perhaps
hidden some how. It really would not take much to handle the vast
majority if not all of the electric demand of the average home. If solar
was widely marketed, its price would come down tremendously. It certainly
pays for industrial users to explore such technologies.
As I have stated before, all the technologies currently exist to solve
the problem. Unfortunately our government will not pass legislature for a
national effort to reduce our dependency on foreign oil because of the
energy lobby. Therefore, it will be left to the independent to build this
alternate infrastructure which will put us perhaps 30-50 years behind the
curve which is unfortunately how american business works. G-d forbid
someone should have a down quarter or 2 due to expendatures...one of the
indexes might drop a couple points and that would cause a major panic and
plunge us into a recession.
Also, from what I read lately, we may have oil reserves which equal or
rival those of Saudi Arabia under 3-5 states in the north dakota area of
the US. But we probably could not get a permit for a
refinery.
All these problems might be moot however if a new technology comes along
that puts all of the above technologies out of business. Unfortunately,
it will probably be priced upon a comparison to oil which would be its
closest competition. That will drive up the cost of that technology
numerous times beyond a more than reasonable profit level. After all, why
make 200% profit per unit when you can get 1000%. But all that means is
that we all buy the stock...if it went public...which I doubt. There
would be no need.
Third world status here we come.
In a message dated 5/17/2008 2:55:33 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
bobskc@xxxxxxxxxxxx writes:
- First of all, I seriously doubt if the Saudi's can raise output. I
- strongly suspect they are at full production now.
- As to filling up the reserves, Bush is hell bent to keep the reserves
- up rather than use them for a short term solution to high prices. (A
- solution which would do little to help the price problem
anyway).
- Ira's post offers some sobering thoughts but what would happen if oil
- came down? What if it came down to $80? And if we stopped promoting
- the insane idea of bio fuels driving up food prices? If grain came
- down 50% and meat 30%? Then what would the consumer situation look
- like? Science fiction? I don't think so. I think the whole ethanol
- craze is being seen for just what it is, crazy. A fuel that costs
- more to make, pollutes worse than fossil fuels, and drives food
- through the roof is certainly not the answer. Atomic energy and
- hydrogen fuel cells are where I'm putting my energy dollars from this
- point forward. Solar and wind will be minor players, especially for
- home use but they do little or nothing for transportation and large,
- commercial purposes.
- So, a lot of the problems can be solved by simply forgetting about
- ethanol and I feel there is a large amount of speculation in oil
- now. We moved from 100 to 125 in days but demand most certainly
- didn't increase by 25% in days. Who knows, maybe things will work
- out after all.
- Bob
- At 01:46 PM 5/17/2008, you wrote:
- >And strangly Mr.Bush justifies Saudi for not raising oil
outputs,not
- >only that he was not in a favour of stopping filling oil
reserve
- >near Gulf of Mexico...very strange attitude and this has
been
- >discussed among all leading newpapers round the world.
- >--- In
realtraders@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "Ira" <mr.ira@xxx>
wrote:
- > >
- > > It is time to take a good look at where we are at this
time. In
- >the first quarter of this year more than 158,000 families lost
their
- >homes to foreclosure. The American public is going deeper in
debt
- >every day. In a society where 70% of the economy is driven
by
- >consumer spending, inflation and debt are economy killers.
Millions
- >of people have homes that are worth less than the mortgage amount
on
- >their home. When they look at the economics of the situation
will
- >they pay the inflated mortgage payments or walk away from
the
- >house? Family homes were the main source of their wealth and
now
- >with that gone they have no place to go for that extra money
they
- >need to pay the ever-increasing cost of living. Duke Power
said
- >that they are cutting off utilities to 50 people a day because
of
- >unpaid utility bills. Whether the government wants to admit it
or
- >not we are in a recession. We are also in an inflationary
spiral
- >that won't quit. The government is pumping liquidity into
the
- >system at an alarming rate to save the financial institutions
that
- >created a large portion of the problem.
- > >
- > >
- > >
- > > The balance of the article is on the web site if you
are
- >interested.
- > >
- > >
- > >
- > > Just one man's opinion.
- > >
- > > Ira
- > >
www.delta100.com
- > >
- > > No virus found in this outgoing message
- > > Checked by PC Tools AntiVirus (4.0.0.26 - 10.072.012).
- > >
http://www.pctools.com/free-antivirus/
- > >
- >
- >
- >
- >------------------------------------
- >
- >Yahoo! Groups Links
- >
- >
- >
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