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| Thread ID: 80050 | 2007-06-09 23:12:00 | Madness... | somebody (208) | PC World Chat |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 557778 | 2007-06-09 23:12:00 | www.nzherald.co.nz It seems that no matter what power companies try to do to provide NZ with clean, green electricity, somebody will jump up and down about it. What next? Will the Green party start advocating more coal-fired power stations? As far as I'm concerned, either go wind, or go nuclear - the two cleanest, and least environmentally harmful forms of electricity generation. |
somebody (208) | ||
| 557779 | 2007-06-10 01:33:00 | Um - what did you say about nuclear? :horrified | pcuser42 (130) | ||
| 557780 | 2007-06-10 01:37:00 | [url] As far as I'm concerned, either go wind, or go nuclear - the two cleanest, and least environmentally harmful forms of electricity generation. Except that the half life of spent Uranium runs into the thousands of years of being radioactive and harmful to humans. You call that environmentally friendly? |
winmacguy (3367) | ||
| 557781 | 2007-06-10 02:00:00 | What do I call environmentally friendly? I call something which has the least overall impact on the environment and its human/animal/plant inhabitants PER UNIT of electricty "friendly". One modern nuclear power station produces about the equivalent to a "house" worth of nuclear waste per year. - 95% of it is recyclable, and specialist firms in Japan do precisely that. Remember that ship which was stopped from coming through NZ on its way to Japan a few years back (by Greenpeace)? That was carrying waste on its way to Japan for recycling so it can be reused in nuclear power stations. - What isn't recyclable is sealed into thick glass and geopolymer capsules and buried deep underground well away from where humans live. This already happens, and has been done safely in the Australian outback, and in deserts in the USA. Compare that to the millions of tons of CO2, SO2 and other polluting gases produced from burning fossil fuels like coal, causing global warming, not to mention the smog especially from older facilities. Also factor into this the coal mining process, and the damage that it causes to the environment. Modern nuclear power stations are clean, safe, and reliable. The only emissions they produce harmless steam. See that picture in my avatar <-? Those are pellets of nuclear fuel for pebble-bed reactors, currently in use in South Africa, Germany, and China. They are scalable (i.e. you aren't fixed to only generating a certain amount of power like soviet-era technology), and safe because they intrinsicly shut themselves down without human, computer, or mechanical intervention when they reach a certain temperature. I cannot find the exact statistic, but around 30% of NZ's current energy needs (currently around the 9GW mark) are being supplied by coal and gas fired power stations. These account for a huge proportion of our total greenhouse gas emissions. So why am I advocating nuclear? Well - I'm all for wind power, but people seem to complain about it taking up too much space, and destroying the "natural beauty" of the scenery. Personally I wouldn't have any problem with Meridian Energy putting a wind turbine in my back yard. But, Auckland's power demands are growing fast, and with 1/4 of the country's population, its no surprise. Putting nuclear power stations in Northland eliminates the wastage involved in transmitting electricity thousands of KM from all around the country. Furthermore, it occupies very little space (compared to say, a windfarm or hydro scheme), is not bound by natural considerations such as the need for constant wind, or a river, and is stable - it doesn't fluctuate depending on the amount of wind or rain which we have (which is ever more important with more and more extreme weather patterns). People seem to always associate nuclear power with Chenobyl, and never give it serious thought. It is safe, and it is clean. |
somebody (208) | ||
| 557782 | 2007-06-10 02:05:00 | Go nuclear? Not in NZ. For once in my life I am in the cleanest country I've ever set my feet upon. And I'd like to keep it that way. Even if modern technology makes nuclear power safe, I'd rather not take chances and stick to wind turbines. I'd love to keep NZ or any other countries for this matter from being a repetition of Chernobyl. I don't understand why residents are heavily opposed to the windfarm project. Because at the end of the day it would be much more environmentally friendly - there will be no harmful emissions excreted in the production of electricity using wind - a naturally occurring phenomenon. |
qazwsxokmijn (102) | ||
| 557783 | 2007-06-10 02:11:00 | Nuclear gets my vote. I fail to understand why so many people have an issue with it, as it's actually one of the 'greenest' forms of power generation. Wind can only do so much - you can't replace all the coal/gas fired generators with wind because of the fluctuation issue, the grid needs a solid base from which to work. Nuclear provides that option. | Erayd (23) | ||
| 557784 | 2007-06-10 02:14:00 | Nuclear gets my vote. I fail to understand why so many people have an issue with it.... May people are just skeptics.....and I guess that's what I am. Chernobyl before its disaster claimed their nuclear operations were safe. Yet, the disaster happened. Nuclear power developers today say their technology is now safe - same thing said by the Chernobyls before the disaster. I just don't want to take chances. |
qazwsxokmijn (102) | ||
| 557785 | 2007-06-10 02:32:00 | May people are just skeptics.....and I guess that's what I am. Chernobyl before its disaster claimed their nuclear operations were safe. Yet, the disaster happened. Nuclear power developers today say their technology is now safe - same thing said by the Chernobyls before the disaster. I just don't want to take chances. Don't forget that in order for the Chenobyl disaster to happen, they actually had to override safety features in the power station, and did not follow design, construction, and operational guidelines. www.iaea.or.at |
somebody (208) | ||
| 557786 | 2007-06-10 02:51:00 | I agree. Go Nuclear. And Free Electricity for all. PJ | Poppa John (284) | ||
| 557787 | 2007-06-10 03:35:00 | Nuclear power has to be some of the safest around. I mean France gets about 60% of its power from nuclear plants. They are fine but people in NZ love to jump on bandwagons so much and so quickly its unbelievable. They really will believe still all the nonsense that was sprouted 15-20 years ago. I mean India, China and the USA are starting to plan/build new ones. They are safe and their impact on the environment is very minimal. And did I also mention cheap??? |
beeswax34 (63) | ||
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