Forum Home
PC World Chat
Thread ID: 57195	2005-04-26 03:03:00	Nuclear Power in NZ	Strommer (42)	PC World Chat

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
349046	2005-04-28 09:42:00	I'm sure someone here like Terry or Tony will have an idea. But these wonderful green ideas are very new in practice. So it is very difficult to find correct info for cost comparisons. My guess is that some student will have produced a research paper. Solar heating/electricity hasn't taken off in NZ because our power is too cheap to bother. Also builders etc lack knowledge and imagination. I recall discussing double glazing with a builder who was very vague as to whether it was worthwhile. It is - because I installed it and couldn't be more pleased. Whats more, in North America they've been installing triple glazing for decades. But do Kiwi builders/architects learn from that???	Winston001 (3612)
349047	2005-04-28 10:14:00	I have heard they are talking of making it mandatory to have double glazing in cold areas. I have had it in two houses now and like you say 001,wouldn't be without it. When you said you were shocked by nuclear price per KW I assumed you were comparing with some that you knew the price of!	Cicero (40)
349048	2005-04-28 10:17:00	Triple glazing ?? We have a daughter living in Sweden where multiple glazing is standard, and mandatory in new houses. Triple insulation between house and ground ! They are able to keep their houses at summer temperatures all the year. Solar heating gadgets need to be lowtech to be cost effective. Benseman in DSIR as it used to be wrote some reports on cost, and concluded that most of the cylindrical ones made to sit on a roof were not cost effective - more electricity had been used in their manufacture and distribution than they would generate over 20 years or so. Better to insulate the house ...	TonyF (246)
349049	2005-04-28 10:44:00	Agreed Tony. The best form of heating is not to lose the warmth in the first place. Insulation. And Tom, I recall finding some UN data on electricity costs a while ago. Those countries relying on nuclear had a fairly low cost per kw. Hydro was cheapest. But dams do silt up, and collapse. There have been far more catastrophic dam failures than nuclear accidents. But nuclear accidents are dramatic and sexy in the media sense. Plus the half-life of uranium is a bit more than serious than a one-off flood. Nevertheless it is worth remembering that Nagasaki and Hiroshima were never abandoned and left as ghost cities. Furthermore both are vibrant metropolises today despite the nuclear ravaging. Nature has a way of healing. (Here is where the Gaia accolytes can jump in) :D And Trinity Point, north of Almagordo, New Mexico is open for visitors. This is where the first atom bomb was exploded by the Manhatten Project scientists.	Winston001 (3612)
349050	2005-04-28 10:58:00	"Nevertheless it is worth remembering that Nagasaki and Hiroshima were never abandoned and left as ghost cities" No - they live on as knee-jerk reactions for various sorts of protestors. I think many countries envy our hydro-generation facilities - we don't yet have to make the hard decisions........	TonyF (246)
349051	2005-04-28 10:59:00	Off to bed now with a v efficient elect blanket.. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz	TonyF (246)
349052	2005-04-28 11:16:00	If NZ houses were built to the same standards as like my sons in Canada, we would be all as warm as toast. None of this "4x2" nonsense in crappy Radiata pine, no, 6" x 2" pine, real pine, with 6" of "Batts", and double or multiple glazing. They were using marine grade ply for wall and roof covering before adding sidings and shingles before it was even thought of here. Far greater earthquake strength than the average NZ house. Basement for all the heating and laundry appliances etc. Ah, Roy Benseman, RIP. Yes, those cylindrical solar heaters were just a con-trick, very little use at all. A lot of area is needed for solar heating to be really useful. Then we all tip a lot of hot water down the drain, so it would be a good idea to have an insulated holding tank under the house that takes sink and bath water, and then use a heat pump to extract the heat back out, or use the water to preheat the hot water tank inlet, as mentioned already earlier on. There is a lot that could be done in building reasonably efficient houses.	Terry Porritt (14)
349053	2005-04-28 13:01:00	Yep. It's better to try to get energy efficiency down pat before contemplating nuke power stations and dams and windmills. These things may be inevitable, but maybe by that time advances in design, safety and disposal of wastes will make them easier to live with.	vinref (6194)
349054	2005-04-28 21:48:00	. Yes, but perhaps Western reactors have other faults that might make an accident serious . A . There are three answers . The Three Mile Island accident destroyed the reactor, but the core itself remained confined . Radioactive gases were vented, but there is no accepted evidence that this harmed the public . Fault trees for possible failures have been generated and studied . However, there could be something not taken into account . At the end of 1998 there were 9012 civilian power reactor years of experience throughout the world, and Chernobyl is the only nuclear power plant accident harming the public . The U . S . Navy has been powering ships with nuclear reactors for 50 years and has had no nuclear accidents . In 1999 Japanese technicians mixing up fuel for an experimental reactor violated the safety procedures and created a critical mass of uranium which caused an increasing nuclear reaction until the container with the mixture boiled over and stopped the reaction . Three people were hospitalized, two of whom died . The press, especially AFP which is anti-nuclear billed this as the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl in 1986 . Losing two people in 13 years isn't much . That's good for an energy source . Q . Are nuclear power plants perfectly safe? A . No . Nothing is perfectly safe, but they are safe enough to be relied upon as a source of energy .	Cicero (40)
349055	2005-04-29 22:07:00	Worth a read: LOS ANGELES: A team of physicists at the University of California, Los Angeles, claims to have created a tabletop nuclear fusion, which could ultimately lead to a solution for clean energy. Scientists around the world have been trying for several years to devise a method to generate power through nuclear fusion, the same power that actually lights the sun or the stars. The UCLA experiment could possibly be a breakthrough under lab conditions in solving the world's energy needs. Read full article Here (www.earthtimes.org)	Strommer (42)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7