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Europe is going backwards, Germany abandon nuclear energy.
  • 31 Replies sorted by
  • @ Chip: >>1. Nuclear power plants in Germany will all be shut down until 2022 and no new ones will be built.
    >>2. This decision has been made years ago! What they settled now is just a new date, 2022.

    This is a distortion of facts. In fact, the German government had announced an extension of their reactor licenses less than a year ago. Only the Japanese earthquake and resultant press focus on the Fukushima reactors forced Angela Merkel to do a complete 180 degree turn and set the 2022 date. Otherwise, the Merkel govt would have continued to push nuclear power, which generates 17 to 23% of German power (depending upon which newspaper/website you visit). Even the best estimates require Germany to institute some kind of energy conservation, even with the growth rates in renewable energy. How is the German economy supposed to grow?

    Ultimately France and Russia will probably be selling electricity generated by nuclear power to Germany by 2022, when the renewable energy supplies turn out to be expensive and unreliable.

    Also the growth rates you cited are meaningless, other than to indicate investment. I will remind you that during the dot-com boom, you could cite similar growth rates, but ultimately the bubble burst on those investments.

    >>5. Nuclear power is a technology of the past, not the future, it is neither safe nor clean and can be replaced over time without power supply shortages.

    Hilarious, as windmills (excuse me, "wind turbines") are clearly a technology of the past. Let me know how well solar and wind power do with powering submarines, space ships, and other modern devices.

    There are clearly new designs for modern reactors (look up molten salt reactors, for example) that are safe and clean. With proper design, spent fuel can be re-processed and re-used, minimizing waste. I suggest you look that up. As for the power supply shortage issue, places that have installed windmills have discovered that they do not produce the power claimed, not reliably.

    For example, take a look at this exchange about a wind turbine in the UK:
    http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/wind_turbine#incoming-163689

    Over 12 months, it generated 209 kWh of electricity. That's the same as running a 100 watt light bulb for 3 months. Or 5 CFLs for 3 months. Basically, not enough to power a home reliably over a year. At today's rates, it'll take 50 to 100 years for that turbine to be economically viable, far more than the lifespan of the turbine. Factor in the lifespan and costs of maintenance and the turbine is economically inferior to just about every other common form of generating energy.

    The only way "renewable" alternatives can replace nuclear is by using large amounts of land and sea, as I stated previously. Even then, reliability, cost of maintenance, and environmental damage will be huge issues. Germany is getting away from nuclear power, but it's essentially gambling that conservation coupled with alternative sources will work out. Utility customers in Germany should be prepared for much higher energy rates, as that is not a safe bet.
  • Why do I think that nuclear energy is a future-proof? It is independent of weather variables such as wind, sun exposure variables, variable rainfall. The independence of atomic energy from these things is a guarantee for a constant supply of power which gives a chance for sustainable development. Stopping work on the development of nuclear energy is a regression in development - disability. If some idiot in my country, Poland, tells me that nuclear energy is a technology of the past, I'll call him handicapped. Anyone who was in school physics knows that every process causes energy loss. You have to draw power from the source of energy metabolism in the universe and develop this technology, otherwise our civilization will stagnate due to energy shortages. Only large, national and international projects offer a chance of success in the future.

    @chip
    I'm sorry if I offended your national pride, but I am a Pole and I realize that Europe does not cope in a world without the two biggest playmakers: Germany and Russia, because France is too narcissistic and the United Kingdom too selfish. If any of these two countries does something stupid, I know that my country is in a great ass.
    If Germany would lose its economic momentum and fall into trouble because the supply of electricity will be rationed this may come a funny little man who will tell others that they are supermen and some other sub-humans, and will exterminate the handicapped. History, unfortunately, repeats itself because human nature does not change.
  • @ To all:
    I give a shit whether someone is black, white, yellow or pink, or a Pole, a Jew, a Russian, an Englishman, German, etc.. We are mainly men, we did not choose a place where we were born, and if humanity does not understand that we must all strive to unite, I wish humanity: fuck in ass.
    So sorry for the future, because this forum is one of the few places where you can say what you want and how you want without fucking political correctness.
    P.S. Do you know the "Polish jokes"? There are, unfortunately sometimes , true :-)
  • So Vitaliy, you're accusing others of arguing with emotion and not facts. Well you're not using facts either. To say your "Friend" is the world's #1 expert on waste disposal is not using facts, it's a lower form of argument than emotion -- it's nothing more that hearsay. So where are you facts that fission reactor waste is a minimal expense and that atomic reactors are in fact efficient and economical? This is a key point, and btw, Lpowell hasn't supported his claim either.
  • @brianluce

    First, I never said anything about "friend" and "world's #1 expert on waste disposal". So, this is your fantasies.
    I said I know guys who know how nuclear waste disposal plant works from inside. If you keep thinking of this as hearsay, find some other place to talk about this.

    >So where are you facts that fission reactor waste is a minimal expense and that atomic reactors are in fact efficient and economical?

    I want to hear detailed answers with links and documents to my previous questions.
    After this we'll move to economical efficiency of present nuclear plants and waste volumes.
  • Re: German solar power. If this is typical, then Germany is in big trouble indeed in moving away from nuclear power to alternative sources:
    http://notrickszone.com/2011/07/04/weed-covered-solar-park-20-acres-11-million-only-one-and-half-years-old/