Nuclear Power

[Crankenstein]

A Thorium reactor doesn't even produce 100th as much waste as a standard reactor. 99% of what it does produce decays back to background levels within 10 years the remaining 1% taking 300 years.

Not only does it produce a thimbleful of "concerning" waste but existing waste can be used up within the core as a primer.

It not only produces less waste but it will destroy the waste we currently have! It's perfect!

[Eviltrav]

Howdy everyone - new here but thought I'd throw my 2cents into this one.

I'm all for focusing much more heavily on renewables over coming years - but my understanding is that right now renewables are just not capable of meeting baseload power?  So we have two options until we do figure out a renewable energy method that is capable of generating the baseload power we need - keep using fossil fuels or explore nuclear?

[Minx]

It depends on how agressive you are prepared to be in re-organising your domestic power needs

I know of  several people who have taken the step and are bale to feed back into the grid and getting a cheque once or twice a year

However, for industrial use - different story

I guess that this is a chicken and egg situation

[Chris]

It depends on how aggressive you are prepared to be in re-organising your domestic power needs

Just on my own desk I have 25 power points that all feed back into two sockets via power boards and cables. Add in all the device chargers we have dotted around the house, our tv sets, radios and the like, and then factor in the airconditioning, the fridge, the cooker... and worst of all the pumps for the swimming pool (which use up more power than the rest combined!).

I seriously doubt I could afford to install a sufficiently large solar generation system that would satisfy all our current (no pun intended) power needs.

We had an estimate once that if we 'invested' $100,000 in solar panels we would generate enough power to 'save' $2,000 a year. I'm not sure that would even cover the interest we'd have to pay on the money we'd need to borrow to get the things up on the roof. Not only that but that would still only cover one bill!!

Maybe the figures will have altered recently, but despite my support for solar options, it seems like a hell of a gamble for individuals to take. Yes we could cut back on our power use... but I think we could only do that by a massive change in our lifestyle.