[Global Change: 778] Re: Nuclear Power is Not the Answer

[Alastair McDonald]

Michael,   I suspect that if you take the cost of refining the fuel, and building the reactor and turbines then the cost of nuclear power is much higher than fossil fuel generation, but obviously that does not mean that there is no net power output.   However, if you add in the cost of decommissioning the power station when its life is over, then the cost of generation escalates enormously.  If this cost is high enough then there has been no net gain generating power using uranium. Of course this extra cost is borne mainly by our descendents, not us.  I have also heard it claimed that the reason that the decommissioning costs are so high is because the original power stations were producing nuclear armaments, and the cost of decommission those is being added to the costs of nuclear generation. But it is conceivable that the energy needed to dispose of the nuclear stations is greater than that which they generated.  One would like to think that they could be buried cheaply in concrete and forgotten about, but what if they later exploded?   You could argue that the damage done to the environment by AGW is a cost that should be added to the conventional power stations in the same way as the disposal of nuclear waste is added to nuclear power stations, but two wrongs do not make a right.     However, as I see it, the real problem is that the public won't accept new nuclear power stations.  You and James Lovelock may be willing to have a waste dump in your back yard, but I doubt your neighbours will agree.  Moreover we need more than two people willing to have nuclear waste dumps if we are going to replace all fossil fuel generation with nuclear.   Cheers, Alastair.   --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Global Change ("globalchange") newsgroup. Global Change is a public, moderated venue for discussion of science, technology, economics and policy dimensions of global environmental change. Posts will be admitted to the list if and only if any moderator finds the submission to be constructive and/or interesting, on topic, and not gratuitously rude. To post to this group, send email to globalchange@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/globalchange -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---