Richard, "How many years can a Nuke plant operate before it becomes unsafe? The best guess is about 50 years maximum."
++ That is true for the PWR design because of metal fatigue, as you say, but not necessaruly true of an improved next-gen reactor design where the structural material is graphite fiber and the reactor is unpressurized, and steam is not used/. "The only solution then becomes to encase the whole works inside a concrete coffin for a minimum of 4000 years." ++ If you imporve the design into numerous (50 or so) small rail-car sized reactors, intead of one large one, then these can be encoffined on site, after they reach full maturity (75 years) and the same plant can continue operating for many hundreds of years. "We have the South Texas Nuclear plant nearby in Bay City Texas.. its beginning to age and may not be safe in 10 more years. Not to worry, Cemex of Mexico is the rising star and will supply the materials for the coffin." ++At least the South Texas Nuclear plant did not release the seveal hundred tons of uranium which a coal fired plant releases **directly into the air** over its lifetime!! "While on the subject of electric power generation.. consider the health and fitness clubs running treadmills.. what a waste of energy to work off a few pounds only to get in you 4 wheel drive super SUV with 10 cylinders and drive to Chili's for a steak and potatos plus a few margaritas for a well deserved present for lowering your future medicare costs." ++ Ha! excellent point ... which also highlights the difficulty and conflicting choices which we must make... and soon! Jones
