Fuel Frenzy

Yes, I am biased. Having been a nuke worker for close to 30 years how could I not be biased?
Does Nuclear Power have dangers and problems? Of course. Are these dangers and problems as bad as most members of the public think? Maybe not.

The world is a dangerous place. Cars kill people. Planes kill people. People kill people. Should Nuclear Power be placed at the top of dangers in the modern world? Maybe not. So lets leave the hazard thing alone for awhile and look at the power nukes make.

Today (2008) there are abut 100 Nuclear Power Plants operating in the USA. These 100 plants generate about 20% of our electricity.

Many people associate cooling towers with Nuclear Power Plants. There are many cooling towers used at Non-Nuclear installations. The smoke people see emitted from a cooling tower is really not smoke or radiation at all. It is just water vapor given off by the water as it falls down many small waterfall type ledges inside the cooling tower.

Some people would like to build 100 new Nuclear Power Plants tomorrow to lessen our dependance on oil. Maybe a good idea but if we started tomorrow in would be 8 - 10 years for any new plant to generate power.

A seldom mentioned problem is fuel. Not the spent fuel which must be stored but new fuel which must be found.
Some estimates suggest that the US has only 8 - 10 years worth of Uranium to power our existing 100 Nuclear Plants. Worldwide there maybe enough Uranium for 50 - 100 years. Not a great long term solution. Add in recyled nuclear weapons and new discoveries of Uranium as prices spark exploration and maybe we can go another 100 - 200 years. Still not a long term solution.

I will just add a personal thought on nuclear waste. We should quit worrying about how to store it and what will happen in 50,000 years and start safely storing it for the next 100 - 500 years. Ship it to Yucca Mountain and maybe we will find a better solution in the next 500 years. Meanwhile it will be stored in a much safer manner than spread around the country at 100+ Nuclear Plants.