In global energy rush, nuclear gets a resurgence

[IDemo]

From South America to Asia, governments turn to once-shunned source

By Doug Struck
The Washington Post

Sixty miles outside Buenos Aires, construction crews soon will be swarming over a partially built concrete dome abandoned 12 years ago, resuming work on Argentina's long-delayed Atucha II nuclear power plant. They will be in the vanguard of surging interest in nuclear power worldwide.

Faced with evidence that coal- and oil-fired electric plants are overheating the planet, and alarmed by soaring demand for electricity, governments from South America to Asia are turning once again to a power source mostly shunned for two decades as too dangerous and too costly.

Globally, 29 nuclear power plants are being built. Well over 100 more have been written into the development plans of governments for the next three decades. India and China each are rushing to build dozens of reactors. The United States and the countries of Western Europe, led by new nuclear champions, are reconsidering their cooled romance with atomic power. International agencies have come on board; even the Persian Gulf oil states have announced plans for nuclear generators.

"Energy and climate changes can't remain tied to carbon or hydrocarbon," the European Union's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, said in October. "They are polluting, and we'll have to find substitute energies, including nuclear energy." It creates heat through nuclear reactions rather than combustion, giving off no carbon dioxide, the most important of the so-called greenhouse gases that trap heat in the Earth's atmosphere.

[Auggie]

1. So instead of suffocating to death we'll all die from radiation poisoning

[IDemo]

3. paging NNadir... n/t

[NNadir]

4. How many people do you think died from "radiation poisoning" last year?

A lot?

[IDemo]

5. thank you!

[Gloria]

2. Check out my new World Energy Watch for what the Russians are up to

...pairing with the Japanese...

http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/lalumia/141

[Porcupine]

6. And the waste goes.............where?

China, India and Russia are three countries known for massive corruption and fraud involving toxic waste disposal.

I can't help but think that without better waste disposal systems this is a mistake.

[GliderGuider]

7. Building coal plants without CO2 waste disposal systems is a mistake too

Mistakes seem to be the one thing our species is good at.

[Porcupine]

8. I can't recall any coal power advocates on DU.

Remodeling and retrofitting our existing builidngs would eliminate much of the current power demand. Taxes material use (carbon tax) instead of labor would provide incentives to eliminate more. Other industrial cultures use fractions of US energy use per capita with better standards of living.

Most important is the regulation of population growth. We know that basic social guarantees of housing, pensions, healthcare and women's rights reduces population demand. These need to include absolute rights to access to birth control and abortion.

But taking care of these issues isn't as sexy or profitable as building thousands of nukes so they get ignored.

[Dead_Parrot]

9. Reducing current consumption is critial, but

remember we're chasing a moving a target - Unless we do get a handle on the population (or there is a die-off) the population is on track to hit 9 billion by 2030 or so: And whatever mix of transport fuels we end up using, they will all need lots of power to manufacture them (or they'll slide down the EROEI toilet). If we can cut the per capita consumption of electricity by 75%, by 2030 we'll still to be generating a lot more than we are today.

[Porcupine]

10. I'm betting on die off.

Africa is already a disaster, AIDS in India and China rampages along and South America is in serious trouble. Bangledesh is unthinkable if sea levels rise.

AIDS, TB, Malaria and Flu added to grain/water/fuel shortages and climate disruption is not a good recipe. Oh, and environmental collapse even if we solve all of the above. Seen any Cod lately?

[Dead_Parrot]

11. Yeah, that sort of gets my vote.

I'd like to think that we could get handles on the problems, but we got fuck all by way of action or even concrete plans: We're up shit creek with nothing but a collection of time bombs.