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Nuke is no answer.
No answer to ANY question.
Nuke power plants are an exercise in waste, fraud and abuse; the
U.S. Government subsidizes the fuel, and takes on liability, absolving the operators from lawsuits.
If a nuke damages you, take it to the U.S. government, the nuke plant has no legal requirement for compensating
victims of radiation, melt-down or leaks (every nuke plant periodically releases radioactive Xenon from the containment
dome into the ambient air, in quantities potentially harmful to those within 4 miles).
It's not possible to use the word "Radiation" when evaluating San Onofre nuclear plant. The Coastal Commission is FORBIDDEN
from using the word, and can only talk about the shape of pipes, appearance, sea life, etc., exclusive of radiation.
Did you know that the San Onofre infall/outfall has permits to sterilize 2,000,000,000 (two billion) gallons of
seawater EACH DAY, and that San Onofre SCE is permitted to dump its low-level waste (some of it pretty hot!) right
down the Outfall?
According to one nuclear honcho, "you can't detect the additional radiation in the quantity of water..."
depending on where you hold the counter. But in any case, no one can sue over the radiation; or even mention it,
legally, except with claims against the federal government.
And the U.S. has lots of excess nuke waste to hand to power plants, since it is dismantling thousands of Russian
warheads.
So the whole topic of nuke power as an answer
to global warming is based on multiple lies and fraudulent attestations, bogus assumptions and wishful thinking.
The most difficult thing to find out is the cost per kilo-Watt (kW) to build a nuke plant.
POWER is in kilo-Watts, which tells us how big a power plant; kilo-Watt-hours tells us how much ENERGY it makes
over a period of time. So capital costs are per kW, and operating cost are amortized capital costs plus fuel, workers,
maintenance, administration, bribes, etc.
To build a combined-cycle natural-gas power plant costs about $1.50 per Watt, or $1500 per kW. Running it adds
a cost in pennies equal to the Henry-Hub price of Natural Gas in dollars per 1000 cu. ft., usually about 4 cents
per kWh, plus workers and maintenance.
To build a solar plant costs $6,000 per kW, without subsidies or tax breaks; running it costs...well, ZERO.
To build a nuke plant costs over $10,000 per kW, and running it is wildly expensive. At San Onofre nuclear station, where
6-week-special
'nuclear engineers' thought that a little radiation is "good for you". Some brag of taking their radiation
badges off to 'take a lot of heavy stuff' in a hot room. Your body can get "contaminated" with radioactive
dust; and cost is no object - paid for by suckers -- us Ratepayers. In one case, a unit was "restarted"
even though it was creaky and obsolete, a phony restart to postpone billions in cleanup costs until prop 9 was
passed - sticking Ratepayers with the "stranded costs" of dismantling nukes.
So nuke plants cost $10,000 to $12,000 per kW just to build. That's not counting operational cost. Solar is $6,000
per kW, and no maintenance. And solar can be put on your rooftop, which shields the roof and cools your home.
"AECL’s $26 billion bid was based on the construction of two 1,200-megawatt Advanced Candu Reactors, working
out to $10,800 per kilowatt of power capacity...in 2007 the Ontario Power Authority had assumed for planning purposes
a price of $2,900 per kilowatt...anything higher than $3,600 per kilowatt would be uneconomical compared to alternatives,
primarily natural gas...Areva’s bid came in at $23.6 billion, with two 1,600-megawatt reactors costing $7.8 billion
and the rest of the plant costing $15.8 billion...$7,375 per kilowatt...the French company wasn’t prepared to take
on as much risk as the government had hoped. This made Areva’s bid non-compliant in the end. Crown-owned AECL,
however, complied with Ontario’s risk-sharing requirement but was instructed by the federal government to price
this risk into its bid...until a major nuclear power provider is willing to sign a contract with a lower guaranteed
price, we should assume that the true all in cost for a new nuclear plant is more than $10,000/kw..."
http://climateprogress.org/2009/07/15/nuclear-power-plant-cost-bombshell-ontario/
"...Recent construction cost estimates imply capital costs/kWh (not counting operation or fuel costs) from
17-22 cents/kWh when the nuclear facilities come on-line..."
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2009/01/nuclear_power.html
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