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Nuclear power

TheCatWoman

Starmer has announced plans for new nuclear power stations dotted about England and Wales, they will be the new small scale ones, rather than the monsters we've been used too. I still don't want them, I don't see nuclear as a clean energy solution, nuclear waste is by definition dirty and you can't make clean with dirty. The waste will still have to be stored somewhere and will still be dangerous for tens of thousands of years, longer than humans have been out of Africa. It's said that it will power the new industries of the future, such as AI, is this a future we want? We will have less opportunities to object to them too, as this sort of development will be green lighted despite any local opposition.

How do you feel about a new nuclear power station on your doorstep?

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  • I can see that the world is not perfect. Decisions have to be made, however. As I see it climate change is a bigger and more pressing problem than nuclear waste disposal. The existence of nuclear waste is not going to result in London being mostly under water and the Netherlands disappearing under the waves, but climate change very well might. Renewable, weather-dependent, sources of power can only do so much, because they are not available all of the time. I would not be greatly concerned with a well-designed mini nuclear power station being sited near where I live. 

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  • I can see that the world is not perfect. Decisions have to be made, however. As I see it climate change is a bigger and more pressing problem than nuclear waste disposal. The existence of nuclear waste is not going to result in London being mostly under water and the Netherlands disappearing under the waves, but climate change very well might. Renewable, weather-dependent, sources of power can only do so much, because they are not available all of the time. I would not be greatly concerned with a well-designed mini nuclear power station being sited near where I live. 

Children
  • in reply to Martin

    One of the power sources that's rarely talked about is tidal, unless someone steals the moon, then tidal power will be a regular twice a day thing. I think a lot of solar panels are more efficient than they used to be, as others have said you don't need lots of strong sunshine for them to work.

    I remember when wylva was being shut down and cleared out, the railway car's of mini nuclear storage bunkers sitting in sidings a few yards from my house sometimes for hours, before being shunted about and taken to their final destination. Its takes a huge amount of resourses from the police to guard this waste, the containers are almost certainly as secure as possible. It's not the idea of terrorists stealing aster material for a dirty bomb that concernes me, but the container being breached and the whole island and much of Wales, the North and Midlands of England being contaminated for decades, most people don't know that it was only a few years ago that the last farms were cleared to move livestock from the land contaiminated by Chernobyl.

    Another thing, is what all this extra power is going to be used for, data centres and AI, do we really want this?

    I agree that we do need sustainable power, but we could do so much more fairly easily, we could legislate for bulders to have to insulate homes to passive house standards, we could legislate so that new estates have have houses built so that one side of the roof faces south and has solar panels, the north side a green roof.

    We need to be smart with our money nationally and make it work hard for us, to think laterally about it's use. I don't like the idea of every town having it's own mini nuclear ower station and I certainly don't like the idea of big business having them to power data centres.

    Most of all I don't like the idea of having them imposed on us with little local say on it.

  • in reply to Martin

    Climate catastrophe is definitely on the cards. In the grand scheme of things unless something dramatic is done on an international scale nothing is going to improve. The current dialogue coming out of the USA doesn't fill me with hope. Financial growth seems to be the only thing that's important, we might not have a habitable planet but the shareholders will be happy.