Nuclear power

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. 

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.

TheCatWoman said:

One of the power sources that's rarely talked about is tidal,

That is largely because our seas are frequently stormy and this is a fast way to damage the equipment that floats in the sea.

We sometimes have heavy seas that last for days at a time, lashing the floating pontoons with waves every few seconds day after day. We don't have the technology that can remain flexible enough to move with the waves and still take the beating from storms.

Also consider how much more frequent storms have become in recent years - possibly down to climate change and the move of the gulf stream.

I hope a technical solution is found but I think mother nature is just too brutal for our shores.

Geothermal is one area that is much more predictable and reliable but it isn't available in all regions due to the UKs relatively stable geology.

Large scale batteries (using sand is looking promising) may be a way forward using a simple heat exchange process - I've seen good results from this in the Nordic countries.

Also looking good for small scale use is the hydrogen engine - much like the petrol/diesel engine but the output is water rather than CO2

TheCatWoman said:

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

It is needed to get rid of all the petrol cars mostly - the tens of millions of electric cars needed to do this will need a truly massive, on demand electricity supply at times when solar is no good.

TheCatWoman said:

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

Have we ever really had a say? If we protest then we risk being criminalised under current laws.

TheCatWoman said:

One of the power sources that's rarely talked about is tidal,

That is largely because our seas are frequently stormy and this is a fast way to damage the equipment that floats in the sea.

We sometimes have heavy seas that last for days at a time, lashing the floating pontoons with waves every few seconds day after day. We don't have the technology that can remain flexible enough to move with the waves and still take the beating from storms.

Also consider how much more frequent storms have become in recent years - possibly down to climate change and the move of the gulf stream.

I hope a technical solution is found but I think mother nature is just too brutal for our shores.

Geothermal is one area that is much more predictable and reliable but it isn't available in all regions due to the UKs relatively stable geology.

Large scale batteries (using sand is looking promising) may be a way forward using a simple heat exchange process - I've seen good results from this in the Nordic countries.

Also looking good for small scale use is the hydrogen engine - much like the petrol/diesel engine but the output is water rather than CO2

TheCatWoman said:

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

It is needed to get rid of all the petrol cars mostly - the tens of millions of electric cars needed to do this will need a truly massive, on demand electricity supply at times when solar is no good.

TheCatWoman said:

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

Have we ever really had a say? If we protest then we risk being criminalised under current laws.