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.

There was a company here in Wales that wanted to do tidal power in Swansea Bay, they did loads of research and environmental impact studies, even offered to remove it at thier own cost if it didn't work or harmed wildlife, it wasn't allowed to go ahead. From what I remember it didn't involve floating pontoons, but impeller type of thingies under the water, also if we can have offshore wind turbines and floating oil platforms, then why are the seas to heavy for tidal power? If we don't have real world trials then it will never get done and nothing will change.

I'll be glad when the do get hydrogen, then maybe I'll get rid of my car with it's infernal combustion engine, I just hope that the vehiches will be less complicated than the electric cars I've seen, because going by them, I think I could probably crash one before ever getting off the drive!

No we often don't get much say in things like power stations, but we did get some and to be honest one of the least of my worries is being prosecuted, if I get a criminal record then so be it.

I agree Herge, our country is broken and it's no better in North Wales that is is anywhere else in the north, to get to  the Welsh capital by train, I pretty much have to go via another country, England. I think stating HS2 in London was madness and it should have been started in Manchester at least with the next bits being to Leeds and places north.

But I still don't think that nuclear is right, do we actually know where the waste thats been created in the last 60-70 years is? One of the problems is that governments and energy authorities can be so secretive about this sort of thing that they don't see to tell themselves where things are, how an earth is waste going to be kept track of for the next tens of thousands of years, if we can't keep track of it over the last 60 years?

It is tricky with me.......I know that......I'm obscure and confusing to most souls.

All I was trying to say was that I believe that some people are wholly "anchored" in one place....and have been for endless generations.  Generally, I find these type of people incredibly reasonable.......whether they be Iraqi, Mayan, Irish, German, etc......they seem to be grounded and straightforward......and I like that.

I was TRYING (yes- almost certainly very badly) to pay you a compliment!!

I was trying to tell you that I now understand why I perceive you as "grounded and straightforward"........and I like that!  You are simply "Southern English."

Unlike most humans these days, I don't care whether I agree with people on everything, or even on most things......I just like them to be grounded and straightforward and without any evangelical drive which wishes to change me.

I think we might have got crossed wires here Number, it sounded like you were having some kind of pop at me, but it would appear from your response that you weren't. and wanted to open dialogue, that would be good?

I guess not then.  I'll leave you be.

WTF are you on about?

TheCatWoman said:

Makes me wonder if my people have been knocking around here for a very long time?

No sh*t sister!  Now we have perhaps have found an appropriate wavelength for communication?

Actually I was quite surprised when I had my ancestry DNA done that I'm almost entirely southern English, no Scandinavian or Irish for that matter at all. Makes me wonder if my people have been knocking around here for a very long time? Maybe as the tests get better, I'll have it done again and see if they can go deeper? It would seem that I come from a long line of fierce and independent women, my gran could get with a plate from the other side of the street and my nans auntie who lived to be 99, was one of the "surplus women" after WW1, where she lost her husband at Gallipolli, raised my nan and her brother after thier mum died, informally adopted another baby from neighbours, and was self employed as a seemstress and dressmaker, all at a time when a woman had to have a mans signature to do things like have a back account, sign any legal document and all sorts of things like that. SHe lived long enough to see my children, her 4th generation decendants.

Are you having to be careful and not eat to much, my belly thinks my throats been cut and seems to stick to my spine after a tummy bug, I have to pace myself with one slice of toast and marmite at a time and not a loaf of bread toasted with marmite, lol.

on the mend - thanks for asking. Had my first meal in 3 days so all is looking up.

It does sound like there is Nordic ancestry in you with your height, fierce independence and affinity to the cold.

Yeah maybe I do, or something, I seem to be a cold adapted Nothern European, if we get high pressure in winter and its cold and snowy, especially with snow, I have more enegery than I know what to do with and sometimes have to run up and down stairs just to burn it off.

How's your tummy?

Sounds like you may have some polar bear DNA in you LOL

My body really dosen't cope well with heat, fybromyalgia means I can't control my bodies temperature. I sweat so much I can't drink enough and end up with a weird mixture of bloated stomach from drinking so much and dry burning skin. I frequently can't eat when it's to hot, I once went for five days without eating anything, even fruit, I sometimes have to force myself to swallow, my joints swell up, esepcially my knees and ankles, I feel sick and dizzy all the time and my blood pressure drops. Doctors have run all sort of tests and everything comes back normal, I've tried various alternative therapies, but none of them have helped, the only thing that  has is sniffing rosemary essential oil to raise my blood pressure a bit. I'd be interested to know how to think this lot away.

TheCatWoman said:

I must admit to not knowing how you can cope with the heat

I spent last week demolishing brick walls, cutting channels through concrete floors for pipework, moving tons or rubble to the skip and taking in tons of new materials that often had to be carried up 6 floors worth of stairs because they were too long to fit in the lift.

I was spending 8 hours a day sweating profusely so had to keep hydrated carefully but it did run me down to the point an opportunist somach bug has floored me this week (hence the higher interaction level on here).

I guess this level of physical stress when I am nearly 60 isn't without it's risks.

I found that the impact of the heat was something I really used to struggle with until I worked out that it is one of those things that was largely mental. I used the concious mind to over-ride the signals from my subconcious that it was too much - rationalised whether it was a need to rehydrate or just the "its uncomfortable" signals and with practice could recondition myself to work in conditions that I would otherwise have been unable to do.

I don't remember when I picked up this technique but it has been very useful for shutting down a lot of the autism related sensitivities I have when I need to.

TheCatWoman said:

there should be more consultation about things that are going to change our lives as profoundly as AI, people should be made more aware of the consequenses.

The downside here is that most of the government don't properly understand AI anyway and the general public seem largely informed by scaremongering news stories so I doubt we could have a realistic conversation in a debate anyway.

The politics of power stations are often much more involved than we know, with foreign companies lobbying (read bribing) the government to get the contracts to build / run them, MPs wanting the jobs in their areas for them and no end of influence peddlers having their say.

It wouldn't be in the energy minsters interests for the public to see that they will have a seat on the board of the electricity company once their term is over (wit the accompanying 6 figure salary) as their incentive.

I don't expect the government to to poll us on every descision, but there should be more consultation about things that are going to change our lives as profoundly as AI, people should be made more aware of the consequenses.

You're probably right I don't trust what the government says, any government, yours or mine and I don't trust nuclear energy.

I think we're going to have to agree to differ over this, as on so many other things.

I must admit to not knowing how you can cope with the heat, even with aircon, the low thirties would have me housebound and possibly hospitalised, but then I was the person sent home in a taxi because being out in 23.C heat and sunshine was to much.

I used to live about 10 mikes from a nuclear plant. If you were on a road late at night you could see totally black lorries which apparently were removing waste. I don't know where it went but I have heard it was abroad. Wherever it goes I wonder how much capacity there is worldwide for disposal and is there risk of it being disturbed for example by earthquakes.

I used to live about 10 mikes from a nuclear plant. If you were on a road late at night you could see totally black lorries which apparently were removing waste. I don't know where it went but I have heard it was abroad. Wherever it goes I wonder how much capacity there is worldwide for disposal and is there risk of it being disturbed for example by earthquakes.