Obama announces loan guarantees for two nuclear reactors - Polidicks

[quote]Washington (CNN) -- President Obama announced $8.3 billion in loan guarantees Tuesday for two nuclear reactors to be built in Burke County, Georgia. No new nuclear power plants have been built in the United States in three decades. The new reactors are to be part of an expansion of an existing nuclear facility near Augusta, Georgia, operated by Atlanta-based Southern Co. The loan guarantees will help create 3,500 on-site construction jobs and 850 permanent operations jobs, administration officials claimed. The reactors will help provide power to over 550,000 homes and 1.4 million people, it said. "This is only the beginning," Obama said during a visit to an International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers training facility in Lanham, Maryland. "We'll continue to provide financing for clean energy projects ... across America." The president acknowledged that construction of new nuclear facilities will meet with some political resistance. Nuclear development has traditionally been opposed by more progressive elements of the Democratic Party. "The fact is, even though we have not broken ground on a new nuclear plant in nearly 30 years, nuclear energy remains our largest source of fuel that produces no carbon emissions," Obama said. "To meet our growing energy needs and prevent the worst consequences of climate change, we'll need to increase our supply of nuclear power. It's that simple." At the same time, the president argued, traditional Republican proponents of nuclear power should acknowledge that comprehensive energy legislation is needed to help provide incentives making clean energy more profitable. Any new nuclear facilities, he promised, will "be held to the highest and strictest safety standards." Nuclear power critics have slammed the administration's decision to back the construction of new reactors. "The last thing Americans want is another government bailout for a failing industry, but that's exactly what they're getting from the Obama administration," energy analyst Ben Schreiber said in a press release issued this past weekend. Schreiber works for the progressive group Friends of the Earth, which opposes nuclear power. "The Department of Energy is putting taxpayers on the hook for bailing out costly and dangerous nuclear reactor projects when the loans used to finance those projects default. This is great news for Wall Street but a bad deal for Main Street." The risk of default is high, Schreiber argued, while nuclear power "remains unsafe and dirty." Obama's proposed fiscal year 2011 budget triples loan guarantees for nuclear power plants to over $54 billion, the White House noted. CNN's Suzanne Malveaux and Alan Silverleib contributed to this report.[/quote] [URL="http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/02/16/obama.jobs/index.html?hpt=T2"]Source[/URL] IMO, this is not bad and inb4 oh hurr chernobyl that was back in the 80's. Modern plants are more safe.

All of our nuclear plants were constructed decades ago. It's about time we upgraded our shit.

But how come Iran can't build Nuclear reactors; its for the same purpose.

[QUOTE=starpluck;20251797]But how come Iran can't build Nuclear reactors; its for the same purpose.[/QUOTE] They are making nukes&other shit like that :downs:

[QUOTE=Wii60;20251816]They are making nukes&other shit like that :downs:[/QUOTE] That's what they said in Iraq :downs: [B]EDIT: [/B]Disregard, my bad.

[QUOTE=starpluck;20251830]That's what they said in Iraq :downs:[/QUOTE] But iran makes it pretty damn obvious that they are(Or attempting to) making them [URL]http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=2552810[/URL]

[QUOTE=starpluck;20251830]That's what they said in Iraq :downs:[/QUOTE] Iraq didn't have an uranium enrichment plant. Iran does. Also, remember [b]who[/b] said that.

[QUOTE=starpluck;20251797]But how come Iran can't build Nuclear reactors; its for the same purpose.[/QUOTE] There is a huge difference in building a nuclear reactor and creating/enriching weapons grade uranium.

Regardless, Assuming Iran does in fact have nuclear weapons, they aren't necessarily a threat to anyone besides Israel. Iran would knows they would get the shit beaten out of them if NORAD spots the slightest dot. Israel is just scared that Iran will have nukes just like them; Israel does not want Iran to be powerful as them, because Israel wants to be the dominant nation so badly.

its a conspiracy

[QUOTE=starpluck;20251926]Regardless, Assuming Iran does in fact have nuclear weapons, they aren't necessarily a threat to anyone besides Israel. Iran would knows they would get the shit beaten out of them if NORAD spots the slightest dot. Israel is just scared that Iran will have nukes just like them; Israel does not want Iran to be powerful as them, because Israel wants to be the dominant nation so badly.[/QUOTE] Stop trying to derail the thread so hard. It is completely irrelevant.

Hitler was developing nuclear weapons. :godwin:

your mom is developing nuclear weapons :effort:

Good...nuclear power is safe and comparatively very clean. I hope they build many new plants in the coming decades to replace coal plants

[QUOTE=Wii60;20251816]They are making nukes&other shit like that :downs:[/QUOTE] So are we. [editline]01:32PM[/editline] [QUOTE=Lankist;20251793]All of our nuclear plants were constructed decades ago. It's about time we upgraded our shit.[/QUOTE] It's not an upgrade, they're making a completely new plant.

Finally Obama does something smart. Coal is not the way to go. Nuclear is. :D

[QUOTE=CodeMonkey3;20252300]So are we. [editline]01:32PM[/editline] It's not an upgrade, they're making a completely new plant.[/QUOTE] But we don't go around actively wanting to kill another country with our nukes.

[QUOTE=laval;20252286]Good...nuclear power is safe and comparatively very clean. I hope they build many new plants in the coming decades to replace coal plants[/QUOTE] Agreed, I don't get it why people are against nuclear power as coal mining is a huge health/enviroment-hazard and it pollutes fucking much. Wind/Solar is cool, but sadly very depending on the conditions of weather. And it costs a lot.

Nice, i fully support nuclear power. The UK government has OK'd the construction of 15 new sites, provided suitable locations can be found. It's a very clean, very safe alternative to fossil fuels. No Chernobyl won't happen, cheap russian designs lead to Chernobyl incidents.

[QUOTE=Spartex;20252399]Nice, i fully support nuclear power. The UK government has OK'd the construction of 15 new sites, provided suitable locations can be found. It's a very clean, very safe alternative to fossil fuels. No Chernobyl won't happen, cheap russian designs lead to Chernobyl incidents.[/QUOTE] Three Mile Island? Edit: Accidents happens. Does not work to blame on "cheap designs".

[QUOTE=Deathbyfire;20252352]But we don't go around actively wanting to kill another country with our nukes.[/QUOTE] Yeah, I wasn't saying that it made it okay for Iran to do it too.

[QUOTE=Swebonny;20252483]Three Mile Island? Edit: Accidents happens. Does not work to blame on "cheap designs".[/QUOTE] *Shrug* All i know is the british stations are failsafed for every event to lead to the safety rods being ejected and the core being flooded with some random ass fluid that halts the chances of any further reactions Don't know details, my uncle de-comissions them, he's into all that stuff.

[QUOTE=Swebonny;20252483]Three Mile Island? Edit: Accidents happens. Does not work to blame on "cheap designs".[/QUOTE] Hey, shit happens, and a lot has been learned from that incident.

[QUOTE=Swebonny;20252483]Three Mile Island? Edit: Accidents happens. Does not work to blame on "cheap designs".[/QUOTE] blame it on dumb people. 3 Mile Island was a disaster averted because of a few smart people. Nuclear would be a less problematic power source if people go the sticks out their asses and weren't afraid. hell we already have sites designed to store plenty of waste. We have waste there might as well use the spot... But the only way we can get past the waste is if we started using nuclear more often, with that we will start coming up with more tech to help us. Also people in the USA are commonly BSing how they want to be more like Europe, well France has over 3/4s of its power generated by nuclear.

[QUOTE=CodeMonkey3;20252300]It's not an upgrade, they're making a completely new plant.[/QUOTE] upgrade to our national infrastructure what are you 12? [editline]01:59PM[/editline] [QUOTE=Swebonny;20252483]Three Mile Island? Edit: Accidents happens. Does not work to blame on "cheap designs".[/QUOTE] Except since that incident every reactor has been retrofitted with new safety measures making it nigh impossible for a meltdown to occur. Our nuclear reactors are designed to shut down before anything can go wrong. If a station is unattended, or even if someone TRIES to cause a meltdown, it won't happen. The plants are designed to require constant monitoring, input and maintenance to simply continue running without shutting down for safety's sake. And those are reactors built DECADES ago. Newer designs are even safer and cleaner than the retrofits that have been made to existing ones. Only we haven't built any new reactors because pussies who don't understand how the fuck this shit works and the kinds of advancements have been made since the fucking 70's are frightened of nonexistent threats.

Good. Regardless of the financial situation we will always be in need of more power.

Furthermore if we DO begin building new reactors, guess what the next step is. DECOMMISSIONING THE OLD ONES. That means shit would be even SAFER than it goddamn is right now.

From what my physics teacher told me, chernobyl was a result of the russians trying to run tests with an active reactor, and to the that they shut off safety protocols designed to prevent meltdowns. They then decided to see how far they could pull the control rods out of the fuel before shit hit the fan. Unfortunately, this built up a lot of heat, and when they finally realized they fucked up, they tried to push the rods back in, which fused to some shit and got stuck before they could get somewhere to do some good. The rods then became over saturated, stopped doing their job, and fucked shit up. Newer reactors push in the rods from the top AND the bottom, so they can get more accurate positioning, as well as faster results in the event they need to shut the fucker down. Also, I believe they use a more/ less, can't think which would make more sense, element in the rods. [editline]07:10PM[/editline] Also the russians are/were cheap bastards, who probably used socks in the design somewhere. And vodka as coolant. [editline]07:10PM[/editline] And vodka for the water too.

[QUOTE=Deathbyfire;20252873]Also the russians are/were cheap bastards, who probably used socks in the design somewhere. And vodka as coolant. [editline]07:10PM[/editline] And vodka for the water too.[/QUOTE] Vodka is a fairly decent coolant as long as you avoid sub -40c temps. Edit 100% proof vodka, that is. But hey, it's Russians.

[QUOTE=Deathbyfire;20252873]From what my physics teacher told me, chernobyl was a result of the russians trying to run tests with an active reactor, and to the that they shut off safety protocols designed to prevent meltdowns. They then decided to see how far they could pull the control rods out of the fuel before shit hit the fan. Unfortunately, this built up a lot of heat, and when they finally realized they fucked up, they tried to push the rods back in, which fused to some shit and got stuck before they could get somewhere to do some good. The rods then became over saturated, stopped doing their job, and fucked shit up. Newer reactors push in the rods from the top AND the bottom, so they can get more accurate positioning, as well as faster results in the event they need to shut the fucker down. Also, I believe they use a more/ less, can't think which would make more sense, element in the rods. [editline]07:10PM[/editline] Also the russians are/were cheap bastards, who probably used socks in the design somewhere. And vodka as coolant. [editline]07:10PM[/editline] And vodka for the water too.[/QUOTE] I'm quite sure we have all heard this about ten times now. Related to the news, Hurrah! the Three Mile Curse has been broken!