• Three Mile Island: 35 Years ago
    40 replies, posted
What would be the total lifetime for a thorium reactor? Longer than current fission reactors?
[QUOTE=Snowmew;44389240]Except for the fact that over its lifetime, solar power has caused 5x more deaths per kWh than nuclear power, right?[/QUOTE] Sort of - that high figure is based off rooftop installation of solar panels, with roofing being a particularly dangerous occupation. Ground based solar panels would be significantly less dangerous, but even then you'd be looking at a roughly equal level of deaths per TWh. I'd like to see a mixture of nuclear and solar/wind energy, and solar excels in some niche areas (the low level of maintenance it requires means you can run stuff off it far off the main grid in remote areas for long periods of time).
[QUOTE=Snowmew;44389309]The irony being I'm not a nuclear physicist or anything. I got a C in (normal) Physics 101 for that matter. My only experience in the field is visiting the [URL="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvOUoM3XXGA"]SONGS plant[/URL] in Southern California (the concrete boobs in The Naked Gun) only a year or so before it closed. I was lucky enough to live around 20 miles away from it so we passed by it on the I-5 a lot, which inspired me to get interested in nuclear energy for school research projects, where I've learned a hell of a lot more than the idiots that ferret anti-nuclear propaganda from biased conspiracy sites. They don't let you in to anywhere even potentially dangerous (it took a year for my dad to be given security clearance just to do repairs on an auxiliary pump building) but they did let us take a look at the control room simulator. It is [i]incredibly[/i] spooky to watch everything in a [URL="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swr74_CDyLk"]semi-controlled (albeit simulated) failure[/URL].[/QUOTE] [quote=Wikipedia]According to figures from the California Air Resources Board, total greenhouse gas emissions from power plants in California increased by 35% in 2012, partly due to the early closure of San Onofre.[/quote] [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsbYx6hevoQ[/media]
[QUOTE=Solo Wing;44384927]This thread went from commemorating TMI to remembering how bad Gigabyte got trashed by Snowmew. To be fair, it was a trashing of epic proportions. Someone had it right when they said that Snowmew deployed the tsar bomba of counter-arguments. :v:[/QUOTE] Can someone link me :v: I really want to see this burn to end all burns [B]e: [/B] just saw it. #rekt.
It is funny that electric cars are being touted as green or eco friendly when a lot of the electricity that goes to charging those cars is produced by fossil fuels. Nuclear power is one of the most efficient, high output and green sources of energy we have. It is a shame that people have such a bad preconception of it.
[QUOTE=Fetret;44393118]It is funny that electric cars are being touted as green or eco friendly when a lot of the electricity that goes to charging those cars is produced by fossil fuels. Nuclear power is one of the most efficient, high output and green sources of energy we have. It is a shame that people have such a bad preconception of it.[/QUOTE] Getting power for EV's from coal more efficient than energy from a gas engine etc etc.
[QUOTE=Saturn V;44383288]Worst nuclear accident in the USA and one of the worst in the world, and no-one even died and there was no long-term harm to anything. Why is fear of nuclear power so prevalent? I'm not sure of the cause of 3 mile, but Chernobyl was caused by idiotic measures to override the safety systems of the plant and Fukushima, what'd you expect when a power plant running on outdated equipment gets fucked by a tidal wave and an earthquake at the same time?[/QUOTE] Haha it wasn't even the fact that it was outdated that caused Fukishima to happen The fact of the matter is the tidal wave was so big it went over the protecting wall, and because they had the backup generators on the ground level they got all taken out by the sea water. No backup generators = no way to keep the reactors from melting down. Fukishima would never have happened if the backup generators that prevent meltdown from happening were above sea level, pretty much. [editline]29th March 2014[/editline] [QUOTE=StrawberryClock;44389288]Thorium's the future of nuclear power, that's for sure.[/QUOTE] Apparently thorium isn't the silver bullet people seem to think it is Sure the system works and thorium is plentiful, but getting nuclear-grade thorium right now is (apparently) extremely expensive to produce and the system isn't exactly cheap to install either (you'd need new power plants installed period to even take advantage of thorium).
[QUOTE=OvB;44393273]Getting power for EV's from coal more efficient than energy from a gas engine etc etc.[/QUOTE] I know and obviously instead of having thousands of small combustion engines having one massive powerplant is much more efficient, but if that power was instead generated completely by nuclear power it would truly be green (pun?).
[QUOTE=SpaceGhost;44392347]What would be the total lifetime for a thorium reactor? Longer than current fission reactors?[/QUOTE] Not really. They all range from 30-50 years. [QUOTE=OvB;44392541]According to figures from the California Air Resources Board, total greenhouse gas emissions from power plants in California increased by 35% in 2012, partly due to the early closure of San Onofre.[/QUOTE] In fairness, SONGS was closed because of still-unexplained damage to the steam generators (some claim they are simply of a faulty design). It was permanently retired because eco-nut groups petitioned SCE and the NRC that it was an inherently dangerous design in a terrible location that could explode, even though the "severe damage" didn't release any significant radiation, and that which was released was contained by the containment building. It was sad to see it go mostly because of politics, but it was indeed a strange design, one of a kind iirc, that really was kind of a guessing game in terms of safety.
[QUOTE=Saturn V;44383288] I'm not sure of the cause of 3 mile, but Chernobyl was caused by idiotic measures to override the safety systems of the plant and Fukushima, what'd you expect when a power plant running on outdated equipment gets fucked by a tidal wave and an earthquake at the same time?[/QUOTE] 3-mile's control room was designed by purely by too many different people. so like a red light on one panel was a good thing, while on another panel it was a bad thing, and gauges on other things meant one thing, another gauge meant another thing, basically its a case study in non-user friendly design [editline]29th March 2014[/editline] [QUOTE=SpaceGhost;44392347]What would be the total lifetime for a thorium reactor? Longer than current fission reactors?[/QUOTE] no, because thorium would still need topping off with other enriched materials
[QUOTE=Fetret;44393118]It is funny that electric cars are being touted as green or eco friendly when a lot of the electricity that goes to charging those cars is produced by fossil fuels. Nuclear power is one of the most efficient, high output and green sources of energy we have. It is a shame that people have such a bad preconception of it.[/QUOTE] it's more efficient to generate power with a big power plant than with a car engine; plus having electric cars is a step towards switching over to a different energy source
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