If we can build a nuclear powered aircraft carrier or submarine in 2 years why not a power reactor for cities?

Question

I don't understand...please help me figure this one out. We can build nuclear reactors for ships going into storms, going out to be shot at, etc, but we can't build a reactor for our biggest cities and put them to use? A nuclear powered submarine costs about $5 billion and we don't need all the missile technology - just the reactor. We should be able to build these kinds of reactors for our biggest cities - in less then 10 years? Why not?

Answer 1

As long as disasters like Cherynoble and close calls like three mile island are even remotely possible public opinion is very sore towards nuclear power. That and it does produce nuclear waste that has to be stored. Imagine a train carrying that stuff through your neighborhood and derailing or being targeted by terrorist. Yeah I know the real risk is very minor. But it doesn't take much to scare the public these days.

Really for 5 billion we could invest in other alternative energy sources like wind or solar. Supposedly if we built enough solar collectors to cover 200 square miles, we could power the world. I say build that sucker right over Washington DC. Make those politicans actually useful for something.

Answer 2

If we did speculation on oil would simply shift to uranium and plutonium putting those prices through the roof, it's not a supply problem, it is a problem w. the way free markets operate.  You couldn't have every Tom, d**k and Harry running even small n plants, national security, corruption, backhanders, Accidents on a scale never seen for 1 city's worth of power, to top it all oil would be down at $5 a barrel again due to less demand and we would be stuck w. nuclear and the future decommissioning costs and waste.

Answer 3

Because Gore and his looney far left followers won't allow nuclear power plants.  We had a perfectly good one on Long Island but the liberals never let it come on line. 5 billion dollars and it just sits and rots, much like liberals.

Answer 4

Because the environmentalists won't allow it.  They can't organize against the military but they can scare enough people to not allow it in their town.

Answer 5

Democrats. The blight of my existence (well, sometimes). They don't seem to like things that work well. You'd think they'd like it better than coal, but apparently not. We can produce reactors pretty fast and operate them safely. If someone says that nuclear power is "dangerous" or not "eco-friendly" they really don't know anything about it. Some people need to stop reading comic books and wake up. Radiation is normal. We get more of it from watching TV for an hour than we do from the whole nuclear power industry in the US. And ever talk on a cell phone? Thats WAY worse than living next to Three Mile Island.

Answer 6

Because the environmental lobby doesn't understand that nuclear is the cleanest, most efficient form of energy, and gets people elected to keep us from using it.

Answer 7

we do, they're called nuclear power plants. but they only contribute a portion of our total energy consumption, mostly coal, which is dirt-nasty

Answer 8

While a Naval nuclear powered vessel can be built from the keel up in the amount of time you've stated it takes a lot longer than that to perform the tasks at hand.  When a particular vessel is authorized and funded the off site construction begins.  It takes years of construction at non-shipyard facilities to get the vessel, steam generators, and loop equipment constructed and delivered during the actual construction of the vessel.

Answer 9

This is simple... because the democrats are against ANY kind of energy exploration.

How does Obama expect to even have a chance at winning when he says NO to drilling, NO to nuclear, NO to just about everything.

Answer 10

cause the liberals claim they want alternative energy sources other than oil. but yet when the very feasible alternative source of energy (nuclear) comes up to the table they strike it down with their environmental rabbling.

Answer 11

Because we don't allow the environmentalnazis anywhere near our weapons.  Many of the cities (especially on both coasts) on the other hand are overrun with the liberal illness.

Peace

Answer 12

A good point. but too many people still have 'Three Mile

Island Syndrome'!