Is nuclear energy the way to go?

Question

How dos it compare to other types of renuable energy?

Answer 1

ive heard it said a postage sized nuclear stamp could heat your house for 15 years..

nuclear seems the cheapest, cleanist, most likely...solar works in some places got to have a good location, wind is the same way...if you have to have a backup system...wheres the savings?...right now natural gas is good....but that might change....i dont see things changing too fast...

Answer 2

Read a good article in Wired. They make the point that coal plants kill many more people per year than nuckuler plants.

Not sure that I can argue that point, but if a coal plant explodes, the explosion would be local and over in a few days. A nuclear explosion? Read the book on Chernobyl!!!

Answer 3

France is getting most of its electricity from nuclear

So far no Tchernobyl type accidents...

Note that when Tchernobyl happened you could measure radiation in the air and vegetables in France (far away)...

Answer 4

Chernobyl anyone?

Answer 5

It only takes one accident.  Chernobyl happened in 1986 and it is still basically uninhabitable.  It went from a busy city to a ghost town over night.  Barely anyone lives there even now after 21 years.  I would want that to happen in my town.

Answer 6

I did some quick checking on "Goggle" and it seems that there are about 100 plants supplying about 20% of the nation's electricity. So far, none of them have blown up or wiped out any towns (I know about Three Mile Island....).

I whipped out my calculator and it would seem that another 400 plants could supply all our electricity, if you want to go to an extreme.

I live near Niagara Falls and there they generate massive amounts of electricity from water. No need to replace that. But a lot power plants are coal and/or oil fed. We could replace those.

If only we didn't have to worry about those damned terroists.....

Answer 7

I love nuclear energy that the fact that it emits no green house gases. and the fact they emit less radioactive substance into atmosphere than a coal power plant. The amount of their output is in the terawatts a year which is insane.

For all of the politucal bull that you hear through presidental elections they just want the people to fell that nuclear is bad. mostly by making them feel "oh no Nuclear That is bad all those poor people that died in Japan" well the fact is it is not a nuclear bomb it is a nuclear power plant. also sence U235 the fissionable substance that they use emits low level radiation because it has an uber high half life.

Hope i changed the way you feel about nuclear and coal

Thanks

Answer 8

I learned all about this yesturday. Uranium is found all over the world, and in its natural form it is safe. They make these tiny pellets out of it that are put into nuclear reactors, and when the reactors are full, they last from 18 months to two years. So in other words, a tiny little thing makes a ton of energy, unlike coal which is getting harder to find, and it takes a lot of it to make the same amount of energy. The worst thing about nuclear energy, is that all of the energy doesnt get used out of the uranium so there is a good bit of toxic waste affiliated with it.

EDIT: I have this paper that says 1 pellet of Uranium is equal to about three 42 gallon barrels of oil, or 1 ton of coal, or 17,000 cubic feet of natural gas.

Answer 9

They are also researching ways to recycle the spent fuel rods possibly getting 90% back in the reactor, greatly reducing the nuclear waste problem.

Right now it is the only realistic energy source that would answer the supposed CO2 dilema and still satisfy energy demand.