US Nuclear Power Industry Poised For a Comeback

ThousandStars sends us to The Wall Street Journal for a report that momentum for nuclear energy is waxing in the US. "For the first time in decades, popular opinion is on the industry's side. A majority of Americans thinks nuclear power, which emits virtually no carbon dioxide, is a safe and effective way to battle climate change, according to recent polls. At the same time, legislators are showing renewed interest in nuclear as they hunt for ways to slash greenhouse-gas emissions. The industry is seizing this chance to move out of the shadow of Three Mile Island and Chernobyl and show that it has solved the three big problems that have long dogged it: cost, safety and waste."

Hooray!

[Greyfox]

Time to order a couple thousand 1970s era alarm clocks (With the glowing dials) and start up a nuclear pile in my garage!

Re:1968 controls technology

[Anonymous Coward]

When you consider the state of materials science and controls technology in 1968, when construction started on the TMI reactor, it's a wonder that anything as complicated as a power plant worked at all, let alone safely.

Back then, we didn't have Windows. Now we do, and we can use Windows and Windows technologies to control our systems. Stuff like OPC (OLE for Process Control, yes, that OLE...).

And plant management can open up a nifty Excel worksheet, pulling out the numbers from the plant immediately...

</joke>

No Co2!

[salparadyse]

But your great, great, great, great, great grandchildren will be employed monitoring the "by-products".

Re:Environment??

[Anonymous Coward]

You are right, they definitely need to completely solve the waste problem before they proceed with building another nuclear plant.

Just look at the coal plants, their waste floats away on it's own. No need to store anything on site like that dirty nuclear technology!!

Re:Yeah, sure

[oldspewey]

... he then proceeded to shoot flames from his eyes in order to warm a cup of coffee while the small, winglike appendages growing from the sides of his neck flapped excitedly.

Oblig. Mr. Burns.

[Commander Doofus]

I really hate the comparisons of Three Mile Island to Chernobyl.

"Congratulations Homer! You've turned a potential Chernobyl into a mere Three Mile Island!

Re:Grrr...

[pentalive]

Yeah, Chernobyl was "lets disable all the safeties and then turn off the pumps and see what happens."

Don't play with reactors, right. got that.

Re:Environment??

[frank_adrian314159]

Personally, I think we should rethink breeder reactors.

Hell, no! Pretty soon we'd have reactors running around everywhere!

You can't build them until you can find an effective method of birth control for them!

Re:Grrr...

[Trails]

Agreed. One might even say they're the Cadillacs of analogies.

Re:Environmentalist's Fallacy

[OrangeTide]

I use this fallacy all the time, but as a joke. Or to prove the point that nothing can offer a perfect solution and that some pollution has to be tolerated.

You forget the argument against methane. It's a very strong greenhouse gas. Of course people like to ignore that it is in such small quantities that there are other green house gases that have a larger overall effect. (water vapor being the worse one I believe, so quit letting those oceans evaporate into clouds)

Re:No Co2!

[Anonymous Coward]

So you're saying... it also creates jobs! It's like a win-win!

Re:The King Wears No Clothes, but his undies are L

[ScottBob]

Radio Active Waste System Handler Intensive Treatment

R.A.W.S.H.I.T... ROFL...