> > WMECO 33% Nuclear, 39% Gas, 14% coal, 8% oil, 6% other >> Dominion 64% Nuclear, 18% Gas, 8% Coal, 2% oil, 3% hydro, 5% other Unfortunately, if we stay on the grid, we don't really have a nuke-free alternative. Mass Electric (serves Noho) also has some nuclear in its mix, if I'm not mistaken. You can, however, lower your dependence on nuclear by adding a solar system. On our 1743 farmhouse, we have a solar hot water system, which is not only excellent but lowers our electric bill by over $100 per month--and a small photovoltaic system, which produces less than I'd hoped (I think it was installed too lo on the roof) but does sell back about 10% of our purchased electricity (and I imagine saves us at least that much in electricity that we consume directly) > > >> Basically I think Dominion owns one or more nuclear power plants in >> the northeast, which are cheaper to operate than fossil-fuel >> plants. But there is that persistent problem of what to do with >> nuclear waste. Nobody wants it, and it lasts ~ 10,000 years. > >Good catch, but it leaves out a couple of things that folks should >consider. I speak from some knowledge of the nuke industry, having >worked with alongside those folks (both in those in military and the >private sector) for a couple of decades. I produced a documentary >about the issues of "safe" nuke power and heard so many lies from >their defenders and heard so many horror stories from not only those >folks but hard core scientists, that I can't enumerate them in this e- >mail. Suffice it to say, they included the facts about the half-life >of waste (actually up to a quarter million years for a couple >isotopes, Jeremy), the politicization of the industry, simple things >like wrenches getting accidently dropped in waste pools and discarded >there, technicians selling drugs in the plants, etc. I also have some knowledge of this industry, starting with reading every lay book on the subject for a college paper I wrote in 1974 (and to which I came to the subject with an open mind, and got scared--very scared), to writing a column on the problems of nuclear power in 1978-79, to writing my first book on that subject in the aftermath of Three Mile Island. Basically there is *no* good reason to go nuclear. As far as reasons to avoid it, these are some of them: * Taking the entire fuel cycle, from mining through milling, transportation, assembly into fuel rods, powering the nuke, and temporarily dealing with the waste, nuclear power actually *consumes more power than it generates*--talk about a bad trade-off! * Steven is correct--nuclear waste has to be sealed off from the environment for about 250,000 years. Typically, you can multiply the half-life of any radioactive isotope by ten in order to get an approximation of when it will be safe to treat as non-half the radiation to emit and neutralize. So if you have a pound of radioactive material, at the end of its half-life, you'll still have half a pound of radioactive and half a pound of inert. After the next half-life you still have a quarter-pound, but after ten cycles, nearly all of it is inert (you never reach zero, of course). Nukes generate a whole stew of radioactive materials; one of the deadliest, plutonium 239, has a half-life of 24,100 years--thus, the figure of a quarter million years of isolation. This is one of the most carcinogenic substances we now about, deadly to humans in doses measured with an eyedropper--and every nuke generates significant amounts. The handful of reactors operating in the US currently add 2000 *tons* of the stuff every year, and all you need is 20 pounds to make an h bomb (we won't talk about other destructive uses that require far less). [source: http://www.ucsusa.org/global_security/nuclear_terrorism/extracting-plutonium-from-nuclear-reactor-spent-fuel.html] * The only reason there is a commercial nuclear power program in this country as that the government, back in the 50s, not only announced that if private utilities wouldn't step up, it would set up its own competing power plant system--and coupled that with an incredible giveaway called the Price-Anderson Act--which established heavily subsidized insurance policies with sharply limited liability. Basically, the only ones likely to collect anything in the event of a catastrophic accident are the owners of the plant, and even they won't recoup their investment. * Then you have a whole raft of safety issues including clumsy low-level accidents like the dropped wrenches, on up to catastrophic failure through accident or terrorism or earthquake There's more, lots more--but I'll stop there. >I'm no promoter of nuke power, but I have been thinking things over >of late. What about global warming? What if nuke power is our short- >cut to getting to a hydrogen/solar economy and getting off oil? I >won't tell you what to think; as I've said, I haven't made up my own >mind. Just think about it and learn. Maybe take the sources (except >true renewables) off your ledgers in deciding where you find a >provider for the next couple of years. Here are some facts that might help make up your and others' minds: * More energy from the sun falls uncaptured on the earth than is consumed by all human activity * Rooftops are a largely untapped source of energy. Think about all the flat-roof buildings in New York City--with a quarter of their area devoted to solar collectors and another quarter for rooftop gardens: a big step toward both food (thus drastically lowering the need for petroleum input) and energy self-sufficiency * We could redesign many of our industrial and commercial processes to use a whole lot less energy. See for example my article about visionary scientist Amory Lovins and the work he's done to change industrial energy patterns: http://www.frugalmarketing.com/dtb/amorylovins.shtml In other words, we can do everything we need with conservation solar, wind, small-scale hydro, geothermal--especially if we change our use patterns (for example, buying more locally grown food) -- _________________________________________________ Shel Horowitz - 413-586-2388/800-683-WORD shel at frugalfun.com I show the world the value in your values! Award-wining author, Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First Founder of the Business Ethics Pledge, http://www.business-ethics-pledge.org _________________________________________________ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.hidden-tech.net/pipermail/hidden-discuss/attachments/20071101/1829cd3c/attachment-0005.html