A modest proposal
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The two nuclear plants in CA, San Onofre and Diablo Canyon, produce about 4.5 GW together. Both are coastline installations vulnerable to seismic and tsunami activity. CA total electrical power plant capacity is about 33 GW. In 2010 total "used capacity " for 100% full operation was about 26 GW. If the nukes were decommissioned , the loss is not too large and would have to be covered by wheeling power from adjacent networks. Neighbor states would like this and so should Californians. Why not! ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org |
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Oranges and Apples maybe? They're different technologies (BWR vs
PWR). It does not appear that any of the current issues at
Fukushima originated with the basic design, but were due to loss of
supporting infrastructure (e.g., loss of grid power to the pumps,
the wave washed out the diesel backups). It would be lot cheaper to
harden the backup power and do various other safety mods.
Eventually you'll want to retire the BWRs and PWRs because they'll
become more expensive to operate than alternatives (including Gen IV
nuclear and possibly other non-nuclear). I don't know how long it
would take to the alternatives up and running but it has to get done
before 2025 when the licenses for the current plants run out.
Decommissioning one of these Gen II reactors is not just a matter of
flipping a switch; it takes some years to happen (remember those
nice spent fuel pools).
See http://nrc.gov/reactors/advanced.html . Note that Hyperion is in Santa Fe (buy local!). On 3/16/11 1:11 PM, [hidden email] wrote:
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In reply to this post by plissaman
And lotsaluck in getting PG&E -- the power company -- to pay for the decomissioning.
-tj On Wed, Mar 16, 2011 at 1:11 PM, <[hidden email]> wrote:
-- ========================================== J. T. Johnson Institute for Analytic Journalism -- Santa Fe, NM USA www.analyticjournalism.com 505.577.6482(c) 505.473.9646(h) http://www.jtjohnson.com [hidden email] ========================================== ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org |
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