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lar1203
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Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
how do you feel about nuclear power plants?
in Green Living
there is talk of building a site in my state. i am feeling uneasy about it. what are your thoughts?
Re: how do you feel about nuclear power plants?
There are 2 active plants in Minnesota that were opened in the 1970's. The one on the Mississippi River stores nuclear waste on site. I never thought much about them before but I sure have now, since I'm an hour from both.
Recent news stories mentioned the safety measures that are in place and how they have emergency drills every 2 years but I don't completely trust government to ensure our safety. It's scary to think that if something went wrong, we could face serious consequences not only where I live but down the entire Mississippi and into the Gulf of Mexico.
I know I personally can't do anything about it. These sites have been around for 30+ years and they have another 20 years left on their contracts so what are the options? If they were proposing another nuclear site, I would join efforts to oppose it. It seems like it's easier to prevent something than to get rid of it once it's in place. The government should be pushing renewable, safe energy instead of energy that we know can have a devastating effect on the planet.
Tired after a long morning of hiking and swimming.
I think it's silly to waste billions of dollars on an energy source that could become unstable, resulting in a disaster of epic proportions, or could fall into the wrong hands and result in the same disaster. I was thinking about this the other day, what if we took the billions of dollars it takes to approve and build a new nuclear plant and invested it in solar or wind instead? Think of how far those technologies could come with that investment. Everyone complains that "solar and wind don't work when the sun/wind doesn't shine/blow." How far do you think energy storage abilities could come with a multi-billion dollar investment? It would be the Manhattan project, but for renewable energy instead.
But noooooo, we have to plunge ahead with what we know, rather than working on new technology
I live within 15 miles of Three Mile Island and today is the anniversary of the TMI accident.
I don't worry about meltdowns on a daily basis or anything, but I certainly don't view it as risk-free either. As of today, I see no perfect solution to our energy needs. I agree that it's difficult to understand especially, through all of the propaganda. Around here, the articles and commentary about the safety of nuclear power have been bombarding us daily since the problems began in Japan.
It bothers me that we've been generating nuclear power for longer than my entire lifetime and still have no permament solution for managing the nuclear waste (spent fuel rods) generated in the process. I'm not convinced there is a solution.
I actually have an application in to work for that new plant project in GA. I've been in the industry for 10 years now as a reactor engineer and instructor so if you have any questions about the plants, please ask. I currently live 15 miles from our plant and would much rather live by the nuclear plant than any other energy source.
As for the used fuel, we have technical solutions, but can't work out the politics of it. France has a beautiful system that I think answers most concerns. They reprocess and remove what is still usable (uranium and plutonium) and encase the rest in glass blocks. The blocks are currently stored underground and a research facility is located above the storage site (answering concerns of abandonment of the site). At that facility they are researching ways of making further use of the materials that are currently considered waste.
I lurk on this board occasionally, but if you page me on MM or P&CE I'll come back over and answer.
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