Nuclear Power is Not the Answer to Global Warming or Anything Else
Nuclear Power is Not the Answer to Global Warming or Anything Else – Review
Nuclear power boils water to create steam that spin the turbines connected to electric generators – that’s it. Along the way, a group of people get a share of money, and a good deal of that money goes from taxpayers and electricity customers. If nuclear power were so wonderful, plant owners would be willing to build them with their own money. Solar panels and windmills have a one time cost and then they now sit there and generate power. They don’t have high highly paid workers examining the core to make sure it does not overheat and release deadly radiation to anyone unlucky enough to live within 30 miles, sicken everyone within 100 miles, and endanger everyone downwind of the stricken nuclear power plant. Windmills also do not require guards with M-16’s (I have been to a Nuke plant) guarding against terrorist threats. …and by the way, why do we dam a WHOLE river instead of setting up turbines every few miles along a river that spin in a current and generate power more locally, but even let fish (and boats, gotta have boats) pass? If conventional bulbs were officially outlawed and LED fixtures were really screwed into previously existing light sockets the same amount of light in every home would commonly used just 2 percent of the quantity of electricity required to light homes now (lighting is usually the number one overall cost in one complete year). If “leakage current” was officially outlawed so that every TV and electonic device took 0 to 5 micro amps while quickly turned off (depending on the device) we would conserve up to an additional ninety per cents of “empty device” power usage per ratepaying customer. It’s customers making the same lifestyle without any sacrifice. Consider this, not a separate business VOLUNTEERED to take lead out of gasoline, it was mandated. So was sulfur removal from diesel fuel. Laws prevent businesses participate by effectively making the playing field level for everyone. Has that completely eliminated power plants owned by hungry people who control hundreds of thousands of pieces of stocks in an industry growing further profitable with every deregulation permitted? No. Power plants are still necessary for some time to come. But if these and other conservation measures adopt place, and if every business and home roof makes a solar panel, every farm and zoned suburban designate a windmill – why, think of all the money we would have probably saved by no longer producing oil companies giant tax stops (Bush, 2002) to find further oil. There is SO much more, but I will leave you with this… Spring 2007, 60 Minutes did a story on energy, and do you know the California wind farm produced famous in “Rain Man” and other films? I am not effectively making this up, it seems that is a privately owned business, and the power company just cannot get around to hooking up ALL the windmills onto the grid to purchase all the power being finitely generated there…