Several weeks ago Joshua Pearce at Clarion University in Pennsylvania released a study titled “ Thermodynamic limitations to nuclear energy deployment as a greenhouse gas mitigation technology .” In the study he stated... nuclear energy production would have to increase by 10.5% per year from 2010 to 2050 to both replace fossil-fuel-energy use and meet the future energy demands. This line, of course, made the headlines and has been picked up by several outlets and blogs . When looking into his calculations for this statement, he made one assumption error that overstated the above sentence by nearly a factor of three. Page 121, Section 4.1 of the study states: Richard Smalley pointed out that in 2004, the global economy consumed the equivalent of 220 million barrels of oil per day, which converted into electricity terms is the equivalent of 14.5 TeraWatts (TW), or 14,500,000 MegaWatts (MW) (2005). … With a nuclear plant having about 1000 MW (1 GW) of capacity, we would need 14,500...
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Consider the amount of heat that is pumped into the Lakes in its effort to cool reactors. And what about the heat that rises out of their enclosures and heat the atmosphere continually? Tell me, is that not part of what we call "Global warming?" Consider Europe. Some reactors had to be shut down because the water levels had dropped so low that it was no longer possible to cool the reactors. Even shipping was affected. Do the politicians think us that dumb that we can not reason out that by continually dumping in heated water from the reactors cooling processes into the waterways and Lakes, it increases the rate of evaporation?
Both the prime minister and the premier have been informed that there is an alternative way to create electrical power without causing air pollution, global warming and wasting more of our non-renewable fuel sources. And how do we do that? By using a free and endless resource available world-wide, providing a constant reliable electrical power source, not dependent on solar or wind conditions. Furthermore, have we not learned our lesson as to the debts we incurred going Nuclear?
Take a look at your monthly hydro bill. Those charges named "Debt reduction" will be forever on our bills because we have not even started paying on the costs of de-commissioning existing Nuclear Generating Stations.
The remaining debt on having gone Nuclear is stil 35 billion dollars and all our payments made, don't seem to make an iota of difference!!
Gentlemen, be careful. You are playing with the future of many generations to come!
There is a better way. And it certainly will not even come close to the staggering costs of building Nuclear facilities. We have a better answer.
If Ontario is planning to go Nuclear it has a hard time convincing a lot of people that going Nuclear is an environmental friendly idea. Nuclear is not! ... Consider the amount of heat that is pumped into the Lakes in its effort to cool reactors. And what about the heat that rises out of their enclosures and heat the atmosphere continually? Tell me, is that not part of what we call "Global warming?"
Simon,
If you're going to try to be an "environmentalist," at least be prepared to learn a few of the key points to make yourself sound credible. I can understand if you flunk the test on nuclear (many "environmentalists" do), but you should at least know the alleged causes of "global warming." Go ask a climate scientist -- you just got an "F".
And in case you have not figured out, the answer to your last question (quoted above) is NO.
This means you need more cooling water, and can indeed more evaporation from lakes. However, if this is a problem, there are cooling tower designs that use air, not water, to cool the plants; and, furthermore, the efficiency loss that will be incurred if we ever actually build "clean coal" power stations will probably result in the coal-fired power stations using the same or more water than nuclear.
In any case, however, this is not what is causing global warming, according to climate scientists. The amount of heat dumped *directly* into the atmosphere by humans is miniscule compared to the amount provided by the sun (yes, even in Canada...). The problem with global warming is all about the increased amounts of CO2 and other gases in the atmosphere not letting heat escape into space as readily as it used to.