Ohio faces a decision soon about its two nuclear reactors, Davis-Besse and Perry, and on Wednesday, neighbors of one of those plants issued a cry for help. The reactors’ problem is that the price of electricity they sell on the high-voltage grid is depressed, mostly because of a surplus of natural gas. And the reactors do not get any revenue for the other benefits they provide. Some of those benefits are regional – emissions-free electricity, reliability with months of fuel on-site, and diversity in case of problems or price spikes with gas or coal, state and federal payroll taxes, and national economic stimulus as the plants buy fuel, supplies and services. Some of the benefits are highly localized, including employment and property taxes. One locality is already feeling the pinch: Oak Harbor on Lake Erie, home to Davis-Besse. The town has a middle school in a building that is 106 years old, and an elementary school from the 1950s, and on May 2 was scheduled to have a referendu
Comments
The nuclear future here will be thermochemical hydrogen used captively to make dimethyl ether, (DME).
This is what we should be pushing for.
DME is much like LPG in its properties, and is more versatile than either gasoline, natural gas, LPG. It's extraordinarily clean and can be made with a nuclear source of primary energy.
NNadir.
DME is consistent with the use of nuclear power for motor fuel manufacture. Arguably nuclear power could be the best option for making the stuff.
DME is the perfect fluid fuel for generation synthetically from hydrogen, since it can be made by hydrogenation of carbon dioxide directly.
I wrote at length about this subject in a diary called "Banning Oil: Dimethyl ether, Hydrogen, Nuclear Power and Motor Fuel for Cars and Trucks."
Here is the link:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/11/24/195214/27
DME is suitable for use in all gas fired systems, including gas fired turbines that could be used in automotive settings. It runs diesels quite well. It is non-toxic. It has a short lifetime in the atmosphere.
Best of all, it is available conceivably in vast quantities from nuclear energy.
-NNadir