Energy: nuclear vs fossil fuels vs green.

There will probably need to be a slow conversion from one form of energy to another over time and possibly nuclear is the most efficient transition to "Green" over time, I'm not sure of the economics.

Ultimately "free/renewable" energy forms like wind and solar and ocean waves etc are the way to go, but at present they are not technologically or economically feasible. Over time as the technologies go into production the costs will go down (just like flat screen TV's) and renewable energy forms will dominate all others, but we're not there yet.

For now our efforts should be to encourage the development and deployment of these technologies so that they begin to get the production base they need to become more viable in a manufacturing sense. It's all an economic equation; as soon as the cost of these types of systems reaches a critical (low) value, they will quickly become the preferred source of energy for a number of macro-economic and geo-political reasons.

So strange that on one hand you have assbackwards reasoning and then when it comes to something like this topic you are right on. What gives?

I agree with you that nuclear energy was the way we should have continued going but people have been pressured and believe false claims that nuclear industry is dangerous and polluting.

The one thing you left out though is that a huge majority of power produced in the US is all coal which is the MOST polluting type there is. Not only that but i find it incredibly funny when I hear people say, "Well I don't drive a gas powered car, I drive an electric." But the power for the electric car comes from a coal burning power plant down the street. That's how convoluted their reasoning becomes, they think they are not polluting because they aren't using a gas powered vehicle but they are still polluting indirectly by keeping the coal burning plant in business.

In Washington state there was something like five or six nuclear plants that were in operation and now we are down to only one and it is not being used unless there is a shortage of hydro power output. They tore down the other plants after the government spent millions of dollars building them all because the environmentalists did a great job scaring the people.

I would much rather face the unlikely chance of a melt down than to watch hundreds of coal burning plants clogging up the sky and dumping it's led and mercury run off into rivers. So funny how the environmentalists attack one simple issue when the alternative is even worse.

Krumple:


"So strange that on one hand you have assbackwards reasoning and then when it comes to something like this topic you are right on. What gives?"



Funny, I was thinking the same thing about some of your reasonings...



"I agree with you that nuclear energy was the way we should have continued going but people have been pressured and believe false claims that nuclear industry is dangerous and polluting.

"The one thing you left out though is that a huge majority of power produced in the US is all coal which is the MOST polluting type there is. Not only that but i find it incredibly funny when I hear people say, "Well I don't drive a gas powered car, I drive an electric." But the power for the electric car comes from a coal burning power plant down the street. That's how convoluted their reasoning becomes, they think they are not polluting because they aren't using a gas powered vehicle but they are still polluting indirectly by keeping the coal burning plant in business. "


Yes. Top Gear has a nice segment about where all the parts from a Prius come from. It is quite shocking. Good to buy used cars. I will say the one hydrogen car I've had the opportunity to look at was very cool, but no one mentions how awful the process of obtaining vast quantities of hydrogen is. And people do say "electric cars are the way to go!" but they forget where electricity comes from if not from a nuclear plant.



"In Washington state there was something like five or six nuclear plants that were in operation and now we are down to only one and it is not being used unless there is a shortage of hydro power output. They tore down the other plants after the government spent millions of dollars building them all because the environmentalists did a great job scaring the people.

I would much rather face the unlikely chance of a melt down than to watch hundreds of coal burning plants clogging up the sky and dumping it's led and mercury run off into rivers. So funny how the environmentalists attack one simple issue when the alternative is even worse."


I agree completely. It's quite strange how we agree in some areas and not in others. I wonder why this is. But, for this area, I'd add that some people like to claim they are environmentalists because it's a fad, like having an Iphone. It's not in the news very much that there is an actual limit to how much oil we can squeeze from our poor planet, and the future depends on both compromises and rational solutions to energy consumption.

This issue must be addressed in terms of economics on many levels.

The investments into renewable green energies by OPEC (oil producing nations of the Middle East) has created a new era competition between East and West in the field of alternative energy research. Algeria, for example, has already invested in wind energy farm projects and America seems to be falling behind.

America's economic contracts with imports of BP (British Petroleum), however, seem to revamp the global free market's investments in energy diversification. After all, if America has the resources to export the world's highest quality convenience "fast food" consumerist companies (such as Burger King), it can find avenues to explore the profitability of creating consumer-friendly alternative energy production dollars.

Research into nuclear and green energies must therefore be complemented with active studies on East-West fossil fuel competitiveness. I believe that studies of the free market profitability of biofuels and electric energy will contribute to this contoured investigation. I am impressed that American celebrities such as George Clooney, for example, have been publicly endorsing the eco-friendly electric car.