Too late for that. Could have been investing in nuclear for decades.
Dire 2050 high temperature predictions for Europe arriving in 2022
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Too late for that. Could have been investing in nuclear for decades.
Molten Salt Reactors
Update: See our full page on Molten Salt Reactors for more info.One especially cool possibility suitable for the slow-neutron breeding capability of the Th-U fuel cycle is the molten salt reactor (MSR), or as one particular MSR is commonly known on the internet, the Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactors (LFTR). In these, fuel is not cast into pellets, but is rather dissolved in a vat of liquid salt. The chain reaction heats the salt, which naturally convects through a heat exchanger to bring the heat out to a turbine and make electricity. Online chemical processing removes fission product neutron poisons and allows online refueling (eliminating the need to shut down for fuel management, etc.). None of these reactors operate today, but Oak Ridge had a test reactor of this type in the 1960s called the Molten Salt Reactor Experiment [wikipedia] (MSRE). The MSRE successfully proved that the concept has merit and can be operated for extended amounts of time. It competed with the liquid metal cooled fast breeder reactors (LMFBRs) for federal funding and lost out. Alvin Weinberg discusses the history of this project in much detail in his autobiography, The First Nuclear Era [amazon.com], and there is more info available all over the internet. These reactors could be extremely safe, proliferation resistant, resource efficient, environmentally superior (to traditional nukes, as well as to fossil fuel obviously), and maybe even cheap. Exotic, but successfully tested. Who’s going to start the startup on these? (Just kidding, there are already like 4 startups working on them, and China is developing them as well).
A Thorium-Salt Reactor Has Fired Up for the First Time in Four Decades
The road to cleaner, meltdown-proof nuclear power has taken a big step forward. Researchers at NRG, a Dutch nuclear materials firm, have begun the first tests of nuclear fission using thorium salts since experiments ended at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the early 1970s. Thorium has several...
Many of possibilities with nukes. The science and engineering just doesn’t hold up for using solar and wind as a base load alternative. It never will.
Many studies have been done in terms of energy accounting of fossil fuel based power production vs wind & solar. Wind & solar have only a slight advantage, but their negative impact on the environment is greater— extensive strip mining, heavy use of FF-based energy requirements, habitat destruction, land-fill requirements etc etc….One of the biggest problems in terms of energy requirements for production is that they last only 20-25 years before they need to be re-duplicated..There’s just not enough natural resources for them to completely replace Fos Fuels….Net Zero is a pipe dream
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anon_mlxxvlbug9dpa
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Agreed. Need to figure out spent fuel storage/destruction too but I feel like that can be solved quickly given the right attention and funding.
I think it is solved from an engineering and science standpoint. It will never be solved politically. The nation’s politics is too invested in wind and solar.
Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository, Nevada | Bechtel
A Bechtel-led team studied Yucca Mountain to examine the potential of the site for the United States' first national nuclear waste repository.
www.bechtel.com
As far as London goes, it's on the same latitude as Alaska's Aleutian Islands and has a historical average July temperature of 66 degrees F, with an average afternoon high of 72 F.
London, United Kingdom Average Weather
Weather Averages for London , United Kingdom
www.holiday-weather.com
July in London is similar to Indianapolis in September/October
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Count me among the greens who think we need to do whatever it takes to get back on the nuclear track. It's a bridge technology, like most others, because the fuel is limited, but it's not limited by decades or centuries, like fossil fuels, but by millennia. It buys us insane amounts of time to develop other technologies, and even better, it pumps far less heat and pollution into the biosphere while we're doing it. We should have little mini reactors on every corner.
Used to live there.
They are supposed to have the Gulf Stream which moderates the climate. But that's not doing well:
The Gulf Stream continues to slow down, new data shows, with freshwater creating an imbalance in the current, pushing it closer to a Collapse point
Anyway, aircons' are not too common in houses except in the newer apartments. Most houses are heated by hot water radiators. The houses are made from bricks so if you heat them or chill them it's still like an ice box.
Aircon is more common in the houses in the suburbs. But even that's not that common.
Its a business opportunity for people there for sure. Even the fans have been sold out.
Having said that, was 40degrees yesterday but its back down to 20 degrees again today. Madness the temperature swing.
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There are a variety of reasons why most don't have A/C, but the most common one is that it simply isn't needed. These old stone buildings don't get really hot or really cold. As I sit here now it is 34 C (about 94 for the metrically challenged) and I am completely comfortable with a fan on set to the lowest settings. In winter, we rarely need to turn the heat on as well. The building are designed to be very efficient and don't require much A/C or heating. (and I live in a 1960s commie built building)
The other reason is because A/C is bad for the environment and Europeans in general care a lot more about environmental and climate change issues compared to the US. Air conditioners (especially window units which is all you need to cool these small apartments) are readily available on not priced so high to be prohibitive. My wife's parents have a window unit mostly because they have a huge, hairy Newfoundland that suffers quite a lot in the summer.
It's the same with clothes dryers. They are readily available and reasonably cheap, but virtually nobody has one. They are not environmentally friendly and damage clothes over time.
Can we just have Mayor Pete do the talking re climate change rather than Poopy Pants Biden and Bed Wetting Greta?
Jeebus.
Jeebus.
Why? Pete is astonished people aren’t more interested in buying EVs.
That is not what i heard him say. I heard we need to make them cheaper, more reliable and add many charging stations. I agree completely with that. We need electric long haul trucks
Remember the 70s when...
- scientists identified a huge trend toward thinning of the ozone layer
- scientists proposed that chloroflurocarbons were partly or mostly responsible
- People and governments BELIEVED the scientists
- chloroflurocarbons were almost immediately banned, worldwide, cutting use 99.8%
- the ozone layer problem went away within a decade
It was a great example of global cooperation and public acceptance of science, of the type that is needed now
- scientists identified a huge trend toward thinning of the ozone layer
- scientists proposed that chloroflurocarbons were partly or mostly responsible
- People and governments BELIEVED the scientists
- chloroflurocarbons were almost immediately banned, worldwide, cutting use 99.8%
- the ozone layer problem went away within a decade
It was a great example of global cooperation and public acceptance of science, of the type that is needed now
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We know of the drought's impact on Powell and Meade look at the link below and the Rhine. Hard to believe we desperately needed the Ludendorff bridge in '45.
It is bad for Germany, the Rhine is a major shipping lane and hydroelectric provider.
Of course, no proving any one event is due to AGW, but massive drought's in multiple continents increases the odds.
www.google.com
It is bad for Germany, the Rhine is a major shipping lane and hydroelectric provider.
Of course, no proving any one event is due to AGW, but massive drought's in multiple continents increases the odds.
Water woes as drought leaves Germany's Rhine shallow
Months of drought have left water levels on Germany's Rhine river at a record low, exposing a World War II bomb and forcing ship operators to halt services to prevent vessels from running aground.
