Quote:
Originally Posted by followingsea
Wind and solar is not free. The engineers who design them and the technicians operate and maintain like to get paid too.
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I think you are stretching the free point here. Free is meant as in the fuel to make the electric not the maintaining, building or designing the equipment that makes it. Even if some jackass says wind turbines cause cancer, and they do not, not one person has died from the pollution that wind turbine or solar panels emit. Step outside in FL on any day and you can bask in the sun and wind. Just to be clear here the sun is only out there from about 10 to 14 hours a day depending on the time of year but that wind it is there almost 24 / 7.
My guess is the folks that designed the Nuclear Plants got paid as well. Wind and Sunlight happen everyday all around the world for free. Nuclear Pellets are made from U-235 that is converted several times into the powder that forms the pellets. Now I'm sure this is done very cheaply in someones back yard. Oh yes then there is the problem as to what is done with the pellets after they spend about five years in a Reactor. You know they can kill people, a lot of people. So I'll quote directly from the NEI page:
"A single fuel assembly spends about five years in a reactor on average, powering the system that generates electricity.
Typically, every 18 to 24 months, a nuclear plant stops generating electricity to replace a third of its fuel assemblies. The removed assemblies are placed in a spent fuel pool where they cool over time.
The radioactive byproducts remain contained in the used fuel assemblies.
After the used fuel assemblies have cooled to the point that they no longer need to be stored underwater, they are removed from the pools and safely stored at the plant in large containers made of steel-reinforced concrete.
Every nuclear plant stores used fuel as the industry awaits the completion of either a consolidated interim storage site or permanent disposal repository by the federal government.
Taxpayers are assessed $800 million annually ($2.2 million per day) because of the federal government’s failure to meet its obligation to dispose of used fuel that currently resides at nuclear plants across the country. The United States must establish a sustainable national program—supported by dedicated funding—to permanently dispose of this fuel. "
So free is a fairly realistic term and if anyone reading this wants to really get your pants on fire you might just trot over to the NEI web page.
https://www.nei.org/advocacy/make-re...d-nuclear-fuel
They throw numbers around like $37 B yes that a B and we as consumers of electricity have contributed $40 B to waste management of the by product yet it isn't being managed yet. Just stored at each Nuclear plant in concrete. Yucca Mountain is the place they want to store it about 100 miles NW of Las Vegas NV which is good for folks that don't live near the Nevada-California border.
I was big on Nuclear but I really think Wind and Sunlight are our best answers right now.
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