George Monbiot on nuclear

Zokes

I do not ignore the pollution from conventional – you ignore the pollution from nuclear – or rahter wish it away

What proven, existing, renewable technologies are there that will replace nuclear, coal and gas generation? They don’t have to be single big-ticket plants, but they do need the collective capacity of those plants

wind, tidal, hydro, solar. wave is nearly there

all will be producing electricity in GW before one new nuclear plant has its foundations in. wind and hydro and solar already are doing so

sigh

I just wanted the first post on the next page as you bagged 200. 🙂

you ignore the pollution from nuclear – or rahter wish it away

I’m not sure that’s true. I look at it in the context of the unmetered pollution from coal and gas. Clearly it would be better if it weren’t there, hence why we’ve been discussing technologies that aren’t 60 years old.

wind, tidal, hydro, solar. wave is nearly there

But where will you put an additional 20 GW or so of them? Not to mention cover for when it isn’t windy or sunny. I agree with all these technologies having a much bigger role in energy generation, but they cannot do it all. This leaves a choice of further developed nuclear technologies or increased reliance on fossil-based generation.

How would we go about indicating the presence of dangerous stored nuclear waste to our descendants, in the event of some cataclysmic event, assuming language may have changed beyond recognition?

assuming language may have changed beyond recognition?

One would assume that language change won’t be so abrupt as to preclude someone renewing the signage every now and then.

I’m happy to accept that there is no perfect solution to the waste, though recycling it using other fuel cycles (as discussed at length by others) reduces this issue significantly. What I fail to understand is why most people who get hysterical about nuclear waste seem to pretend that CO2 from coal isn’t a particularly large problem. One which we currently just flush off to the atmosphere and hope noone notices.

we need solutions that will be widely available in ten years

Do you think that we can slash our emissions by 80% and roll out huge amounts of renewables in 10 years?

I think the IFR reactors are far more feasible than that, to be honest.

3:45

Then go back and watch it all