Monday, August 25, 2008

Ideas that blow





Nuclear waste containers likely to fail, warns 'devastating' report
August 2008

Power madness: With spiralling costs, leaky reactors and dangerous cost-cutting at plants..
Jeremy Leggett

Greenpeace files complaints on Areva nuclear leaks
Reuters - Jul 31, 2008

100 employees at French nuclear site contaminated
BusinessWeek - Jul 23, 2008

Spanish nuclear plant closed after fire in electrical generator
AFP August 2008

Partial List of accidents

Meanwhile:
UAE invites bids for nuclear power project
GulfNews, United Arab Emirates -Aug 16, 2008


5 comments:

nibaq said...

Founder of Greenpeace is for nuclear energy.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/14/AR2006041401209.html

At the end of the day nuclear is the most efficient and cleanest form of energy.

kwtia said...

I dunno Nibaq, It is dangerous and requires extremely costly and unreliable disposal methods.
Plus it doesn't really provide immediate solutions to our energy/climate emergency, as it takes over ten years to get a plant going because of all the red tape and safety measures (and then many of them leak anyway as seen in the scandals in the UK and france this year) And on top of that it really doesn't provide all that much energy. Plus it requires huge amounts of water to cool. It does however line a lot of pockets, like coal and oil do.
The founder of Greenpeace is not necessarily proof that it is ok to support this kind of energy. Many environmentalists have been grasping at straws due to their frustration with the catastrophic delays in dealing with climate change. (monbiot and lovelock are examples) Moore's own (former) organisation disagrees with him.
Iceland is doing great without dirty or dangerous energy, so is New Zealand and so is Costa Rica... i just think it's depressing that we are willing to invest millions and billions into energy sources that are known to be problematic when we have, in abundant supply, a free and safe source shining down on us.
Nothing is perfect enough yet but I really doubt that nuclear is anywhere near an answer to our problems.I'm still not sold on it.
Thankfully there are people coming up with cleaner and more efficient ways to power our lives everyday.

Nuclear Power Not Efficient Enough To Replace Fossil Fuels, Study Finds
ScienceDaily (Mar. 5, 2008)

nibaq said...

I agree with you about some what nuclear energy. I see it like democracy: its not perfect, but its the best we got.

I am not a big fan of democracy. Because you know what they say; if elections ever really changed anything they would have it banned.

Also the countries you mentioned have access to renewable natural resources. What does Kuwait have besides oil and energy abusers?

The only real solution in Kuwait for people's requirement for electricy is not this farce "Tarsheed" campaign but to charge more for it. I guarantee you will see an immense drop within the first day when people actually have to pay for it.

nibaq said...

Not related but just saw this and think you might enjoy it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vV218WaFJJU

kwtia said...

yeah I agree, we need to put a real cost on energy..
We have the sun :) have a look at concentrating solar power... It has great potential.
We get some wind too, I don't know if it's enough for wind farm, but i am sure we can use our desert to plant more than troops.
:) thanks for the link, you were right I did enjoy