Electric Vehicles

[Country Bladesmith]

Fukashima still is producing power.

Pretty sure Fukushima Daichi is disabled. It was a 7 on the INES. I think the Fukushima Daini plant might still be active, but that’s a different plant, several miles away.
As for the severity of the accident, I think they’re still trying to sort that out. How much cesium-137 is still leaking out into the ocean? There’s also a marked increase in the number of kids in Fukushima Prefecture with thyroid growths and thyroid cancers as compared to other areas, no doubt from radioiodines that were released after the accident.

 

[frozenchurchwarden]

The hate of nuclear plants demonstrates how much fear isn't a rational thing. The dangers we have accepted versus the new dangers we don't understand. People will cite these fears of such plants and yet not compare them to the ravages of coal. They'll talk about cancer from radiation without compare it to things like the "joys" of black lung. My point while I love people I have to admit humans are kind of crappy animals.

Japan: Radiation Levels at Fukushima Plant 'Worse' than Thought

Japan says the radiation levels found inside the reactor buildings at Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant are "exceedingly high."

www.breitbart.com

Maybe Japan is an extraordinary outlier in Nuclear safety, but the idea of this happening ever again is rightfully terrifying.
Nuclear has a "good safety record" but when it goes wrong the consequences are unimaginable.

If we could run a power generator in space that would be a very interesting prospect, but I don't like the idea of Nuclear power on Earth.
Maybe if they can bury the thing a few miles underground for zero chance of water contamination that might be more acceptable.

 

[Sweet Home Alabama]

Electric vehicles are definitely the future, here in the UK petrol cars are being banned from 2030 onwards.

Here's me driving my EV?.
View attachment 89942

Wow!!

 

[Sloopjohnbee]

Nobody wants another Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, or Fukushima Daiichi. My company makes self contained fuel delivery units for internal combustion engines and our monthly order just surpassed three million units. Electric may be an alternative but it's a long way from being the norm.

and thank heaven for that! how do you think most systems get power in order to charge batteries - lol, the sun!? Also, people so caught up on global warming and climate changes, natural disasters - all that hydroelectric and dams better have some redundancy - Hey Greta, I'm lookin' your way

 

[Sweet Home Alabama]

Classic capitalism. The market mostly responds to demand. And being risk averse, few want to be first and nobody wants to be last. So, it's going to be herky-jerky until the path to the $$ is abundantly clear. Until then the consumers will have to suffer the uncertainty, experimentation, dead ends, unfixed technology, and the occasional winning combination.

That’s why there are so many billiards…

 

[kcghost]

Chernobyl was by a wide margin the greatest nuclear catastrophe we have ever seen. Beside it Japan and America have wonderful safety records. The level of record keeping you have to do to run a nuclear plant is staggering. I sincerely doubt we build anymore. I won't be around but it will be interesting what the nervous nellies have to say then as the world's oil dries up. Of course, if electric is a real option it might be a moot point.

 

[Chasing Embers]

and thank heaven for that! how do you think most systems get power in order to charge batteries - lol, the sun!? Also, people so caught up on global warming and climate changes, natural disasters - all that hydroelectric and dams better have some redundancy - Hey Greta, I'm lookin' your way

How dare you!

 

[Sloopjohnbee]

Wow!!

Chernobyl was by a wide margin the greatest nuclear catastrophe we have ever seen. Beside it Japan and America have wonderful safety records. The level of record keeping you have to do to run a nuclear plant is staggering. I sincerely doubt we build anymore. I won't be around but it will be interesting what the nervous nellies have to say then as the world's oil dries up. Of course, if electric is a real option it might be a moot point.

I'd just add Fukushima is worse, they just tucked it under the rug - it's still leaking and leaching as we discuss this
They bagged up some dirt and want to dump it into the Pacific
Go watch the Vice film about the guy hired to shoot the wild boars - very interesting film
A few years ago I was watching the robot taking a survey on the fuel in the reactor - scary stuff

 

[kcghost]

Your delusions run deep.

 

[Sweet Home Alabama]

My wow was the man spilling while riding an electrical chair

 

[Country Bladesmith]

There’s quite a bit of work being done in Europe to try to iron out whether it’s possible or feasible to use fusion for consumer energy, ITER being an example. I’d be all for fusion, but right now meeting the Lawson Criterion is still just a pipe dream.
Fission plants have a lot of advantages, such as no air pollution, abundant fuel, and generally they are safe. But when things aren’t properly contained, fission is just fuggin’ dirty. There’s no way around it. You can have a 99.9% safe track record, but when that 0.01% ticket gets punched, it has the potential to be a real shit show for many generations. That’s why I’m not a fan. I’m not a huge environmentalist or anything, but there’s no amelioration for that shit. Carbon release can be dealt with to some extent. We cannot do anything to fix radioisotope pollution when it occurs. Other than try to dump concrete, lead, and neutron absorbers like boron on top of the smoking shit hole and hope for the best.
I’m not trying to force my opinion on anyone, just trying to make it clear that fears about it are not unfounded Chicken Little stuff.

 

[ksman75]

ICE cars are soon banned from many cities in Europe.

Are they banning ICE, or banning the manufacture and import. I know California is talking about banning new ICE vehicles in 2035, but they're not banning existing vehicles. Those will be grandfathered until such time as fuel, parts, etc, are no longer available.

 

[Mr.Mike]

I'm not sold quite yet on the idea, particularly because we still have no way of recycling lithium batteries, and the cost of electricity. I am a huge proponent of nuclear, all the energy we can ever need. 3 mile island was can hardly be called a disaster, Chernobyl was just not built right before we really understood it, and Fukushima, well why the hell would you build a nuclear power plant next to the ocean. The free market is a powerful thing, and a much faster vehicle in producing change then politics. If you want the world to go in a certain direction, excersise your power as a consumer and invest. The world will always move in the direction the consumer wants. I guess we will see what the future holds. As long as there is a variety of energy choices we should be good. Energy needs = war. Energy independence = no war.

 

[hoosierpipeguy]

Nobody wants another Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, or Fukushima Daiichi. My company makes self contained fuel delivery units for internal combustion engines and our monthly order just surpassed three million units. Electric may be an alternative but it's a long way from being the norm.

Nobody wants millions and billions of tons of contaminants blown into the atmosphere from coal fired generation plants. Three Mile Island was nothing, Chernobyl was Russian incompetence and Fukushima was a one in a million. There are no perfect answers but people will demand their electricity. Nuclear, at present, is the least problematic.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Nobody wants millions and billions of tons of contaminants blown into the atmosphere from coal fired generation plants. Three Mile Island was nothing, Chernobyl was Russian incompetence and Fukushima was a one in a million. There are no perfect answers but people will demand their electricity. Nuclear, at present, is the least problematic.

Just going by production numbers. Our internal combustion fuel unit orders and production currently dwarf our power control unit sales.

 

[anotherbob]

at my work we have a fleet of electric vehicles that are hooked up to a solar array. Which even just from a long term cost measurement are kind of awesome. Yeah they're not hooked up to any outside power just four or five solar panels and yeah they get enough juice even in PA in the winter.

 

[frozenchurchwarden]

Chernobyl was by a wide margin the greatest nuclear catastrophe we have ever seen. Beside it Japan and America have wonderful safety records. The level of record keeping you have to do to run a nuclear plant is staggering. I sincerely doubt we build anymore. I won't be around but it will be interesting what the nervous nellies have to say then as the world's oil dries up. Of course, if electric is a real option it might be a moot point.

Oilsands have enough to last another Millennium even at current consumption.
Electrification only needs to half work, and then everyone else will be able to run on Oil effectively forever.

 

[anotherbob]

Japan: Radiation Levels at Fukushima Plant 'Worse' than Thought

Japan says the radiation levels found inside the reactor buildings at Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant are "exceedingly high."

www.breitbart.com

Maybe Japan is an extraordinary outlier in Nuclear safety, but the idea of this happening ever again is rightfully terrifying.
Nuclear has a "good safety record" but when it goes wrong the consequences are unimaginable.

If we could run a power generator in space that would be a very interesting prospect, but I don't like the idea of Nuclear power on Earth.
Maybe if they can bury the thing a few miles underground for zero chance of water contamination that might be more acceptable.

just saying if you compare that to the damage coal does as a matter of course. It demonstrates how much people react to the dramatic more then the rational. I hope that makes sense.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Biofuels are another option.

 

[karam]

Huge proponent of nuclear power here too.

Chernobyl was a very bad design but still the cause of the accident was human incompetence. I've had an interest in Chernobyl for many years and have repeatedly read in several books and articles that an accident of that magnitude had needed so many safety steps to fail, and so many wrong - human - decisions to happen sequentially before the thing blew up that it'd be basically inconceivable to be ever repeated. I'd be more worried about a terrorist attack to be honest than that chain of events ever repeating.

Fukushima was a terrible combination of simultaneous and extreme natural disasters, bad location, 1950s design, and 1960s construction.

The French are the nation most advanced in nuclear power by far, and have a stellar safety record all things considered. Their designs make cases like Chernobyl and Fukushima impossible. I think they are one of few, if not the only country actively doing research and development and building new nuclear power plants. The rest of Europe and much of the world is still relying on ancient designs, pressured by people who have zero clue about science and dress up like vegetables to protest.

Another benefit of it is not giving leverage and power to certain oil-producing nations...