Nuclear Energy - Yay or Nay.

[Joel`]

The earthquake in Japan and the following nuclear danger that has arisen has brought this issue up again, and to prevent the other thread being de-railed I made a new thread for the discussion of its uses.

So, nuclear fuel. Yay or nay? Discuss.

 

[CalumE5]

Could you stick up a poll to better see people's general reaction?

I for one feel that it should be employed, but only on a small scale, and only in sparsely populated areas to take the danger levels down a bit.

 

[Jak]

yay. If the country is well known to not have high chances of disasters like Japan then why not, as long as they are well maintained and go through rigorous safety checks. Nuclear power is better for the environment than fossil fuels, won't run out as quickly as fossil fuels and produces more power than both fossil fuels and renewable energy.

 

[StuW]

YouTube - nucular english version - Homer Simpson

Anyway....Nuclear power is one of the most efficient sources of power, but the obvious downside is it's lethal problems.

Against.

 

[coolguyrko]

Alternatives are far better.
Just speaking in terms of Ireland we have possibly the best resource for wind farms but that I mean we get the most .I thin I heard somewhere that only The tip of South America has more.So the potenital for us to have wind power would be really good and there would be no risk of Nuclear problems.

 

[ajt09]

Had a feeling this would appear lol. Nuclear power definately the way forward. As has been mentioned before, previous nuclear accidents have happened due to flaws in designs and technology, and now an unprecedented massive quake and resulting tsunami. Solar energy is not guarenteed to work, wind power isn't guaranteed to work either, and both would have major costs. Nuclear power can last for absolutely ages, and power a lot more homes using few reactors.
However, there has to be a better way of storage of waste. So I am definately for nuclear power. And if course, natural resources won't last forever, and nuclear power will not accelerate global warming.

 

[GodCubed]

Knew it'd be you making this thread.

Definitely yay.

 

[GazaLaad]

I would say yes to it

Its much cleaner than other energy's such as burning coals etc and also fossil fuels will run out and instead of spending millions of pounds on upgrading to a suitable standard water and solar power then we should use nuclear energy that is already in use and uranium will not run out as quickly as fossil fuels.

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[Vanjagl]

Depends where. In Japan, big fat no. Sibir, Alaska, Sahara etc, yes.

 

[coolguyrko]

Evry one thinks yay nuclear power and that its safe if its maintained and everything else but what happens with the nuclear waste and depleted cores(tho they take along time to be used up).What are you going to do with them.The cores tho depleted are still radioactive.

 

[Ride The Walrus]

Nucleur energy is used for most things in todays life.

 

[coolguyrko]

I would say yes to it

Its much cleaner than other energy's such as burning coals etc and also fossil fuels will run out and instead of spending millions of pounds on upgrading to a suitable standard water and solar power then we should use nuclear energy that is already in use and uranium will not run out as quickly as fossil fuels.

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But it will still run out.Wind solar and sea energy will not.

 

[Mike.]

and how do you use wind and solar to power a country like japan? they have 55 reactors in 17 plants, thats the kind of demand they have

 

[ajt09]

But it will still run out.Wind solar and sea energy will not.

But by then, we'd be advanced enough to discover another source of energy/fuel. Doubt it will happen in my life time though. Cause I'm old

 

[Joel`]

Could you stick up a poll to better see people's general reaction?

Done.

It's definitely a way forward, especially once we invent fusion reactors. The only accidents have been due to extremely poor design or human error, both of which have been learnt from. Plus we can criticise nuclear power for Japan, but on the other hand it has withstood an 8.9 earthquake, tsunami, multiple hydrogen explosions in the containment and - so far - has been no major catastrophe. As long as the plants go through rigid, multiple safety checks for even the worst case scenario's.

 

[ajt09]

and how do you use wind and solar to power a country like japan? they have 55 reactors in 17 plants, thats the kind of demand they have

exactly, the costs would be phenonomal.

 

[coolguyrko]

and how do you use wind and sal to power a country like japan?

Solar and wave power(kind of ironic) can produce vast amounts of energy as can wind turbines so generation is not exactley a problem.Implementing is as it cost alot of money but once they are in place these turbines and other forms need very little maintence and have very little chance of blowing up.Also there isnt a dependency on fuels that will run out eventually.

 

[Ride The Walrus]

and how do you use wind and solar to power a country like japan? they have 55 reactors in 17 plants, thats the kind of demand they have

Indeed, Japan require nucleur energy to function, they're an industrial country.

 

[Joel`]

But it will still run out.Wind solar and sea energy will not.

Nuclear fusion is a near infinite supply as it uses Hydrogen, which is the most abundant element in the universe. We have Uranium supplies to last us hundreds; and thousands of years if we can develop certain technologies to be safe. I'll be stunned if we don't have a fusion reactor in that time scale.

 

[aldorain]

Yes, because it is a very efficent form of energy generation, not only that but it is much more enivromentaly friendly than burning fossils fuels, which cause poulltion and contribute to green house gases, altough it does have its risks we need to seriously consider building more plants because fossil fuels are running out, and at the way we are going its going to be soon rather than later, however there is also biofuels as a sub as well.