D and I discussed U.S. energy options all Sunday afternoon (hey, it was pretty fracking hot outside), including nuclear.
Atomic Balm? : For the first time in decades, increasing the role of nuclear power in the United States may be starting to make political, environmental and even economic sense.
Nuclear has a few problems: public investment for private profit is another word for corporate welfare, the issue with toxic waste that can never be disposed of safely, and of the immense cost over-runs building such complex structures as nuclear plants. At least there aren't carbon emissions.
We came up with a better idea, which of course is too much of a pipe dream to be practical, and also would preclude the energy companies, as currently constructed, from being the arbiters of the solution. Namely, what if energy was produced more on the bitTorrent distributed user model? For instance, what if every household had solar panels or similar on their roof, over the entire continent, or even planet? Plus wind farms in all the desolate areas uninhabitable by humans. Every household would produce power, and any extra would be diverted onto the grid for use by everyone else. Of course, Com-Ed wouldn't be as profitable if they, and other power companies, didn't control the manufacture of energy, but they could control the infrastructure. Or not. More renewable energy would mean economies of scale, and reduction of cost, plus incentives to increase efficiency.
Dream on, right.
To John Holdren of Harvard, the essential problem with nuclear power is that it is “too unforgiving of either human error or human malice.” At the same time, Holdren points out, every source of electricity has its negatives. In the case of oil and gas, the question is whether there are enough reserves. For other fossil fuels like coal and tar sands, the question is whether our atmosphere can tolerate the emissions. For ethanol, the question is whether there is enough land to grow the necessary crops. For wind and hydropower, the question is whether there are enough good sites. Enough sunlight hits the planet to power civilization 2,000 times over, Holdren says, but solar power from photovoltaic cells is too expensive. “I can design a world that runs on photovoltaics,” he says, “but at current costs, electricity would be three or four times what it costs today.” That would wreak havoc on the world economy.
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