Nick Kristof's Nuke's Are Green column, Pebble Bed Nuclear Reactors

[EVDebs]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/09/opinion/09kristof.html?incamp=article_popular_5

I don't know about how safe these Pebble Bed reactors are but in a Sept Wired magazine article "Let a thousand reactors bloom" China is supposedly going for them as Cheney would say, 'big time'.

I'm more along the lines of conservation first, zinc air fuel cells, possibly methane hydrates, and pebble bed nuclear as a last resort due to safety concerns.

What do DUers think ???

[Zynx]

1. You absolutely cannot melt down a pebble bed reactor

This is why they are considered safe - their primary safeguards come from their base physics and not technological procedures.

Basically, you could deliberately try all the wrong things at once in an effort to cause a meltdown and you still would fail.

[cestpaspossible]

2. When they figure out what to do with the waste

they can call it 'green'. But it is just a red-herring to pretend that the safety issues of nuclear power are the only environmental issues. And glossing over the disposal of the waste with a glib arguments like: "Radioactive wastes are a challenge. But burdening future generations with nuclear wastes in deep shafts is probably more reasonable than burdening them with a warmer world in which Manhattan is submerged under 20 feet of water." -- as if those are the only two choices -- is highly unpersuasive.

That said, I am a conservationalist, but I am a realist. I am not a supporter of nuclear power, but neither do I believe that mankind will simply choose not to use it, especially when considering the energy challenges we will face over the next 100 years.

[EVDebs]

5. I feel the same way....it's a last resort.

Just as methane hydrates is (unless they can do the mining safely also). I like Zinc Air Fuel Cells myself along with grid-tied solar (just had a home system installed not too long ago and it's producing around 15Kw out of our household 20Kw ave monthly use right now !).

[EVDebs]

3. Let a thousand reactors blooom article from wired

www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.09/china.html

[KittyWampus]

4. Still Have To Mine Uranium & Dispose Of Radioactive Waste. It's NOT Green

It's also in limited supply, like oil.

It also continues the heavily centralized system like oil.