h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I think the french are the ones who seem to be getting nuclear power right, with a high number of high quality stations

I'm not anti green, indeed beyond anything else we need alternatives to fossil fuels, because one way or another, they will run out

As things stand I feel both solar and wind power are foolish,
Tidal and Geothermal, both of which require certain circumstances, work well
Hydro, can be made to work well, and even if not a power generation, can be used to even out power demand and supply (pump water up when power is plentiful, and use the hydro to supply in peak demand, allows better use of renewable energy)

Ah, but note, NBB. France believes in state investment and regulation in a way that no government in Britain has done since perhaps the 1960s or earlier. They can be trusted to run them sensibly.

Yes, they are surviving on a damned if you do, damned if you don't

I'm personally impressed that we've had near 50 years on fusion research, and we're still 50 years away

:D

I'm guessing 2072 for fusion, long range forcast i know, but i made it three years ago and so far it looks like i'm doing well

We already have a fusion reactor, all we need is to harness it. It's 150 million kilometres away, and that's close enough.

This island could easily be self sufficient in power, as it is usually quite windy ( those Trade Winds) and they do in fact use wind power to generate some of the electricity needed to work the water desalination plants.

As well as that, the sun is really quite reliable, but beyond that we are sitting on top of really hot volcanoes. So why we've not got some geothermal infrastructure is incredible.

Did I mention that there is an underwater eruption on the island furthest away from me? We get mini-earthquakes really often these days.

The Sun reliable? It goes on the fritz two thirds of every day for me

And yes, I will grant that having the trade winds does make wind power more convenient...must be a bit blowy around the place though?

The Sun? Phew, what a scorcher!

not very scorching atm for me, both down south and up north

Yes, it is very blowy here nbb. The next island south of here is called Fuertoventura, which roughly means 'strong winds'.

Should start developing large kites to transport yourself between the islands, new buisness chance

There's a beach in the north of the island where they do kite surfing - it's really long and empty. It's incredible to watch, I think I would have loved to have tried that sport in my teens. I've not got the body strength to do it now, but it looks just amazing.

Also, they do hang gliding a lot from the top of the volcanic cliffs, and I know they have flown from Lanzarote to La Graciosa, the tiny island to the North.

werde you aware that hootoo has a thread where you can see what other researchers are getting in terms of weather? http://h2g2.com/dna/h2g2/classic/F19585?thread=190270&latest=1 I regularly put in my <2cents> there.

"Well, we had mutated flowers after Chernobyl for a long time. I can still remember them.
And I'm definitely not as close as 50 miles here." [Tavarom da Quirm]



"And then of course there's the question about what to do with the nuclear waste. With
nuclear power we are making problems for many many future generations." [Tavarom da Quirm]



I imagine most countries that have nuclear power haven't thought it through carefully. Many such plants were built in the 1950s and 1960s. They looked into the future as far as 75 or 100 years, the length of time that the plants were likely to work before having to be decommissioned -- i.e. buried in cement or other radiation-resistant substances. They did not have such capabilities then,
but in their optimism they *assumed* that people would have these abilities by the time the plants needed to be put down.

"As things stand I feel both solar and wind power are foolish" [Nosebagbadger]

The disadvantages of both are a bit disconcerting. What we lack so far is a way to store large quantities of electricity until such time as they can be used. Cost factors are also pretty daunting.

Thing is, the stuff stays radioactive for thousands of years. And even concrete crumbles some day. Any do you know how much we know today about people who lived thousands of years ago? We now bury the stuff somewhere. Do you think they will still remember where it is? Do you think they will keep it all safe for the next thousands of years?

I must say I doubt it.

I doubt it too, Tavaron. It is said that there is a mountain not more than 50 miles from Las Vegas. A large amount of nuclear waste is buried in that mountain. At the time Congress authorized the storage of the waste there, experts told them that the stuff would not be anywhere near safe for millions of years. The politicians figured that a few thousand years was all that they needed to worry about.

When politics rears its ugly head, common sense goes out the window!

I think it's really terrible, so little thought, I guess as long as they are long dead when it happens they don't worry

Most of those politicians are already dead, some long gone...

I don't think politicians think a few thousand years is all they need to worry about. I think they think a few years is all they need to worry about.

I am not against nuclear power in theory. In practice though knowing how terribly, terribly irresponsible people are ...

I look at my own country: it is absolutely strewn with plastic bags. Those are bad enough. But nuclear waste?

High-level wastes must be stored for thousands of years. What could happen in a thousand years? Where will humanity be fifty years from now?

I'd like to think that humanity had altruistic leaders - but I am afraid that those sort of politicians are not in the majority. Therefore I distrust the abilities of scientists to overcome any problem over the storage of any waste material from nuclear power plants, as their attempts may be useless in the face of war and economic adversity in generations to come.

I don't feel worried about nuclear power itself, nor any terrible anxiety about the plants that are in existence at this minute - I just don't trust society to be safe enough for the thousands of years required to store the stuff it produces.

Sadly though, unless we embrace nuclear there is going to be a shortfall when we reach peak oil. ie when the oil runs out. And I don't believe in growing bio-fuel in areas where food was orginally grown, nor tearing holes in virgin forests to grow it either.