Homer Simpson's of the World - Celebrate!

[werepossum]

True, but the comment about it being "pollution free" always cracks me up.

Just ignore all that radioactive waste. :biggrin:

It's only waste because at the present time it's not economically feasible to extract the plentiful energy still remaining. If you truly want to dispose of it simply place it in canisters with very slow leaks and sink it in deep ocean trenches to seep back into the environment from whence it came. The radiation itself is not inherently dangerous; only its concentration makes it so.

 

[Acanthus]

It is Harry Reid's opposition. He has worked for years to keep it out of his back yard, as I would have also.

Nevada can volunteer everyone to go fight for the oil then?

 

[bfdd]

You don't realize, do you, that the only argument you seem to have made is the demonized word "hippies"? You make many points, which have underlying them, "hippies believe that".

How about a poster make 10 points against your views, and in every one they say "greedy energy bnarons have that view" as their only argument?

You would find that to be quite convincing, right?

You should drop the word hippy - a group with plenty of good by the way - from your vocabulary, you have used up your share of it, and learn to argue actual points - facts and reason, instead.

Don't attack solar because hippies are for protecting animals - attack it based on relevant reasons.

Don't advocate nuclear because hippies are against it - prove its opponents' arguments wrong.

There's a logical fallacy called "guilt by association". You commit in spades, aboiut 'hippies'. You have cut corners around WHY you think hippies are wrong to simply assume it as an axiom to assert.

As a result, your arguments are basically non-existant. But if you can chanty "hippy' enough times you seem to think that will be an alternative energy source for your arguments to fact and logic.

I wasn't attacking solar, I was attacking hippies. I was all for the panel farm and think a few animals will just have to die or be moved for the sake of us, humans. Also, it is the hippies faults we haven't had a great nuclear plant push throughout the years.

 

[Hacp]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100213/ap_on_bi_ge/us_obama_nuclear_plant

I'm glad to see he is embracing nuclear as an energy alternative. It's about damn time.

He can embrace nuclear energy by reducing the red tape. Giving this company a taxpayer handout is not what the people want.

 

[Carmen813]

He can embrace nuclear energy by reducing the red tape. Giving this company a taxpayer handout is not what the people want.

A loan is not a handout. I understand that there are risks with giving a loan, especially to this industry, but it isn't the same thing as just giving money away with no expectation of a return.

If "the people" ever want to get off of the Saudi's tit, then this is what we need to do.

 

[Moonbeam]

Geez, we'd love to build a nuclear power plant, but we can't afford the insurance costs in case it blows up and kills 5 million people.

Well, hell, that's no problem. We'll right the law so nobody can sue you and you can keep your money if 5 million should die.

But please do be careful and don't take your eye off safety even though carelessness is cheaper and you won't be held responsible for your mistakes.

Use your love of humanity as a guide, the same love that creates toxins that kill for hundreds of thousands of years.

 

[Moonbeam]

A loan is not a handout. I understand that there are risks with giving a loan, especially to this industry, but it isn't the same thing as just giving money away with no expectation of a return.

If "the people" ever want to get off of the Saudi's tit, then this is what we need to do.

I have a document above that shows that the need for nuclear is a lie. Only the insane would assume the risk others would not take to build a product. Why the fuck would you pass that risk over on to your children and burden them too will having to clean up the ever accumulating deadly waste?

 

[Carmen813]

I have a document above that shows that the need for nuclear is a lie. Only the insane would assume the risk others would not take to build a product. Why the fuck would you pass that risk over on to your children and burden them too will having to clean up the ever accumulating deadly waste?

I would rather have them (and myself) deal with the relatively small and manageable waste produced by nuclear power than the ridiculous amount of waste produced by fossil fuels. For solar and wind to be viable on a large scale we need to work on transmission lines and the energy grid, especially in the north east. I've heard the argument that you could have people purchase their own photoelectric cells or wind power generators, and it's worth investigating, but wind and solar power have negative environmental impacts as well. (Especially large wind farms)

I started off pursuing a degree in Electrical Engineering and my mother-in-law has a degree in construction that focused on nuclear power plants. I don't think nuclear is perfect, but, as my sig says, in this case I'm not letting the perfect be the enemy of the good.

*Edit* Just wanted to let you know that I read through your article and he makes a compelling case, but I'd like to see more information. I feel like a lot of details were glossed over.

 

[Moonbeam]

Thanks Carmen813. I can't ask for more. I would ask you, in your life to watch whether nuclear waste is ever put to bed voluntarily without some future national disaster forcing the gov and industry's hand. I believe the promise to clean up is an unconscious lie. There is nothing to gain politically from spending money on things that bring no votes but raise the taxes on the people. The waste will always be left for the future until the future starts to die from choking on it. From snakes expect snake behavior and from humans expect the past and the present are the future. Humans are pigs. They shit from the branches of trees and move to new ones. Watch and see.

 

[BrownTown]

Thanks Carmen813. I can't ask for more. I would ask you, in your life to watch whether nuclear waste is ever put to bed voluntarily without some future national disaster forcing the gov and industry's hand. I believe the promise to clean up is an unconscious lie. There is nothing to gain politically from spending money on things that bring no votes but raise the taxes on the people. The waste will always be left for the future until the future starts to die from choking on it. From snakes expect snake behavior and from humans expect the past and the present are the future. Humans are pigs. They shit from the branches of trees and move to new ones. Watch and see.

Solving the nuclear waste issue would SAVE the government money, not cost them money. Every utility that owns a nuclear reactor has sued the government and won over them not opening Yucca Mountain as promised. Every year the government doesn't get a nuclear waste repository open they have to pay tons of money to the utilities for breaching their contract.

 

[Schadenfroh]

Good job Obama, now if the process of getting a permit to build them could be streamlined (without harming the overall safety) that would be another big win. Yucca Mountain also needs to be completed.

 

[Moonbeam]

Solving the nuclear waste issue would SAVE the government money, not cost them money. Every utility that owns a nuclear reactor has sued the government and won over them not opening Yucca Mountain as promised. Every year the government doesn't get a nuclear waste repository open they have to pay tons of money to the utilities for breaching their contract.

What an excellent reason to build more reactors.

 

[werepossum]

A loan is not a handout. I understand that there are risks with giving a loan, especially to this industry, but it isn't the same thing as just giving money away with no expectation of a return.

If "the people" ever want to get off of the Saudi's tit, then this is what we need to do.

I think it's a loan guarantee rather than a loan. Southern Company is freakin' huge and could easily finance a nuclear plant of six. I think the loan guarantee does two things. First of all it keeps Southern Company's stock price high (or at least stable) by minimizing the financial damage should the lefties manage to kill this project before completion. Second it transfers the risk (or some of it) to the government which is also a likely cause of the project's failure. Nobody really believes that Obama and the Dems will allow new nuclear power plants to be built so having the federal government guarantee the loan shows that Obama is willing to put his (meaning our) money where his mouth is. It's a smart deal all around.

 

[Patranus]

No, in similar vein, it is you who is the illiterate orangutan. There is no long term permanent storage site, look it up, dunce.

There IS a long term storage site. Obama decided to shut it down after completing construction but before it was every used.

It really looks like Obama is all for nuclear power

 

[Moonbeam]

There IS a long term storage site. Obama decided to shut it down after completing construction but before it was every used.

It really looks like Obama is all for nuclear power

Exactly as I said, no long term site.

 

[Carmen813]

There IS a long term storage site. Obama decided to shut it down after completing construction but before it was every used.

It really looks like Obama is all for nuclear power

How secure was Yucca mountain going to be? There is something to be said in terms of national security for not consolidating all of our nuclear waste material in one location. Though I imagine it was pretty damn secure.

For what it's worth, Obama may have proposed closing Yucca down, but the House voted overwhelmingly in favor of keeping federal funding for it in the 2010 budget.

 

[xj0hnx]

And to get power from the middle of no where, you have to build a lot of transmission lines. There's a lot of cost involved and a lot of people blocking that as well.

Kind of funny because a lot of them are the same morons that cry about wars in the middle east, and our dependence on foreign oil. I really wish the loony left would make up their minds.

 

[Carmen813]

Kind of funny because a lot of them are the same morons that cry about wars in the middle east, and our dependence on foreign oil. I really wish the /fix loonies /fixed would make up their minds.

I imagine it isn't only liberals who object to transmission lines in their back yards, so I fixed your post.

 

[drebo]

Nuclear power is safer than any fossil fuel.

Less people have died in the entire history of commercial nuclear energy than in 1 year of mining for coal.

I applaud obama for supporting nuclear, but his opposition of yucca seems odd.

It's just his way of being able to placate some people without actually doing anything. Without Yucca Mountain, there's very little chance that Nuclear Power takes off again. So, he can say he's in support of Nuclear Power, but as long as he closes down Yucca, he doesn't actually have to do anything tangible to display his support of Nuclear Power.

Basically, he gets to promise to try to make Nuclear happen, but with Yucca Mountain being cancelled, Nuclear will never actually happen, so it's still par for the course for his liberal supporters.

 

[bfdd]

Exactly as I said, no long term site.

No moron there is a long term site, they aren't allowing it's usage. Not existing and existing but being blocked from usage are two very different things.

 

[JeffreyLebowski]

The gravitas here is such that only an equally weighty reply is deserved.

Nuclear would be a stepping stone in the wrong direction.

What's your plan for pollution free power. Wind power only works where there is wind. And the towers don't make a lot per tower. tidal, only works on the coasts. Solar only works when there is sun, and isn't very efficient.
Nuclear is safe, clean and cheap to operate once it is running. The waste from it can be contained and provide a much smaller footprint on the environment than coal, gas, or oil. It also doesn't muck up the ecology by having giant blades cutting up birds, or huge solar farms destroying natural habitat. Or wave generators that mess with fish and sea life.

If you fear nuclear power you fear it out of ignorance.