nuclear power yes or no

[SouthernComfort]

The mini reactor for cars But cost obviously destroyed the business model.

Cost would be the least of your concerns, 34 million vehicles capable of making "dirty" weapons.
As I'm sure you are aware, very little is "tamper proof".
Cars can and will run on electricity, 1 reactor vs 34 million tiny reactors.

[Canker_Canison]

Cost would be the least of your concerns, 34 million vehicles capable of making "dirty" weapons.
As I'm sure you are aware, very little is "tamper proof".
Cars can and will run on electricity, 1 reactor vs 34 million tiny reactors.

The safety issue was a worry, but the bigger concern was the fact that the technology needed to create it doesn't exist.
It was the power issue that got my mind to slowly turn over. Nuclear reactors in power stations are very expensive to run. With 34 million little reactors privately bought, supplying power to the national grid while also powering the owners home... would solve all of our power needs. Power stations would effectively become a thing of the past.

The solution to the 'nuclear waste' is also very simple, if a little expensive. Just load it into rockets & fire it into the sun... Simples

[Grizz]

arent you guys forgetting Mr Fusion?......

[thered]

i think it is out of order this poll people can see how i voted i was voting labour but now everyone know im a tory boy

on a serious note i think we should go all nuclear even though i dont think it is 100% safe and i dont know how anybody can say it is

i think the actual technology though for modern nuclear power is very safe the only thing to worry about really is nature and war

although mother nature is pretty kind to us in uk we will never truly know what is in store for us one freak disaster could be the end

war is another why its not safe although we live in relative peace at the minute that is just the now who knows what is round the corner and if we do get attacked from the skies expect all our new nuclear power plants to be one of the first points of attack

i am in favor of nuclear though as our landscape in britain is pretty trouble free regarding natural disasters and major conflict is hopefully a thing of the past (although we do stick our neck in everything where its not wanted)


for truly safe power though hydro is the way to go we are surrounded by water and have many rivers we could get all our power from hydro which unlike wind is consistent

trouble with hydro is its huge outlay in cash needed to build huge damms and stations and it may have massive effects on wildlife but if i want to see an otter i can watch one with david attenborough on tv safe in the knowledge that the poor little mites habitat is powering my TV and he died for a good cause

once hydro is in place though it is cheap to maintain and is virtually free forever

the biggest dam in the world the 3 gorges in china by next year will be operating at 22.500 MW 4 of these bad boys would do all our power needs in the uk

we just need some places to flood

[Shady]

The solution to the 'nuclear waste' is also very simple, if a little expensive. Just load it into rockets & fire it into the sun... Simples

REALLY clever idea there...and I thought you had sense canker
so lets say we fire nuclear waste into the sun yeah? whats to stop a megalomaniac putting some dna into it and creating a nuclear man?

[Grizz]

i fish on the shannon estuary and watch 4 meter tides in and out twice a day. the force of the water going out is so strong sometimes its impossible to fish. im sure a few lines of turbines between limerick and clare would probably power the whole country 24 hours a day tide in, tide out, but whos gonna do it.
Opposition or not, in 20 years time we will end up with a nuclear station or 2 and by that time the technology will probably be obsolete. usually carry on this bannana republic of ours

[thered]

i fish on the shannon estuary and watch 4 meter tides in and out twice a day. the force of the water going out is so strong sometimes its impossible to fish. im sure a few lines of turbines between limerick and clare would probably power the whole country 24 hours a day tide in, tide out, but whos gonna do it.
Opposition or not, in 20 years time we will end up with a nuclear station or 2 and by that time the technology will probably be obsolete. usually carry on this bannana republic of ours

yes join the plan it is consitent and we know its coming in and out rivers are always going to the sea the power is constant we are surrounded by the stuff

wind is unreliable

lets build them everywhere we can utilise our tides and rivers the outlay will be mega money but will create lots of jobs and will pay for itself in time

there is only 3 things that can stop it

1, another ice age - cause we need the water too move

2, severe heat - so that the sun evaporates all the water and we have no water

3, bill oddie - cause it might effect the arctic terns conservation area's

if we kill bill oddie the other 2 may not happen

[oneman]

I think we should all start building mini nuclear plants in our outbuildings, alongside the windmill and solar panels, and then sell any surplus back to Nat Grid.
I mean, just how hard can it be? and how much room would it take up? atoms are really small, almost as small as the screws on a laptop HDD cover.
I am busy now knocking up plans for my reactor, and about to contact the dragons den.

http://biochemater.bokee.com/4915472.html

[CaliVCDS]

Voting results look like conservative views are winning

[thered]

Voting results look like conservative views are winning

yes but they are not very clever nuclear is only safe to a point they have all said its 100% safe of which it is not

if it gets hit by a missile,a meteor ,a crashed helicopter or a jumbo jet it could become pretty dangerous

we cannot control many things to ever say nuclear is 100% safe

that is why mr red is correct and everyone who says it is 100% safe is wrong

[GastonJ]

The alternatives are to hope for wind, wave, hydro and solar power to save us then. I don't think that's going to happen in my lifetime, so with no other alternatives available what else can you do? No point in continuing to build oil and coal fired stations if there isn't going to be any to burn.

On top of that cars and the like will have to move to an alternative source of fuel as well, either electric or hydrogen - where will the extra power needed come from if not from nuclear?

[Shady]

where will the extra power needed come from if not from nuclear?

im hoping for alien technology to save us...

[GastonJ]

Aye well there are a few aliens about, Dave Cameron the car salesman certainly isn't from, or on, this planet. Perhaps we could use the methane that comes form the words that politicians speak.

[SouthernComfort]

The safety issue was a worry, but the bigger concern was the fact that the technology needed to create it doesn't exist.
It was the power issue that got my mind to slowly turn over. Nuclear reactors in power stations are very expensive to run. With 34 million little reactors privately bought, supplying power to the national grid while also powering the owners home... would solve all of our power needs. Power stations would effectively become a thing of the past.

The solution to the 'nuclear waste' is also very simple, if a little expensive. Just load it into rockets & fire it into the sun... Simples

I don't think the technology would be too much dissimilar to what we have in place now, its just dangerous and hard to secure.
What if the rocket detonates in our atmosphere?
Like I said there are much safer alternatives, the technology is already there. The problem is billing consumers and justifying the costs. Why build something so dangerous when its not needed, cheaper outlay maybe?
Investment in this whole country is so poor its unreal, then we have to listen about bankers who piss it up the wall with no real recourse.
Hemp is some pretty cool stuff too, people manged for years with it now its so dangerous its banned.

[Canker_Canison]

REALLY clever idea there...and I thought you had sense canker
so lets say we fire nuclear waste into the sun yeah? whats to stop a megalomaniac putting some dna into it and creating a nuclear man?

Who said I was going to put my DNA into the rockets! Opps, shit!
I am not a megalomaniac, I just think the world would be a better place if I was in charge.

http://biochemater.bokee.com/4915472.html

That is sooo cool. We need more like him.


On a more serious note......

Waterwheel invention promises cheap electricity

Last updated at 11:20 31 December 2006



Mr Gilmartin with his waterwheel invention

It's a mechanical problem that's troubled scientists since Archimedes and the ancient Greeks but now an electrician has come up with a new invention that could help save consumers thousands of pounds in energy bills.
Scotsman Ian Gilmartin, 60, and his friend Bob Cattley, 58, both from Kendal, Cumbria have invented a mini-waterwheel capable of supplying enough electricity to power a house - for free.
The contraption is designed to be used in small rivers or streams - ideal for potentially thousands of homes across Britain. It is the first off-the-shelf waterwheel system which can generate a good supply of electricity from a water fall as little as 20cm.
Mr Gilmartin, an electrician and inventor, was not prompted to think up his new device by high energy bills - he does not own a TV and has never lived in a house with electricity.
But he has a stream at the back of his house, the Beck Mickle, and with the help of Phd engineering student, Mr Cattley, now hopes to see the invention in the shops by the end of next year.
Mr Gilmartin first began experimenting three years ago with yoghurt pots and wheelie bins in the stream, before test-running a proto-type. They took the results to the Lake District National Park, and secured a ?15,000 grant from the organisation's sustainability fund.
The prototype has now been working successfully at St Catherine's, a National Trust site near Windermere, opening up previously untapped energy. The waterwheel produces one to two kilowatts of power and generates at least 24 kilowatt hours of sustainable green energy in a day, just under the average household's daily consumption of around 28 kilowatt hours.
It will hope to cost around ?2,000 to fully install - and will pay for itself in side two years.
The Beck Mickle 'low head' micro hydro generator could potentially provide electricity to more than 50,000 British homes and could be used industrially.
Mr Gilmartin said: "While we cannot say this provides free electricity, because of the initial cost of buying the machine, it is expected to pay for itself within two years and then greatly reduce the owner's electricity bills after then."
Waterwheels of various types have been known since Roman times and hydropower was widely used in the Middle Ages, powering most industry in Europe.
But the energy produced from the flow of water depends on the height, or head, that the water falls.
A 'high head' like a traditional water-wheel, is large, expensive and needs civil engineering. But with 'low heads' - under a 18 inches, no one had yet invented a method of successfully recovering the energy generated.
Researchers have long sought out low cost technology to exploit the vast number of suitable low head hydro sites as a source of renewable energy.
A conventional waterwheel allows the water to escape prematurely as the wheel rotates, but the Beck Mickle Hydro generator contains the water for the full drop of the device, converting around 70 per cent of the energy into electricity.
Mr Gilmartin explained, "This idea started off to answer the question, 'How do you recover energy from very, very low heads of fluid?'
"With a low head there is not very much flow, no velocity, the fluid has got to have speed, and the only way of doing it is with a water wheel, but they are big and expensive and need lots of civil engineering.
"I have come up with an answer and I don't know why anyone has not thought of it before."
Mr Gilmartin added: "You have to have a good reason for not having one. There are enormous possibilities wherever there are water flows."


This was 4 years ago, technology has moved along a bit since then. More efficient ways of power generation & lower usage devices. If you have a water course running through or by your property there's a good chance you could be producing your own electricity for the price of a couple of alternators, an inverter, some car batteries & a spiny wheel.