Weird Winter Weather Puzzles Scientists

[eric1978]

This is a joke right? There is no way your that dense.

It's you're. That's the contraction for you are. I'm dense.

[kevthebassman]

Sorry if I misunderstood. I guess I just assumed after I read "leftist eco-nazis" that you were somewhere out in right field with Rush. I'm with you on the nuclear, as long as it's NIMBY and east of St. Louis. I don't need my baby growing a third arm out of her forehead...she already has two where they belong.

Eric, read a bit here about Thorium reactors. wiki link These things are not your old fashioned nuke plant. The US actually played around with these back in the 60's, but you can't make nuclear weapons with them, so we abandoned the program. They're safer, more efficient, cheaper, and use more plentiful fuel. I'd much rather live by one of these than a coal plant.

[gotmuddy]

It's you're. That's the contraction for you are. I'm dense.

That is hilarious. You have no logical answer so you belittle my point by making fun of my grammar. Not surprising.

[flytyer57]

I wouldn't exactly call the Nevada desert a backyard. Ever been there?

Do a little research on what settles in your backyard today from coal powered plants.

So this is preferable to water vapor and controlled ,captured spent fuel?

Then there is this. Hidden Cost

Whether or not the Nevada desert is someones back yard or not doesn't matter. DO YOU WANT IT IN YOUR BACK YARD?

I never said coal power was the way to go. I'm all for renewable energy like solar and wind.

And why should we want to build more "nucular" power plants so the terrorists have more targets to choose from?

[podum]

solar and wind are both unreliable and, more importantly, will require massive upgrades to the transmission infrastructure. These infrastructure improvements will cost so much that it will require massive government expenditures (private utilities/developers) would seldom build a wind farm without someone else paying for the transmission lines because the power produced would not cover the investment costs within a reasonable time. Solar and wind have a place, but our treasury isnt in a place where hundreds of billions can be funnelled to these projects. Long term, maybe. Nuclear plants are about the least likely terror target other than for shock value. THey are highly secure, built out of concrete so thick it would take a massive hit to do any damage and any attack would be highly unlikely to cause a radiation release.

The truth is that if you want less carbon from the power generated during the next 30 years (1) without massive economic impact, (2) without the need to build billions of new transmission lines immediately, and (3) produced by plants paid for by private dollars, then nuclear is the only real option.

[podum]

On the NIMBY front, I lived in Columbia Mo for 9 years. It was in my backyard and I had no problem with it being there. The waste issue carries far less exposure risk (really, really tiny risk) than living near an operating plant (really tiny risk).

[flytyer57]

Nuclear plants are about the least likely terror target other than for shock value. THey are highly secure, built out of concrete so thick it would take a massive hit to do any damage and any attack would be highly unlikely to cause a radiation release.

When they built the World Trade Center Towers, they thought they would be able to withstand the impact of an airplane.

[Outside Bend]

When they built the World Trade Center Towers, they thought they would be able to withstand the impact of an airplane.

And Ameren didn't forsee the Taum Sauk failure either, although there were signs of trouble long before the dam failed.

I'm not opposed to nuclear energy, but if we can't trust them with the little stuff, how are we supposed to trust them with the big stuff?

[troutfiend1985]

When they built the World Trade Center Towers, they thought they would be able to withstand the impact of an airplane.

Really, because I've heard that the twin towers were actually built poorly and highly criticized by engineers at the time of their construction. But I could always be misinformed.

I do have a question, does anyone here go fishing? It seems that this is a very hot topic, and one to which there is no perfect answer. So, usually people either drink beer or tie flies in the winter, but it seems that we would rather poke fun at the peeing contest(including myself). I don't know, and really I don't think anyone knows what the hell is going on with the earth. My local weather forecaster couldn't even get todays weather right. But still, it's about time to get rid of this tick that is the middle east, and switch to a resource that the US has. Whether it be wind, solar, cow farts, I don't care. I'm 25, and I know that by the time I'm 40 gas is going to be extremely expensive. And no change can come easily, so we might as well get going now. Until then, I think I'm going to start tying midges, probably sz 32. I always here Ducky talking about these. . .

Be safe today,

[Wayne SW/MO]

When they built the World Trade Center Towers, they thought they would be able to withstand the impact of an airplane.

That's a ridicules comparison.

There are 442 plants in the world to date. How many have been attacked? There are 104 in the US, again how many have been attacked? Even those built before the present threat are easily protected.

It's interesting that while we are humping over windmills and solar panels that will need to go on forever across the countryside to supply us with a partial answer to renewable energy, China is building nuclear generating plants all over their countryside.

You can't store AC energy and a nuclear plant can meet demand on a sunny, windy day or a cloudy, quiet day, even during the night.