Selfsufficientish.com

Posted: **Sun Jan 18, 2009 8:34 pm**

Great debate folks - some very informed views. I haven't been on for ages and came on seeking advice on growing garlic - but saw this and working in the nuclear industry (yes I confess - again) -couldn't resist posting here.

In terms of energy supply in the UK we need a combination - I like renewable energy but I think some of the large wind turbine developments are a bit of a con - they don't generate much, for much of the time and will not supply a baseload of electricity. Renewable energy at the moment at least cannot supply a contribution toward the baseload - currently for that you need coal, gas or nuclear. Wave power shows some promise for baseload, but the technology needs more development (but it is getting there).

The question being asked is very polarised as Renewable vs Nuclear. If there was a renewable option which could supply baseload - I would be the first to go for it - but it can't. However it should be an increasing part of our future energy solution. For baseload then - whats the best option - well the only option for me is nuclear, not because I work in it - but because it is a safe, secure option for supply in the UK, it is clean and the UK can be self-sufficientish in energy.

The alternatives are gas....fossil fuel, emissions and clearly security of supply - the UK will be dependent on Russian gas in the future if thats the way we go...coal, with carbon capture - as an engineer I am curious but it sounds like snake oil to me..certainly there is a lot of work to do to prove it can work - security of supply is a factor though and I guess coal may feature in the energy mix.

Nuclear is not ideal, but I'm not sure what the alternative is for our baseload generation. In my humble opinion we should concentrate on energy efficiency (not taxes!), then renewables / research into other clean energy and last we have nuclear etc - in that order.

Back to the veg research...

Posted: **Mon Jan 19, 2009 6:36 am**

http://transitionculture.org/2007/12/07 ... ear-power/

David Fleming, the guy that came up with TEQs, doesn't seem to think nuclear energy is anything more than a way of dumping nuclear waste on future generations.

1. The world’s endowment of uranium ore is now so depleted that the nuclear industry will never, from its own resources, be able to generate the energy it needs to clear up its own backlog of waste.

2. It is essential that the waste should be made safe and placed in permanent storage. High-level wastes, in their temporary storage facilities, have to be managed and kept cool to prevent fire and leaks which would otherwise contaminate large areas.

3. Shortages of uranium – and the lack of realistic alternatives – leading to interruptions in supply, can be expected to start in the middle years of the decade 2010-2019, and to deepen thereafter.

4. The task of disposing finally of the waste could not, therefore, now be completed using only energy generated by the nuclear industry, even if the whole of the industry’s output were to be devoted to it. In order to deal with its waste, the industry will need to be a major net user of energy, almost all of it from fossil fuels.

5. Every stage in the nuclear process, except fission, produces carbon dioxide. As the richest ores are used up, emissions will rise.

6. Uranium enrichment uses large volumes of uranium hexafluoride, a halogenated compound (HC). Other HCs are also used in the nuclear life-cycle. HCs are greenhouse gases with global warming potentials ranging up to 10,000 times that of carbon dioxide.

7. An independent audit should now review these findings. The quality of available data is poor, and totally inadequate in relation to the importance of the nuclear question. The audit should set out an energy-budget which establishes how much energy will be needed to make all nuclear waste safe, and where it will come from. It should also supply a briefing on the consequences of the worldwide waste backlog being abandoned untreated.

8. There is no single solution to the coming energy gap. What is needed is a speedy programme of Lean Energy, comprising:
(1) energy conservation and efficiency;
(2) structural change in patterns of energy-use and land-use; and
(3) renewable energy; all within
(4) a framework for managing the energy descent, such as Tradable Energy Quotas (TEQs).

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