As others see it: Going nuclear

Rick G.
Bigelow, MN     11/06/2009 1:28 PM

I want to do whatever is the most efficient and that is nuclear. Why have the Chinese and the French built nuclear power plants like crazy the last 20 years?? Because they know what it is going to take to keep up with demand. Wind energy is 37% efficient, if there weren't tax credits for them they wouldn't be feasable at all. Not at $3 million a piece for them.

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wes h.
Sioux Falls, SD     11/06/2009 9:22 AM

From what I read some time back a large amount of the nuclear material being used in generating plants throughout the world is coming from dismantled Russian warheads so its's not like radioactive materials aren't out there already. They need to be guarded regardless of whether they are waste or materials still in use. By keeping the waste all in one spot like Yucca mountain it should be easier to guard. There are huge amounts of low grade radioative material from things like medical use that could be used to make a low grade "dirty bomb".

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B R.
Windom, MN     11/06/2009 8:20 AM

Everything has a negative ecological effect, including the clean burning natural gas. It causes groundwater overdraft and sedimentation issues. Streams and fields become salinized. So do you want to create jobs and mine coal with new technology or produce nuclear waste that Obama wants to do nothing with so terrorists can use it to their advantage?

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wes h.
Sioux Falls, SD     11/06/2009 7:56 AM

This article is just as I commented about the earlier Globe article about the Big Stone project being dropped. I saw a report on Fox and also in Wikipedia that the Obama administration is killing the Yucca mountain nuclear waste storage site. Another example of Obama's disconnect with reality. Though clean coal generation is important for now nuclear power is the best option for clean dependable generation. For wind or solar to be practical as a primary generation source some method of storage has to be found. I read some time back that they were experimenting with using batteries but I would doubt that will prove practical on a large scale. I think it might be possible for that wind energy could be combined with hydro power. Smaller dams could be build below dams such as Fort Randall or Oahe to creat another reservoir. Wind generation could be used to pump the water from the lower reservoir to the upper and at times with no wind the water could be released back down to the lower reservoir while making hydro power electricity. That still wouldn't be enough to power the country which is where nuclear and coal plants come in. There is also concern that dams and wind generation have adverse ecological effects that can damage fish and wildlife populations so I don't know how far we want to go with that either.

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