Fracking fluids found in 3 PA water wells...

[truckdiagnostics]

I pretty much live in a, "if I see it I will believe it." I don't know if i can trust the data from either side and at some point I have to have a little trust or my head will explode. One of my first jobs out of school was working for a fracking company and that was in 1982. So, in my silly little brain, i would like to think if it was a big issue we would be seeing a lot more problems. I do a lot of work for the oil and gas industry. All I can personally judge is what I see, I have been on drilling rigs in Mexico, Canada and the US. The Canadians as far as safety and professionalism on there rigs, way out in front of the US and Mexico. Getting on the rigs in Canada took an act of congress. US and mexico not so much. Just from what I have seen would lead me to believe it is not so much the "fracking" as it is, "are the companies following correct procedures." And from what I am hearing the, "correct procedures" are part of the issues, as I believe they are different from state to state. Now to compare US to Canada, I am only comparing North Dakota to Saskatchewan, who's to say going to a different state or province things would not be different. I just found the contrast interesting. I also do work for companies that support the fracking in PA, so...... that's just what I hear.

 

[dave1949]

The same thing applies to every other source of power though. Coal, oil, NG, solar, wind, geothermal, everything. Even factoring in corporate greed and bureaucratic incompetence, nuclear is still far, far safer than any other source. If you want to blow your mind, that safety record is with plants designed, and in many cases constructed, in the '60s and '70s. The modern designs are FAR safer than the old designs, blowing really dangerous stuff like coal plants right out of the water!

Missteps with nuclear power have no equivalent in wind, solar, geothermal, and only marginally in NG and oil. The coal industry has a bad record, at least in the east.

But that said, if we went on a crash program to build enough nuclear plants to eliminate most fossil fuels from the grid what do you think the overall success rate would be? Success meaning on time, on budget, operates to capacity with industry standard up times over an expected lifetime. Anything 90% or better would surprise me.

 

[williaty]

Anything better than 0% would shock me because the treehuggers would block every construction plan.

Honestly, the newer reactor designs are cheaper, smaller, more efficient, and easier to build. If we just called one of the companies building them in other parts of the world and said "make a copy of that for us", it'd work. If it has to have every special interest group getting the pork it, it'll never work.

As far as the big accidents in nuclear power, keep in mind that the safety statistics include those. Even with Fukushima and Chernobyl, nuclear remains safer than coal, oil, NG, wind, and solar.

 

[Jstpssng]

I can't help wondering if this is a drop in the bucket compared to the amount of pollution caused by end users; whether it's diesel spills at the pump, old gasoline or antifreeze dumped into the ground, or Joe Smoe with his 500HP tuned Cummins blowing black smoke to the pharmacy to pick up his daughter's asthma medicine. For years gravel roads were spreyed with old engine oil to keep the dust down,... 50 years ago my father would pull the plug in the driveway and let the engine drain for the same reason. I still know people who spray it on the undercarriage of their autos every winter to fight rust. There are Nimby's for every solution.. just look at the concurrently running windmill thread. Even solar farms have their detracters.

Guys like williaty and Dave1949 deserve credit for supporting their beliefs with their lifestyle. Too many people seem to have the attitude "Changes HAVE to be made-Starting with that guy over there!"

I recently watched a movie filmed in 1954 where the star told his brother "In a few years every home will have a nuclear power plant in it."
Amazing how things have changed.