LA is "stealing" water again!

[buickanddeere]

Don't know what you mean. Your post reads is nuclear cleaner than nuclear.
There are different ways to achieve nuclear power. First there are fission and fusion. We're still a long way from fusion, that leaves fission but the way we've done it so far is actually not the best way to generate electricity from fission. The reason we went that way is because the DOE was more interested in nuclear weapons than they were nuclear energy so we took the wrong path. The way we went tends to fail catastrophically like Chernobyl or Fukushima Daiichi. These are light water reactors that are inherently something trying to run wild and out of control like a herd of wild horses. These are fueled with relatively rare uranium and have several other inherent faults built in that everyone is all too familiar with. However there is another type of fission from thorium which is much more plentiful especially right here in the USA. There are several advantages to this type or reaction that addresses all of the faults of the uranium reactors. First of all it's a throttled reaction meaning when you want to stop it all you do is take your foot of the pedal. No containment is needed or required unlike light water reactors. The radioactive by products are much less by orders of magnitude and they have much shorter half lives measured in a hundreds instead of tens of thousands of years. You can even use it to help convert the stockpiles of byproducts we're now sitting on now into useful energy. It's doable because there have already been two pilot reactors built and successfully run way back in the late fifties and early sixties. However the DOE didn't want it because it can't be used to produce weapons grade materials. You don't get to hear much about it because there are many who don't want it to become well known, including the fossil fuel PACs and lobbies, the solar and wind nuts because they want to keep their streams of tax money and grants flowing in etc. etc. etc.. Basically it boils down to be all about money and politics which always walk hand in hand. There is lots of info on the web about it but you have to do your own research because those in power aren't going to let you know diddly squat about it if they can help it. At least not until it's likely too late to do any of us any good.

Right on. Either a Molten Salt or a PHWR fueled with natural non enriched uranium U235/U238, used enriched fuel or a mix of U232 as those reactors are breeders with an excess of neutrons which makes U233.

 

[buickanddeere]

Solar is nothing but a diversion and you'll never quite realize your return on investment from it. It ain't cheap and is by no means a real answer to anything. The only thing good about solar is that it's fusion but it's just a bit too far away to do us much good. Meanwhile the right kind of nuclear is scalable while you can put it where and when you need it. It's also very simple to replace the heat source in current fossil fueled plants with a thorium fueled fission reactor thereby saving a ton in needless capital expense as you get to keep and use the generation and transmission equipment already in place.

Have to rework the turbines to operate with saturated wet nuclear steam instead of dry supper heated fossil steam.

 

[jerrybob]

Trouble with that is you first have to have cheap power to desalinate sea water and make it make any sense. Of course as long as the energy companies keep lining the pockets of our politicians that won't happen until it's too late and they've sold the very last drop of oil or lump of coal. Meanwhile they keep the looney left amused with solar energy and keep them busy chasing windmills.

You are correct......lining their pockets with gold while skipping around windmills......the story would make a good fairy tail....but....unfortunately it's true!

 

[flusher]

Trouble with that is you first have to have cheap power to desalinate sea water and make it make any sense. Of course as long as the energy companies keep lining the pockets of our politicians that won't happen until it's too late and they've sold the very last drop of oil or lump of coal. Meanwhile they keep the looney left amused with solar energy and keep them busy chasing windmills.

Correct. Water from the Carlsbad, CA desalination plant will cost upwards of $2000 per acre foot.
Irrigation water from the Sacramento River cost $41 per acre foot prior to March 2014. Next month it jumped to $425 per acre foot. It's now over $600 per acre foot, IIRC.

The water level in the well at my former ranch in Tehama County, CA dropped 33 ft from 2004-14. About 11 ft of that drop occurred in 2013-14. The pump in my next door neighbor well hangs at 90 ft below ground level and it started sucking air in July 2014. My pump is in the same stratum at 120 ft (bottom of the well is at 154 ft). There probably has been some recharge this year since rainfall was nearly normal. Won't know the exact numbers until the state guys check the levels in the monitoring wells.

I paid $21 per foot to have that well drilled in May 2005. The next stratum with decent water quality and supply is 400-500 ft down. Drillers want $50+ per foot these days for a small well (6" dia casing).
That prospect, along with old age, convinced me to sell my ranch in late 2014 and head for the city.

 

[deezler]

Solar is nothing but a diversion and you'll never quite realize your return on investment from it. It ain't cheap and is by no means a real answer to anything.

Ummm, hate to break it to you but I just got a bunch of residential solar quotes and all show the payback time between 7-9 years. On panels and inverters warrantied for 25 years or more. 0-down, 4% loan that replaces my energy bill in the meantime. Pretty much a no brainer as soon as my credit has space. Even up in cloudy Michigan, solar makes total sense.

 

[oldpilgrim]

What about that nucular power I keep hearing about? Is it cleaner energy than nuclear?



Bruce

I hear that some are proposing 'nucular' plants being built in the 'Artic'.

 

[bcp]

I hear that some are proposing 'nucular' plants being built in the 'Artic'.

But that would endanger the penguins, causing the polar bears to starve.

Bruce