Or at least, not about Western nukes:
China’s nuclear energy policy: ‘Build, baby, build!’
China has 13 operating nuclear reactors producing nearly 2 percent of its total power output, but there are another 27 reactors under construction, 50 more planned and more than 100 proposed. With new reactors coming every year, China is aiming for a tenfold increase in its nuclear generating capacity by 2020, with rapid growth projected to continue until 2050.
China has 10,234 megawatts of installed nuclear power, has another 29,7940 MW under construction, another 57,830 MW planned and another 108,000 MW proposed. The US currently has about 101,000 MW of installed capability, and very little on the horizon.
So even if the western world goes *completely* insane and stops building nuclear reactors, the Chinese show no sign of stopping. In 20 years, China may well be the sole source for expertise in nuclear power, nuclear engineering and possibly nuclear physics. Additionally, China is the country that put lead paint on toys, cadmium in other toys, plastic filler in pet food, antifreeze in toothpaste, oversulfated chondroitin sulfate in blood thinners, and, for all I know, ebola in antibiotics. So for all the worrying on the west coast about fallout from a Japanese nuclear plant… just *imagine* the fun clouds of radioactive Red Chinese Communism that may well come floating down in a few years.
A western (American, Japanese, European, etc.) nuclear reactor is sure to be a far safer device than any Chinese reactor. If we do not build nuclear plants, we are, realistically, stuck with building coal and gas burners (wind and solar are nice, but niche markets). Gas is an increasingly rare and expensive commodity. Coal (which emits *far* more radiation than nuclear plants) is something of an environmental nightmare, both in the digging and the burning.
So cutting own own nads off for bullcrap reasons of “safety,” while the Chinese continue to crank out nuclear plants and coal-fired plants, is not only wrong-headed, it’s dangerous lunacy. If you are going to nget irradiated from failed-reactor-fallout, almost certainly it’ll be commie failed-reactor-fallout. So why force yourself into a 19th-century level of existence?
3 Responses to “Another reason not to freak out about nukes”
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Bingo.
Jim
It’s like Kyoto all over again, except this time we’re not refusing to sign.
What makes you think we are any more technologically advanced than the Chinese at making power plants? So far USA and Japan have a dozen meltdowns between then, the USSR has one in Chernobyl…
Just to show that we mostly agree on this topic, even if we don’t agree on the value of insulting and over-simplified political attacks, check out this crazy cnn article:
http://www.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/03/25/caldicott.nuclear.health/index.html?hpt=T2
For the most part, people are making too much of these meltdowns. The problem is most people are scientifically illiterate, and unable to decide what is true and what false about nuclear power. One reporter on CNN actually had the gall to suggest that everyone working on the plants in Japan are on a suicide mission. Good thing for us there was a real expert there, and he said basically “You are wrong.” That was one of the few times I was yelling at the TV and it was not at Bill Oreilly.