[ RadSafe ] RE: Turn off nuclear power, environmentalists urge

Thu Apr 12 16:32:09 CDT 2007

There is a rather extensive line of windmills on a ridge at the border of Washington and Oregon (just downwind of me). If it were affecting Oregon in any way I'm sure there would be extensive protests, and I haven't heard about any negative impact on the skiing at Sun Valley or the potato crop in Idaho, so I'm assuming that they haven't had a problem either. Since farmers typically expect a wind barrier (fence or trees) to provide a calm distance equal to twice the height of the barrier, I would be hard pressed to accept the Butterfly Effect as plausible even for windmills. I've also noticed no detrimental effect on my property an hour east of my house, downwind of the windmills.

As for the return on investment, John Burley in Phoenix guarantees a 16 percent annual return on real estate investments for a period of 30 years (and I've done the same for 10 years), because he makes no investment that won't return him at least 40 percent per year. I'm not advertising for him, and I have no investments with him--I'm just using him as an example of how "real" investments are more profitable than investing with governments (U.S. bonds, for example, only pay six percent). A futures or Forex account trading the Australian dollar (against the U.S. dollar for Forex) would be up by over 100 percent in just the last two weeks (300 percent for the month of March)--it's at an all-time high.

Jack Earley
Health Physicist
509.372.9532

-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl [mailto:radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl] On Behalf Of Franz Schönhofer
Sent: Wednesday, April 11, 2007 3:42 PM
To: Dukelow, James S Jr; 'Gary Damschen'; radsafe at radlab.nl
Subject: AW: [ RadSafe ] RE: Turn off nuclear power, environmentalists urge

Jim and other RADSAFErs,

You point out exactly what I was wondering since years or rather decades:
What is the impact of those windmill farms, of those sun-energy farms not only on the local, but also to the far climate. I have been somewhat excited by the advertisments in Austrian Newspapers in 2006, to invest in wind energy, because of special funds there will provide a cash return of almost 10% and the placements should be done immidiately because the favourable legislation will be finished soon. With other words: The taxpayers and due to Austrian legislation the consumers have to pay in any case for the wins of investors. 

Do you know of any international and reliable investigations which put wind-mills and sun-energy farms as well as some other potential energy sources compared to nuclear power into perspective? This request is directed to all of the recipients of the list.

Best regards and thank you in advance,

Franz

Franz Schoenhofer, PhD
MinRat i.R.
Habicherg. 31/7
A-1160 Wien/Vienna
AUSTRIA

-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl [mailto:radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl] Im Auftrag von Dukelow, James S Jr
Gesendet: Donnerstag, 12. April 2007 00:09
An: Gary Damschen; radsafe at radlab.nl
Betreff: RE: [ RadSafe ] RE: Turn off nuclear power, environmentalists urge

 A few years ago (2002) I heard a talk by Mike Foreman of the Institute for Ocean Studies in Victoria, BC that asked and at least partially answered the same question regarding the use of underwater turbines to remove energy (turning it into electricity) from ocean currents around Vancouver Island.  His answer was that there is a limit on how much energy you can remove without essential changes in the system of ocean currents.  A Google or Yahoo search might turn up more information.

Best regards.

Jim Dukelow
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Richland, WA
Jim.dukelow at pnl.gov

These comments have not been reviewed and/or approved by my management or by the U.S. Department of Energy.

-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl [mailto:radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl] On Behalf Of Gary Damschen
Sent: Wednesday, April 11, 2007 10:13 AM
To: radsafe at radlab.nl
Subject: [ RadSafe ] RE: Turn off nuclear power, environmentalists urge

Has anyone studied the environmental impact of removing the equivalent of 1000MWe of solar irradiation from a concentrated area or what would happen to New Jersey's weather patterns if the entire state's electrical energy needs were met by removing gigawatts of energy from the prevailing winds?
The energy collected by wind farms is not free. If the wind's energy is reduced, it stands to reason that thermal mixing of the near-earth atmosphere would be affected, perhaps even cloud formation and behavior as well. So what would happen to cooling and heating patterns? Removing a little energy to power something relatively small probably has little measurable effect. Remove a nuke plant from the grid and replace it with solar/wind and I bet you might see some results at least locally. Also, what happens to the state's power supply if a hurricane comes through (rare, but it does happen)?

-Gary

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