[ RadSafe ] Re: Risks and Realities: The "New Nuclear EnergyRevival"

[Brennan, Mike (DOH)]

One of the big problems in comparing costs is that most of the older power sources, such as coal or hydro, have large costs that are "externalities", which is accountant speak for "too hard to figure out" or "we managed to make someone else carry the load".  For example, one of the undeniable costs of burning coal is acid rain that dissolves limestone on buildings.  Someone pays to repair the buildings, but not the people who profit from selling the coal.  Nor do they pay for health costs of people who breath the pollution and die earlier than might otherwise be.  The fishermen of the West Coast have paid a high price for the "free" energy form dams, in the form of collapsed salmon runs.  

I suspect that if there was a true accounting, in which the cost for different power sources of everything to everyone from beginning to end, and efforts such as the litigation aimed not at making a particular source safe, but merely more expensive, were removed, nuclear power would turn out to be very competitive.

-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl [mailto:radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl] On Behalf Of John Jacobus
Sent: Tuesday, May 08, 2007 11:42 AM
To: howard long; HotGreenChile at gmail.com; 'Jerry Cohen'; 'Franz "Schönhofer'; 'Otto G. Raabe'; 'Dukelow, James S Jr'; 'Kai Kaletsch'; 'Radsafe'
Cc: 'Dan McCarn'
Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Re: Risks and Realities: The "New Nuclear EnergyRevival"

And what are the costs for non-nuclear power sources, such as coal plants, dams, etc.?  


--- howard long <hflong at pacbell.net> wrote:

> Ted Rockwell points out in his book, Creating the New World,
>   Stories and Images from the Dawn of the Atomic Age, foreword by 
> Glenn Seaborg,
>    that half of the cost of nuclear power plants actually goes to 
> lawyers and bankers,
>   through obstructive regulation lobbied by antinucs.
>   Fig 8.3 Growth in cost of nuclear power plants and growth in number 
> of regulatory documents.
>   Fig 8.4 Growth in required nuclear plant documentation
>    
>   So, "-the bottom line of the financial balance sheet." (below) 
> requires only deregulation (as with the cost of health care). In both, 
> the burdensome regulation does not help public safety, but only 
> perpetuates parasitic salaries.
>    
>   Point this out on electricity bills!
>    
>   Howard Long   
> 
> Dan W McCarn <hotgreenchile at gmail.com> wrote:
>         st1\:*{behavior:url(#default#ieooui) }      
>          Hi - There is a new article in Arms Control Today (May 2007) 
> about issues and problems with the development of nuclear power.  Only 
> the first three paragraphs are cited below.  As I mentioned in an 
> earlier posting, the issues related to CO2 emissions are not just the 
> possibility of climate change or the politics but the reality that the 
> economics of
> CO2 are pushing the major energy companies to seriously consider the 
> bottom line on the financial balance sheet.  The majors are turning to 
> methods of minimizing CO2 emissions whether through sequestration, 
> improved energy efficiency, or alternate energy.  Since I work for one 
> of the "majors", I know that the orders have gone down to seriously 
> consider development impact with regards
> CO2 in every sector of the business.
>    
>   So Jerry, it's not just hysteria.  This is business and the focus is 
> on the bottom line of the financial balance sheet!
>    
>   Dan W McCarn, Geologist
>   Albuquerque & Houston
>    
>  
> 

+++++++++++++++++++
What are the facts? Again and again and again - what are the facts? Shun wishful thinking,. . . avoid opinion, [and] care not what the neighbors think, . . .what are the facts, and to how many decimal places? You pilot always into an unknown future; facts are your single clue. Get the facts!" 
 "Time Enough for Love," Robert Heinlein, 1973

-- John
John Jacobus, MS
Certified Health Physicist
e-mail:  crispy_bird at yahoo.com

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