T Boone Pickens abandons wind farm plans

[ERD50]

Comes the answer: Mini nuclear plants to power 20,000 homes | Environment | The Observer

These small scale reactors are very interesting. They also mention the Toshiba units - I think we discussed those ~ a year back:

Toshiba has been testing 200KW reactors measuring roughly six metres by two metres. Designed to fuel smaller numbers of homes for longer, they could power a single building for up to 40 years.

What I like is, you could have these scattered around, which means we are less dependent on "the grid" connecting a few super-sized power plants. Every moderate sized town (or neighborhood for the Toshiba model - ~ 200 homes per?) would have one, and could draw from their neighbors if one went down. The 8% loss in the grid would be reduced. Tying these into the existing grid would reduce the overall load on the grid as electricity would not be flowing so far. It would get used locally, and those wires already support that load.

As far as safety:

The reactors, only a few metres in diameter, will be delivered on the back of a lorry to be buried underground. They must be refuelled every 7 to 10 years. Because the reactor is based on a 50-year-old design that has proved safe for students to use, few countries are expected to object to plants on their territory. An application to build the plants will be submitted to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission next year.

'You could never have a Chernobyl-type event - there are no moving parts,' said Deal. 'You would need nation-state resources in order to enrich our uranium. Temperature-wise it's too hot to handle. It would be like stealing a barbecue with your bare hands.'

Sounds good, but while somebody could not steal a barbecue with bare hands, a vandal could tip one over with a ten foot pole, if all they wanted to do was create havoc.

But I bet it would be easier to create even more havoc by catapulting a couple dozen standard copper water pipes from the back of a pick-up into one of those transformer yards you see with the barb wire fences around them....

Terrorists seem to go low tech - it's easier.

-ERD50

 

[Free To Canoe]

Wind power = noise and flickering shadows - so distracting! Coal burns dirty = nasty deposits on the buildings and lungs. Dams hurt fish runs. Solar takes up too much area and the collectors are expensive to build and require cleaning to maintain efficiency. Conservation is cheap and effective, but dammit - we're Americans!

Comes the answer: Mini nuclear plants to power 20,000 homes | Environment | The Observer

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Slim Pickens = Special Delivery, Faster than Fed Ex