Should Ireland go Nucular?

Steyr

What do you think about this option for Irelands future energy needs? Apparently 92% of Ireland's energy is sourced from outside Ireland and that we are heavily reliant on fossil fuels and natural energy ( wind,solar,wave etc ) can only do so much is it just a matter of time before we go down the Nuclear route?

Terry

Definitely.
A large amount of fuel from a small source is the way forward.

Poll edited to add an extra option.

connundrum

Yeah sure why not. What harm like (not said in sarcastic tone).

France, UK and South Africa seem to be lovin it.

Regardless of whether it gets the go ahead, it will be held up for years with objections from residents surrounding the proposed site(s).

daveharnett

Yes. I don't love nuclear power, but it'll do until something better turns up.

chickenhawk

connundrum wrote: »

What harm like (not said in sarcastic tone).

France, UK and South Africa seem to be lovin it.

Have you not heard about the leaks found in some French nuclear sites in the last few weeks? I would say the locals and workers there are not saying that all is grand.

But I don't mind if one was built here. I wouldn't vote for it but I wouldn't go against it either.

techdiver

Not only should we do it, but we have to do it. We will be one of the hardest hit countries when we reach peak oil prices and we need a clean productive alternative.

chopperbyrne

No.

We should be able to use wind and water to power the country.

There is no need for a potentially very harmful nuclear plant.

jester77

There are still plenty of trees and turf to keep us going!

Jack Sheehan

No. Not because I think we'll have a chernobyl but because it's unneccisary. A large enough push would reduce our dependency on imported fuels, which uranium is incidently.

Glowing

jester77 wrote: »

There are still plenty of trees and turf to keep us going!

Turf is a really inefficient fuel to burn btw ..... so much water.

A combination of wind and wave, supplemented by gas and coal with sequestration would be the way to go for the moment (I think). There is no point doing anything until we reduce our energy demand, and properly insulate our houses though.

Edit: Wave technologies are in their infancies at the moment so we won't see anything on a commercial scale for years and years!

Can you ever imagine the Irish public going with Nuclear? Better still, what political party wants to have that on their heads? I wouldn't mind seeing Nuclear in this country - the technology has come a long way in the last 20 years.

PeadarofAodh

chopperbyrne wrote: »

No.

We should be able to use wind and water to power the country.

There is no need for a potentially very harmful nuclear plant.

You're kidding, right? Power the entire country using wind and water??

Not a chance.

togster

Nuclear is the only way to go.

larryone

My only objection is competence.
If I thought we had a government/esb/other regulatory body that was actually able to pull it off without incident, then sure, yea.
But I dont think we do.

andrew

Coal power causes more cancers and is a larger source of background radiation than Nuclear power. Burning coal concentrates harmful elements in whatever emmissions are released.

Heisenberg.

This post has been deleted.

Dyr

mmmmm...cancerous

Earthhorse

If by nuclear you mean explode in a mushroom cloud then I, for one, am for it. Should be pretty.

faceman

Yeah nuclear all the way! We can then enrich the urine-ium and make piss poor nuclear bombs.

Glowing

Usless fact: If a nuclear reactor had no protection around it, then the safe working distance from the core would be ...... 8 miles

rossie1977

the problem is the waste, nobody knows what to do with it not even the americans who propose to bury it hundreds of feet below a mountain in nevada :rolleyes:

a nuclear plant will produce around 30 tons of waste a year

Jack Sheehan

Plus it produces Weapons Grade Uranium, which as we all know, makes bombs. Do we want a nuclear stockpile? Or worse yet to sell nuclear material to other countries?

jester77

Glowing wrote: »

Turf is a really inefficient fuel to burn btw ..... so much water.

You need to spread them a few more times and leave more space in the stacks

What we really need is antimatter!

Ponster

Of course the other choice is to just let another country build the nuclear station and buy the power from them just as France sells electricy to other countries.

4Xcut

chopperbyrne wrote: »

No.

We should be able to use wind and water to power the country.

There is no need for a potentially very harmful nuclear plant.

Exactly, we should be quite capeable of being energy effecient. If not soon, at least able to survive without oil soon enough. It is rediculous that we woon't be though.

There are plenty of alternatives open to us, geothermal heating(expensive but constantly coming down in price, not to mention that apart from initial costs, that only ones are maintainance as there is no fuel required), wind(obvious, cheap, again only maintainance and no fuel and although not as relyable as oil, can be used in conjunction with other methods), hydroelectric(more hydroelectric stations, simple as).

Granted, this all requires quite a large initial outlay but i can't see the reason more people aren't investing in geothermal heating, the reduction in heating bills would pay for itself over time and what a selling point if you decieded to move.

Nuclear power is clean and effecient, this I will accept but the risks associated with an accident are not acceptable in my opinion. I am not going to bring up cherynoble becasuse i would hope that we would not have a test being run by undertrainded night staff in understaffed conditions on an outdated and unsafe soviet station(though would not be totally surprised with the attituded to regualtions we have in this counry)

Nuclear power stations will more than likely not get a go ahead for a very long time here due to most people not wanting the risk of a leak, accident or other such mess-up.

Yes, i am aware that oil tankers also spill and can be very harmfull to the environment as well as the gasses that are by-products of fossil fuels but at the beginning of my post i mentioned that we should be moving away from them as well.

ilovemybrick

Why invest in a temporary solution (ie the nuclear plants still need fuel) rather than the long term potential of wind and solar. We live beside the planet's second biggest producer of kinetic energy (the Atlantic ocean) and still there is little effort put into the consistent farming of the huge energy it creates.


Link

Most important sentence inthe article is "Besides the energy you get is free, all you have to do is maintain the energy generator and money to build one."
No refueling and dangerous waste created.

astrofool

We will already be using nuclear power anyway via the interconnector with the UK, just paying through the nose for it, and not having the control of the supply (i.e. in an energy shortage, we'll be the first ones turned off).

Build it in a green field site over on the west coast where there is a low population density. Most of the waste we produce could be shipped as fuel to other countries for use in their reactors.

Then we can start building wind and wave farms (it's tragic that the arklow set of windmills hasn't been expanded upon), and reduce our reliance on nuclear as time goes on (hopefully to coincide with its decommissioning), saving ourselves billions in importing fuels, and saving thousands of lives by not polluting our air with fossil fuel burning. If we then manage to change over to electrically powered cars, we can become one of the greenest nations on earth.

Glowing

Ponster wrote: »

Of course the other choice is to just let another country build the nuclear station and buy the power from them just as France sells electricy to other countries.

That's great in theory, but Ireland really needs to stop relying on imported energy. That solution doesn't guarantee us a supply indefinitely, and is very dependent on the political climate.

spadder

Yes, but only if a German or Japanese firm could run it not some semi-state quango.

Remember the fun and games we had when they tried to build a swimming pool (NAC).

Steyr

astrofool wrote: »

Then we can start building wind and wave farms

Those wind fars are an eyesore so too is a powerplant though.

ilovemybrick

Steyr wrote: »

Those wind fars are an eyesore so too is a powerplant though.

and one of them creates tonnes of nuclear waste that remains unsafe for 40.000 years and the other is a collection windmills.

DonkeyStyle \o/

Yeah go nuclear, but only if the plants are built near someone who isn't me.

Quazzie

I say we should build one as long as it is situated in Cork so if it does blow then its still a good thing for every one else. And if it doesn't we get cheap efficient power.. Win - Win!!

Gone West

Terry wrote: »

Definitely.
A large amount of fuel from a small source is the way forward.

Its not a small source.
Its waste is arguably the most difficult waste to manage of all electricity generation methods.
Locking it away out of sight/mind is just not good enough really.

Glowing

DonkeyStyle \o/ wrote: »

Yeah go nuclear, but only if the plants are built near someone who isn't me.

If a nuclear station blows up, I'd rather be living on it's doorstep and go up in smoke, rather than dying a slow, agonising death while I bleed from the inside out! :eek:

Earthhorse

DonkeyStyle \o/ wrote: »

Yeah go nuclear, but only if the plants are built near someone who isn't me.

They will be. That doesn't preclude them from being built near you though. Unless you live alone for an 8 mile radius?

DonkeyStyle \o/

Earthhorse wrote: »

Unless you live alone for an 8 mile radius?

I thought that would have been implicit.
To the hermit cave!

AtomicHorror

Fission plants have a bad rep due mostly to human mis-management. I voted yes on this but I have to confess that the idea of the ESB managing a controlled fission reaction is terrifying. Clearly we need a fusion plant.

Gone West

BTW accidents are not a risk nowadays.
Those arguments are invalid.

ilovemybrick

FuzzyLogic wrote: »

BTW accidents are not a risk nowadays.
Those arguments are invalid.

Because?

Gone West

ilovemybrick wrote: »

Because?

Dont be insolent, try to contribute to the forum, rather than just chat or one word posts!

My point (which I believed was obvious) is that the arguments against, citing safety concerns are almost completely invalid, as modern nuclear reactors (those built since 2001 onwards as an arbritrary point) are very safe, and in a long time they haven't had criticality incidents or accidents, there were hints and allegations.

Quazzie

FuzzyLogic wrote: »

Dont be insolent, try to contribute to the forum, rather than just chat or one word posts!

My point (which I believed was obvious) is that the arguments against, citing safety concerns are almost completely invalid, as modern nuclear reactors (those built since 2001 onwards as an arbritrary point) are very safe, and in a long time they haven't had criticality incidents or accidents, there were hints and allegations.

And do you honestly think that any technology the Irish Government are going to buy is going to be current. The last peat burning technology they bought from the russians was obselete before even being built. Any Nuclear Power plants going up in Ireland will almost certainly former eastern european plans that they wouldn't even touch themselves anymore

bill_ashmount

FuzzyLogic wrote: »

BTW accidents are not a risk nowadays.
Those arguments are invalid.

Possibly the stupidest statement of all time.

ilovemybrick

FuzzyLogic wrote: »

Dont be insolent, try to contribute to the forum, rather than just chat or one word posts!

My point (which I believed was obvious) is that the arguments against, citing safety concerns are almost completely invalid, as modern nuclear reactors (those built since 2001 onwards as an arbritrary point) are very safe, and in a long time they haven't had criticality incidents or accidents, there were hints and allegations.

How is it insolent to ask a question? Your post is unbelievably short-sighted.
You have made a sweeping statement and haven't backed it up. Human error is a huge factor in any nuclear incident or in fact in any industrial accident. How do you think that will be dealt with.

Yes your point was obvious but it is wrong. You are making an absurd claim and providing no evidence to support it.

Dyr

Are our energon generators not online yet?

Run_to_da_hills

I think it would be great to bring this issue again, we will have more big anti nuke music festivals with great line ups, Who can remember Caronsore point in the 70ies?

astrofool

Steyr wrote: »

Those wind fars are an eyesore so too is a powerplant though.

So we should just have no power. Solved all the world's energy problems in a single sentence.

Dave!

I'm open to it in general, and not thrown off by stuff like Chernobyl, 3 Mile Island, etc., but the one remaining concern for me is -- what do you do with all the waste? As far as I'm aware there's no way to recycle it, is there? Failing that, it just keeps building up...

cyburger

IMO the waste is the only problem... so, what's the worst thing about doing something like the americans are doing and burying it in a big hole in the ground? they're just putting it back where they found it. People talk about launching it into space, what'd be wrong with that? there's a negligible risk to an explosion on take off, but if the waste is protected it shouldn't be a problem? anyway, I vote yes.

Glowing

cyburger wrote: »

People talk about launching it into space, what'd be wrong with that? there's a negligible risk to an explosion on take off, but if the waste is protected it shouldn't be a problem?

Haha, we could kill two birds with the one stone - send it all into orbit, and it'd block out the sun, therefore solving our climate change issues :pac:

Conor108

Yep nuclear:) Who cares if its an eyesore? At least you'll be able to turn on the lights when oil runs out!

Run_to_da_hills

I would have no probs having Nuclear power stations in Ireland as long as they are within 100k from my back yard