Are we about to start using nuclear power from the UK?

mr kr0nik

CreepingDeath wrote: »

I think you should start a picket line at the coast.

Bloody British electrons coming in here, taking our potential difference.

Yeah there's no place like ohm..

Augmerson

DublinWriter wrote: »

Death Rate From Nuclear Power Vs Coal?
http://d2itb63h5gldlw.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/death-rate-per-watts.jpg

Nuclear power is far safer, cleaner and greener than fossil fuels. Fact.

Any other argument is just so much emotive anti-science ignorance.

Very scientific graph. Can't argue with that...

JRant

Knasher wrote: »

John wrote: »

Isn't it the start of Ireland setting up a massive wind farm and selling electricity to the UK rather than us buying from them in the long run?

Long term the goal is to sell our excess wind power into the English grid, but we will also be buying from them (and what we buy will be more expensive per watt than what we sell). The main advantage we get is that it will allow us the capacity to increase our reliance on wind power without compromising our supply. One of the major disadvantages of wind power is that it is unreliable, whenever the wind drops, so in order to avoid brownouts we need other sources, hydroelectric is pretty handy because we can turn it on and off quickly, but we don't have the capacity to power the entire country off it. Other options are pumped water stations, like Turlough Hill, where we just pump water up a hill when we have excess capacity and then let it flow back down when we need it, but needs a lot of land to run. So we need other sources, i.e. fossil fuels, but the problem with those is that they take a long time to start supplying electricity (they are all steam based, so it's kinda like boiling a kettle), so if there is a sudden drop in wind power then we have blackouts until the power plants can take up the slack, in order to avoid this we have to keep the fossil fuel plants on even when we even when we don't really need them.

The net result of all that is wasted electricity, and as the amount we generate from wind increases, the amount we waste increases linearly with it, inter-connectors give us an place to sell that waste as well as buy it when we need it, increasing our efficiency.

Also the fact that more wind power is generated at night, due to more wind blowing then, means that it occurs when we need it least. The base load during the day is when the real juggling act occurs and having access to a more stable supply for these periods is key.
Another factor is that electricity is nigh on impossible to store efficiently so if it's not used straight away it's pretty much pointless producing it. Thats why this interconnector will allow us to balance the baseload more effectively during the day while at night we can send this excess to our neighbours.
Win win situation really.

Cpt_Blackbeard

JRant wrote: »

Also the fact that more wind power is generated at night, due to more wind blowing then, means that it occurs when we need it least. The base load during the day is when the real juggling act occurs and having access to a more stable supply for these periods is key.

Another factor is that electricity is nigh on impossible to store efficiently so if it's not used straight away it's pretty much pointless producing it. Thats why this interconnector will allow us to balance the baseload more effectively during the day while at night we can send this excess to our neighbours.
Win win situation really.

The ability to store/save/distribute energy will be drastically improved with the adoption of electric cars and the smart grid. Avenues such as flywheel energy storage could also be very useful. Interconnection with the rest of Europe will allow better balancing of the baseload and should provide us with a great opportunity of selling renewable energy to the rest of Europe.

Everyone is trying to lower their CO2 emissions to come in line with their Kyoto targets, and we are in a near-unparalleled location to exploit wind, wave and tidal energy. The proposed and completed interconnectors should provide us with a great opportunity to sell such a valuable commodity.

cml387

JRant wrote: »

Also the fact that more wind power is generated at night, due to more wind blowing then

Shome mishtake shurely WD?

ted1

JRant wrote: »

Knasher wrote: »

John wrote: »

Isn't it the start of Ireland setting up a massive wind farm and selling electricity to the UK rather than us buying from them in the long run?

Long term the goal is to sell our excess wind power into the English grid, but we will also be buying from them (and what we buy will be more expensive per watt than what we sell). The main advantage we get is that it will allow us the capacity to increase our reliance on wind power without compromising our supply. One of the major disadvantages of wind power is that it is unreliable, whenever the wind drops, so in order to avoid brownouts we need other sources, hydroelectric is pretty handy because we can turn it on and off quickly, but we don't have the capacity to power the entire country off it. Other options are pumped water stations, like Turlough Hill, where we just pump water up a hill when we have excess capacity and then let it flow back down when we need it, but needs a lot of land to run. So we need other sources, i.e. fossil fuels, but the problem with those is that they take a long time to start supplying electricity (they are all steam based, so it's kinda like boiling a kettle), so if there is a sudden drop in wind power then we have blackouts until the power plants can take up the slack, in order to avoid this we have to keep the fossil fuel plants on even when we even when we don't really need them.

The net result of all that is wasted electricity, and as the amount we generate from wind increases, the amount we waste increases linearly with it, inter-connectors give us an place to sell that waste as well as buy it when we need it, increasing our efficiency.

Also the fact that more wind power is generated at night, due to more wind blowing then, means that it occurs when we need it least. The base load during the day is when the real juggling act occurs and having access to a more stable supply for these periods is key.
Another factor is that electricity is nigh on impossible to store efficiently so if it's not used straight away it's pretty much pointless producing it. Thats why this interconnector will allow us to balance the baseload more effectively during the day while at night we can send this excess to our neighbours.
Win win situation really.

What makes you think that they need it at night?

haulagebasher

@OP: FYI this is not the Republics first interconnector to the UK. There are three existing connectors between the Republic and the UK, the first being the Tandagree-Louth interconnector built in 1970.
I think what you are referring to OP is the new connector between Britain and the Republic.
I know what you mean but I really wish people would get their facts accurate before posting. Anyway, carry on.

syklops wrote: »

Just to clarify for some folks out there, contrary to the belief of some(I dare say many), electricity produced from nuclear plants is NOT radio-active. It will not harm you. You do not need to go looking for the iodine tablets.

Tell me you are cracking a joke? Seriously are there actually people out there who think that?
LOL that is just mad.

haulagebasher

mike65 wrote: »

To be fair it was the processing plant that the campaign was aimed at, but yeah hypocrisy how are you?

Its hard to credit (or it should be) but a Green TD actually wondered out loud about "filtering" the current to not allow nuclear sourced power onto the interconnector.

It's offcial. The most retarded quote of the day. (the Green TD that is, not you). No surpise the country ended up as fcuked as it has if we had a dail with imbeciles that could think of something like this.

Knasher

ted1 wrote: »

What makes you think that they need it at night?

It's not that they need it per say, it's that we can sell it into their network at a lower price than they can from other sources like the burning of fossil fuels. Nighttime is usually when pumped water stations are primed so that they can resell the energy though out the day.

JRant

ted1 wrote: »

JRant wrote: »

Knasher wrote: »

John wrote: »

Isn't it the start of Ireland setting up a massive wind farm and selling electricity to the UK rather than us buying from them in the long run?

Long term the goal is to sell our excess wind power into the English grid, but we will also be buying from them (and what we buy will be more expensive per watt than what we sell). The main advantage we get is that it will allow us the capacity to increase our reliance on wind power without compromising our supply. One of the major disadvantages of wind power is that it is unreliable, whenever the wind drops, so in order to avoid brownouts we need other sources, hydroelectric is pretty handy because we can turn it on and off quickly, but we don't have the capacity to power the entire country off it. Other options are pumped water stations, like Turlough Hill, where we just pump water up a hill when we have excess capacity and then let it flow back down when we need it, but needs a lot of land to run. So we need other sources, i.e. fossil fuels, but the problem with those is that they take a long time to start supplying electricity (they are all steam based, so it's kinda like boiling a kettle), so if there is a sudden drop in wind power then we have blackouts until the power plants can take up the slack, in order to avoid this we have to keep the fossil fuel plants on even when we even when we don't really need them.

The net result of all that is wasted electricity, and as the amount we generate from wind increases, the amount we waste increases linearly with it, inter-connectors give us an place to sell that waste as well as buy it when we need it, increasing our efficiency.

Also the fact that more wind power is generated at night, due to more wind blowing then, means that it occurs when we need it least. The base load during the day is when the real juggling act occurs and having access to a more stable supply for these periods is key.
Another factor is that electricity is nigh on impossible to store efficiently so if it's not used straight away it's pretty much pointless producing it. Thats why this interconnector will allow us to balance the baseload more effectively during the day while at night we can send this excess to our neighbours.
Win win situation really.

What makes you think that they need it at night?

Two reasons that spring to mind immediately;
First, they have a much larger population than we do.
Second, they have a much larger industrial sector that usually work 24/7.
The UK has a serious problem with balancing its baseload even at night so they need as much power as they can get.

industry observer

The electricity coming into NI through the Moyle interconnector, and then into the Republic, already has nuclear electricity.

This new interconnector will be no different.

JRant

Cpt_Blackbeard wrote: »

The ability to store/save/distribute energy will be drastically improved with the adoption of electric cars and the smart grid. Avenues such as flywheel energy storage could also be very useful. Interconnection with the rest of Europe will allow better balancing of the baseload and should provide us with a great opportunity of selling renewable energy to the rest of Europe.

Everyone is trying to lower their CO2 emissions to come in line with their Kyoto targets, and we are in a near-unparalleled location to exploit wind, wave and tidal energy. The proposed and completed interconnectors should provide us with a great opportunity to sell such a valuable commodity.

Couldn't agree more, think of all those cars that could be recharged overnight using cheap wind generated electricity. Unfortunately it is still some years away for coming to fruition.

The flywheel storage is an interesting avenue but to be honest is very cost prohibitive at the moment. Using the latest Ultra-Capacitor technology with flywheel systems has a huge capital outlay problem. For 1MW of energy storage it costs in excess of 500,000 euro and is the size of shipping container.

Regarding wave energy we have pretty much the best coast in the world to exploit this. Our west coast has been widely studied and was found to have the almost perfect significant wave height and period to generate power consistently. Yet we are falling so far behind other countries again in this area due to a serious lack of funding and foresight. A proposed wave farm in Belmullet was shelved recently despite the fact that it would have attracted companies form around the globe and for once made us a market leader in a sector

syklops

syklops wrote: »

Just to clarify for some folks out there, contrary to the belief of some(I dare say many), electricity produced from nuclear plants is NOT radio-active. It will not harm you. You do not need to go looking for the iodine tablets.

If you have read this far in the thread and have not found your iodine tablets yet, they are most likely on the top shelf in the kitchen.

Thats where mine are. In a small house in the wesht of Ireland.