Here are some numbers for you to ponder over
bpost
Member Posts: 32,664 ✭✭✭✭
I have been trying to come up with a way to show greenies that switching to all electric cars and trucks is a pie in the sky idea until we fill the power generation issue and the battery storage issue. I think I came up with a way.
POWER:
A gallon of #2 Diesel generates the equivalent of 41KWh. The USA burns about 128 million gallons of Diesel per day. That is a LOT of KWh.
A Gallon of Gasoline generates the equivalent of 33.7 KWh The USA burns about 369 Million gallons of gasoline each day. That is a LOT of KWh.
Total US electric generation from all sources was 4.116 Billion KWh.
The load at the end is balanced with production, electrons are going to go someplace. To replace the gas and diesel with electric is going to take a LOT of power. The math is beyond me but somewhere out there is how many average generating plants it would take to remove gas and diesel from use. People would be amazed to learn that nuke plants power about 20% of our grid, all out of 60 plants. If we built another 50-60 plants using nukes for power we could all drive electric cars with nary a concern.
Comments
Fusion?
Nuclear power is highly subject to local political sentiments.
In California, for example, strong anti-nuclear sentiment played a part in the decommissioning of the last operational nuclear power reactor in the state, Diablo Canyon.
In Illinois, by contrast, the state legislature voted to spend as much as $694 million to keep nuclear reactors open.
Another lingering and prominent issue for nuclear power is the lack of a permanent waste disposal solution. Nuclear power generation results in dangerous, radioactive waste. The scientific consensus is that nuclear waste should be stored deep in the ground where it can remain and, over many thousands of years, lose its radioactivity.
In the United States, there is no permanent nuclear waste disposal. Nuclear waste sits in dry casks at locations of current and former nuclear reactors. A mine at Yucca Mountain in Nevada was the closest the U.S. got to permanent disposal for nuclear waste, but the location was shut down, due in large part to the influence of Harry Reid
Nuclear power plants generate 19% of the electricity in the U.S., according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. (Sixty-one percent comes from fossil fuels and 20% comes from renewables.)
So where are these nuclear power plants located?
CNBC used data from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to plot where nuclear reactors are currently in operation, where they are undergoing decommissioning processes to be shut down and where licenses have been granted for new reactors. In cases where multiple plants and reactors are located in the same place, the map lists the one with the latest license expiration.
There are 93 commercial nuclear reactors operating in the United States at 55 locations in 28 states. The majority of nuclear reactors are in the eastern portion of the U.S.
Currently, 25 reactors are in some phase of decommissioning. This map lists only reactors that are officially being decommissioned according to the NRC. Some plants that local utilities have slated for decommissioning, including Diablo Canyon in California, are listed as active because the NRC has not yet officially designated them as undergoing the decommissioning process.
I am not really sure how Nuclear energy is considered "green". But, you know...whatever
If you take all the nuke waste from the beginning of nuke stuff from across the globe it would not fill a football stadium. The Russians just dumped hot reactors in the Bering Sea. That is probably not the best method to use but look what Commies did to the Aral Sea.....
Nuke waste can be solved, greenies will not let it happen. Let the greenies walk or ride a horse everywhere and I will at least understand their commitment to their cause.
Sorry bpost, you can't argue with the greenies, their minds are made up. Don't try to confuse them with numbers!
Given how un-green all the concrete for building nuclear facilities plus the stigma of reactor leaks (even though nuclear is by far the safest energy source) and this will never happen.
And fiery auto crashes
Some will die in hot pursuit
While sifting through my ashes
Some will fall in love with life
And drink it from a fountain
That is pouring like an avalanche
Coming down the mountain
I say burn coals until everybody get black lung.
In addition to what you stated. I recall reading the cost of producing electricity using nuclear energy is just over double the cost of using natural gas