Chernobyl blamed for everything

[fiannafailure]

cry freedom,

I absolutely agree with free speech and freedom of thought, I am not the problem here. As I have said in numerous online debates I am not against Nuclear power per se, I do have issues with its implementation at present and reserve the right to comment on them.

But I have no problem with an honest and fair debate, and here is a starter

the ridiculous and archaic ban on our utilities even considering nuclear power.

To the best of my knowledge the 1973 legislation only concerns the ESB considering nuclear energy.......

[fiannafailure]

However the widespread use of language such as denier or alarmist will automatically have the effect of switching me into troll mode as words like that have no place in grown up debate

[MPB]

If the yanks are not going to let Ahmedinijad have access to nuclear there is not a hope that they are going to let FF have it.

[cry freedom]

cry freedom,

I absolutely agree with free speech and freedom of thought, I am not the problem here. As I have said in numerous online debates I am not against Nuclear power per se, I do have issues with its implementation at present and reserve the right to comment on them.

But I have no problem with an honest and fair debate, and here is a starter


To the best of my knowledge the 1973 legislation only concerns the ESB considering nuclear energy.......

Please Pat, You and people like you are far from being the problem and forgive me if I intimated that.
While I have reservations about the Spirit of Ireland endeavor I certainly
admire your work and tenacity in pushing it forward.
Would that there were more like you!
Now, I'll be in Henry Street next week and we can go off together picking out some curtains.

[jcdf]

Some good posts on this topic!

fiannafailure is right that Ireland will never have it's own Nuclear industry! We are too small to make it worthwhile it would be easier for us just to leech off the UK or mainland Europe.

This does not remove us entirely from the Nuclear debate though for we are part of the EU and have a voice, albeit a small voice, on energy policy throughout the EU. We should use that voice to encourage other EU countries to develop their Nuclear sectors.

Chernobyl like the Soviet Union that created it should be confined to the history books. Allowing this event to continuously influence our future would be harmful for an important industry for our future.

[fiannafailure]

Please Pat, You and people like you are far from being the problem and forgive me if I intimated that.
While I have reservations about the Spirit of Ireland endeavor I certainly
admire your work and tenacity in pushing it forward.
Would that there were more like you!
Now, I'll be in Henry Street next week and we can go off together picking out some curtains.

Well if you are going to carry on like that I suppose I will have to give you some more help.

Why restrict this nuclear debate to conventional nuclear, the UKRC are now proposing building the first nuclear fusion power plant in the world, claiming research they are concerned with will make the concept viable within 20 years.

Of course I will declare my secret weopon, nuclear energy is the largest customer of pumped storage in the world, now what colour curtains do you like ?

[ellie08]

Nuclear power is wonderful. Shame about the radioactive waste is produces though. And what a pity about all those deformed children in Chernobyl highlighting the dangers of nuclear energy when it goes wrong. The ground may be contaminated for centuries, still, very few died so it's not really that serious and there's loads of profits to be made.

Greenpeace briefing document:
'Since the origins of the French nuclear industry some 50 years ago, the management of nuclear waste has
been largely neglected. Even today, large quantities of waste remain in unconditioned and unstable form,
inventories of historical dump sites are lacking or were lost and one of the largest dump sites in the world
near the La Hague reprocessing plant is leaking into the underground water. Now evidence is emerging that a
new nuclear dumpsite in the Champagne region of France is leaking radioactivity into the ground water
threatening contamination of tritium and at a later stage other radionuclides. The French nuclear waste
authority ANDRA has only a partial inventory of the multitude of existing waste categories, as large
quantities have not yet been declared by the main waste producers EDF and Cogema, including spent nuclear
fuel or waste from the uranium enrichment industry. Even French government regulators are expressing their
concerns over the conditions at both dump sites.
New nuclear projects threaten to make a crisis into an even greater nuclear catastrophe. Specifically, plans
for an underground high level waste disposal site are moving forward. This would be located at Bure, again
in the Champagne region east of Paris. Further, EDF is seeking approval for construction of the European
Pressurized Water Reactor, EPR, at Flamanville. In addition to all the associated hazards, not least the
reactors vulnerability to aircraft impact, the reactor is due to produce the most high level radioactive waste of
any commercial nuclear reactor in France.
The nuclear power and reprocessing industry have created large volumes of waste, of which many are stored
in an unstable condition. They have also illegally dumped tens of thousands of cubic metres of waste in
France, without an option to ever take them back.'

[FrankSpeaks]

Some good posts on this topic!

fiannafailure is right that Ireland will never have it's own Nuclear industry! We are too small to make it worthwhile it would be easier for us just to leech off the UK or mainland Europe.

This does not remove us entirely from the Nuclear debate though for we are part of the EU and have a voice, albeit a small voice, on energy policy throughout the EU. We should use that voice to encourage other EU countries to develop their Nuclear sectors.

Chernobyl like the Soviet Union that created it should be confined to the history books. Allowing this event to continuously influence our future would be harmful for an important industry for our future.

Totally disagree with this point, countries with similar and smaller populations have them or are planning them, e.g. Finland and Slovenia.

[cry freedom]

This is a large part of the reason why I dread the day nuclear power is introduced here - not because I mistrust nuke power plants per se, but because the government would be bound to fup up the regulation and I strongly suspect that we'd end up with a high proportion of Homer Simpsons actually running the damned things. Plus the radioactive waste would probably end up being fly-tipped in some quarry in Wicklow.

While I have some sympathy with your reservations I am not quite so pessimistic about our ability to handle something as complex as a nuclear power infrastructure.
A little analogy if I may?
As we speak, somewhere over the Atlantic an Airbus A320
is flying at 32000 feet with ,say. 250 passengers on board.
Outside the temperature is -40 degree C. The air is so thin that your head would explode if you were exposed to it for even a fraction of a second.
Inside, this, one of the most complex pieces of engineering ever assembled is controlled by Irish men and women. These men and women watch over the lives of their passengers. Passengers who are entitled to feel confident that their safety is in good hands.The cockpit crew are in touch with their ground support team whom they in turn have confidence in.
What enables this complex system to work?
Two things really: Training and Standards!
I know of no reason why that ethos could not be transferred to An Bord Nuclear.sic

[fiannafailure]

ellie08

Nuclear power is wonderful. Shame about the radioactive waste is produces though. And what a pity about all those deformed children in Chernobyl highlighting the dangers of nuclear energy when it goes wrong. The ground may be contaminated for centuries, still, very few died so it's not really that serious and there's loads of profits to be made.

I would not be known as the worlds foremost cheerleader for nuclear energy however I would like to raise two points here and reinforce jcdf's point about Ireland having a voice.

1) There is an Irish company currently working in the Chernobyl region, using technology developed in Irish universities to leach the radioactive pollutants out of the ground and return the land to agricultural use within 20 years.

2) We must begin to be very precise in our use of language regarding nuclear energy, a technology now being developed and backed by people like Bill Gates, may yet be our saviour regarding nuclear waste. The travelling wave reactor actually uses radioactive waste as a fuel, improving the current efficiency of this process could in fact rid the world of this problem entirely.