Volker said:
I won't do your homework, this is the last thing I would do.
Hmm....I slept within a hundred feet of an operating nuclear reactor for years. Didn't hurt me a bit.
If you're going to specify in your poll the construction of new nuclear power plants, don't you think that you should learn something about them? You express concerns based on accidents in plants with obsolete designs.
A Chernobyl can't happen in reactors based on modern designs. Nor can a Three Mile Island (which didn't hurt anyone, btw). The old American reactors were based in large part on DOD research into mobile reactors for ship use. The constraints of that environment demanded high power densities, and small volumes, with water used as the cooling and the moderating medium for convenience. Chernobyl was a real museum piece and it shouldn't have been kept in operation as long as it was. A typical example of the failure of collectivist social planning, is all.
Modern reactors use a different moderation philosophy, and they employ much lower power densities that make cooling less problematical. Do your own homework and discover the truths about modern reactors. Ask UtahBill. He's in the industry still. Search out "pebble bed reactors", and air cooling on the web. General Atomics is a good source, too.
As for waste, we have two ideal sites for disposing wastes. The mid-ocean abyssal plains are a totally stable practically sterile environment where properly prepared cannisters of waste can sit patiently for millions of years without fear of disturbance. For some reason, developing secure waste facillities in sites were no one will be harmed by them is anathema to many anti-nuke activist, all of whom seem opposed to any method of disposal that would work and thus remove any validity from their only and strongest argument against nuclear power.
The other site we have is Yucca Mountain in Nevada, a solid hunk of granite hollowed out with cells for holding nuclear waste for millenia without threat of contamination of local ground water, and with the added benefit of having those wastes within reach if we come up with something useful to do with them.
At the same time, what are the benefits of nuclear power?
No greenhouse gas emissions.
No solid particulate emissions to the air.
No acid rain.
Reduced dependence on petroleum from foreign lands.
Depending on how many lawyers we send to the abyssal plains, we can greatly reduce the cost per megawatt hour electric to the consumer, a boost to the economy.
A renewed interest in the practical applications of technology could stimulate freshman applications at engineering schools.
The elimination of ignorance based fear from our technical decisions will improve all aspects of life.
