by Tanada » Mon 07 Apr 2008, 06:55:25
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('TheDude', '
')Nukes aren't used for peaking, they would've needed added generation anyway - or reduced demand/increased efficiency/dependence on sources like hydro. Whether WWPPS could've been pulled off sans all those freshly hatched Gaia loving hippies having their say I couldn't tell you - certainly the name of the game in the PNW all my life has been NIMBY and then some - look at the current staunch opposition to LNG.
I'm not dead opposed to splitting atoms, either - just want it to be done right. My biggest fear is a crash program of plants in the wake of blackouts that aren't much of an improvement over RBMKs.
The NPP solution would have worked great in the NW, all those hydroplants that already exist would have become peaking plants with the fission plants becoming the baseload plants.
The French used a 'crash program' to convert their entire grid from 3% to 80% Nuclear in ten years, by using standardized designs. The USA has had improved standardized designs for almost 20 years, but until recently nobody was even willing to try filing the paperwork to get approval to build one of them.
The red tape is so extensive that the current estimates are from four to six years just to get permission to build, and that is using sites where plants already exist and all the site information is on hand. Using a virgin site would take two years or more longer!
No project funded by private sources should take more than a year to get through any approval process, it should be denied or approved on its merits within that time frame. The Luddite hope now is, if they drag everything out long enough the companies will give up and withdraw their permits. The only reason any companies are going forward is, Nuclear is now the cheapest source except for big Hydro projects that never get approval today.
Does it strike anyone as odd that the Luddites have specifically been targeting the cheapest methods we know of for producing electricity? They claim we need to be green, but whenever someone wants to build a large wind farm they target that too.