Climate Change(d)?

[Loren Pechtel]

Three Mile Island, the site of worst nuclear disaster in the United States, is reopening and will exclusively sell the power to Microsoft as the company searches for energy sources to fuel its AI ambitions. Constellation Energy announced Friday that its Unit 1 reactor, which closed five years ago, is expected to be revived in 2028, dependent on Nuclear Regulatory Commission approval. Microsoft will purchase the carbon-free energy produced from it to power its data centers to support artificial intelligence. Reopening of the Unit 1 reactor will add 3,400 direct and indirect jobs and add more than 800 megawatts of electricity to the grid, according to Constellation. It’s also expected to add $16 billion to Pennsylvania’s GDP, where the plant is located.

CNN

Good old CNN, start off with the fearmongering.

Fearmongering?

It is the worst nuclear disaster in US civilian nuclear history--a disaster only did a lot of damage to the reactor, but harmed nobody. That's actually a statement of how safe nuclear power is. It's always good to examine the worst case.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

The prenary issue is contamination and waste,

Rocky Flats
Hanford
Brookhaven National Lab waste tank leaked for years getting into flora and fauna

Military nukes. Black projects tend to be very careless with hazardous materials because the regulators can't come looking.

A few oter plces

Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I am opposed to Yucca Mountain because I believe we should be reprocessing, not simply burying. But it's not a safety issue.

 

[pood]

There is some evidence of an uptick in cancer in and around the Three Mile Island site in the years after the incident, but the evidence is inconclusive. That’s about it. Of course a huge amount of conclusively linked cancer is caused by smoking, not nuclear plant accidents.

 

[bilby]

There is some evidence of an uptick in cancer in and around the Three Mile Island site in the years after the incident, but the evidence is inconclusive.

Seek and ye shall find. I recall (but can't find with a quick Google) a BNFL study made in response to a Greenpeace report that found 'some evidence' of cancer clusters around UK nuclear power plants.

BNFL used the same methodology, and discovered similar cancer clusters around a specified class of military sites across England. The sites in question were Iron Age hillforts, from the period leading up to the Roman conquest of Britain.

 

[TV and credit cards]

A big boost for a climate solution: electricity made from the heat of the Earth

One method of making electricity cleanly to address climate change has been quietly advancing and just hit a milestone.

apnews.com

Horizontal drilling for geothermal.
It complements wind and solar for when the wind doesn't blow and the sun doesn't shine because word has it the earth is always hot.

Technology - Fervo Energy

Our breakthrough technology leverages over a decade of innovation in drilling and production from modern oil and gas development, leading to major

fervoenergy.com

Fervo Energy’s Record-Breaking Production Results Showcase Rapid Scale Up of Enhanced Geothermal

Fervo Energy (“Fervo”), the leader in next-generation geothermal energy, today held its second annual Technology Day, announcing a suite of both techn

www.businesswire.com

The 30-day test, a standard for geothermal, achieved a maximum flow rate of 107 kg/s at high temperature, enabling over 10 MW of electric production, triple the per production well output of Fervo’s commercial pilot, Project Red.

This record-breaking reservoir performance accompanies sustained drilling progress, allowing Fervo to develop the Cape Station wellfield ahead of schedule. Earlier this year, Fervo announced a 70% year-over-year reduction in drilling times between Cape Station and Project Red. This occurred while Fervo was simultaneously pushing the boundaries of high temperature drilling performance with the highest reservoir temperature achieved to date exceeding 220° C.

Geothermal energy could outperform nuclear power

Tricks from the oil industry have produced a hot-rocks breakthrough

www.economist.com

I can't read the Economist article. I do like the title though.

 

[steve_bank]

The prenary issue is contamination and waste,

Rocky Flats
Hanford
Brookhaven National Lab waste tank leaked for years getting into flora and fauna

Military nukes. Black projects tend to be very careless with hazardous materials because the regulators can't come looking.

A few oter plces

Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I am opposed to Yucca Mountain because I believe we should be reprocessing, not simply burying. But it's not a safety issue.

I am all for nuclear power but NIMBY not in my back yard.

Bit coin and AI are an increasing demand on the grid, people want a lot of energy eating gadgets and clean energy without sacrificing anything.

 

[steve_bank]

Without looking at anything my guess is radiation around a nuclear plant is probably at or near background radiation.

If nothing else it is about worker safety in the plant.

In the 80s in Canada there were ck,aims of clusters of pregnancy problems with women n front of the old gals CRT computer displays. X Rays.

Measurement sshowed it was not detectable above bakground.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

There is some evidence of an uptick in cancer in and around the Three Mile Island site in the years after the incident, but the evidence is inconclusive. That’s about it. Of course a huge amount of conclusively linked cancer is caused by smoking, not nuclear plant accidents.

A cluster around one source doesn't prove much.

I'm reminded of a case from Australia, a cluster of birth defects around a nuclear plant. Because there were a bunch of new houses that couples were moving into and having babies. High per capita, not high per baby.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Ohio is in a flash drought. I find that funny with my home area being witness to a 100/200 year storm event. Ohio had normal precip in Spring and Winter, but Summer in many parts has been dry. Pretty much got a trace of rain in September up to this point. Sounds like Indiana is having the same issue, based on my trip out there.

Three Mile Island, the site of worst nuclear disaster in the United States, is reopening and will exclusively sell the power to Microsoft as the company searches for energy sources to fuel its AI ambitions. Constellation Energy announced Friday that its Unit 1 reactor, which closed five years ago, is expected to be revived in 2028, dependent on Nuclear Regulatory Commission approval. Microsoft will purchase the carbon-free energy produced from it to power its data centers to support artificial intelligence. Reopening of the Unit 1 reactor will add 3,400 direct and indirect jobs and add more than 800 megawatts of electricity to the grid, according to Constellation. It’s also expected to add $16 billion to Pennsylvania’s GDP, where the plant is located.

CNN

Good old CNN, start off with the fearmongering.

They neglected to mention the death toll, and the number of injuries. Bias by omission.

If they had been talking about "Romeoville, Illinois, the site of the worst oil refinery disaster in the United States", surely they would have added "...which killed nineteen people and seriously injured ten".

They might have reported "Middletown, Conneticut, the site of the worst Combined Cycle power plant disaster in the United States", to which they might have appended "...which killed six people and injured at least fifty".

Or had they written about "Willow Island, West Virginia, the site of the worst Coal power plant disaster in the United States", I would have expected them to continue "...which killed fifty one construction workers".

Perhaps the editor and/or author of the CNN report were unaware of the impact that reporting "Three Mile Island, the site of worst nuclear disaster in the United States, which caused zero deaths or injuries, but led to the closure of the number 2 reactor only thirteen months after it first came online", might have on public ignorance of the event.

I wonder how many Americans could correctly guess the death toll from their nation's "worst nuclear disaster"; and how many could correctly name Three Mile Island, but would be unable to name any of the three (more serious and more recent) industrial disasters I mention above.

Solar power accidents kill as many people every year in the USA alone, as nuclear power accidents have ever killed worldwide, in their 68 year history. That's not because solar power is dangerous (it's one of the safer ways to make electricity), but because nuclear power is almost unbelievably safe.

Yet, due in large part to irresponsible reporting (or failure to report, like this example), most people believe it to be highly dangerous and risky, and oppose it on public safety grounds - inevitably thereby increasing the risk to the public from the electricity generation industry.

If Facebook can rebrand to Meta, Nuclear Energy needs to rebrand to Steam Power. There is virtually nothing about nuclear that is in the process to generate the power. Nuclear decay creates heat... heat warms the water into steam which turns turbines. That's it! Calling it nuclear is dead in the water. Be like calling hydro power, big wall of water that'll kill or drown you.

 

[bilby]

I am all for nuclear power but NIMBY not in my back yard.

Why not? Nuclear power plants are far better neighbours than any other industrial facilities.

I would very much welcome one close to my home - Swanbank would be an ideal site, as it used to have a large coal power station, so has access to cooling water, and still has much of the transmission infrastructure (there is currently a gas power plant occupying a small part of the site).

It is about 30km from my house.

 

[bilby]

Without looking at anything my guess is radiation around a nuclear plant is probably at or near background radiation.

You would be right. When BNFL started to decommission the Calder Hall Magnox reactors (the first commercial nuclear power station, opened in 1954), they planned to build a small coal fired generating station on site, to provide power to the still operational ThORP reprocessing facility, which had previously been powered by the old Calder Hall facility. They had to buy an adjacent parcel of land for this, as burning coal produced radioactive emissions that exceeded the site licence for the Sellafield nuclear complex.

The radiation around a coal power station in normal operation is FAR higher than that around a nuclear power station.

If nothing else it is about worker safety in the plant.

Nuclear power plants have better worker safety than any other class of industrial site. And generally lower radiation exposure than many.

If you stood on the pile cap at Calder Hall while it was running (I did this on a site tour back in 1987), you get less radiation exposure than you do outside - the biological shield almost completely screens the radiation from the reactor core beneath your feet, while the concrete containment building above your head further screens you from most of the incident cosmic radiation. The most significant source of ionising radiation at that location is yourself, and the other members of the tour group. The concrete of the building (which is just regular reinforced concrete) supplies most of the rest - you get about 80% of the dose you would receive in a normal concrete structure with a thin roof, or roughly the same as you would get in an underground facility such as a basement carpark or a London Underground station.

Generation I plants, such as Calder Hall, did require very occasional exposure of workers to slightly higher levels of ionising radiation during de-fuelling; Modern plants that are not limited to 1950s automation levels no longer require this.

 

[bilby]

Calling it nuclear is dead in the water. Be like calling hydro power, big wall of water that'll kill or drown you.

Well, it worked for MRI scanners. They were originally called NMR - Nuclear Magnetic Resonance - but patients were scared by the word Nuclear, so it was changed to Magnetic Resonance Imaging, and the problem went away.

(NMR/MRI scans cause atomic nucleii to resonate in a periodically applied strong magnetic field; They act on atomic nucleii, but don't break up those nucleii, and don't cause or involve any ionizing radiation at all*)









*Unlike an X-Ray, which exposes people to ionizing radiation, but which they are not scared of because people are generally clueless, and X-Ray technology has been in routine use for a long time. CAT scans expose patients to radiation, but nobody is particularly scared of them; CATs are cuddly and cute.

 

[thebeave]

There is some evidence of an uptick in cancer in and around the Three Mile Island site in the years after the incident, but the evidence is inconclusive. That’s about it. Of course a huge amount of conclusively linked cancer is caused by smoking, not nuclear plant accidents.

A cluster around one source doesn't prove much.

I'm reminded of a case from Australia, a cluster of birth defects around a nuclear plant. Because there were a bunch of new houses that couples were moving into and having babies. High per capita, not high per baby.

Yep. Make a dot on a map at each house of a cancer victim in an average town. Its pretty much a guarantee that by random chance you will find a more dense than average cluster of dots in some neighborhood in town. Of course, some busybody will notice that and will start blaming radiation, tap water, electric power lines, cell towers, Roundup spraying on the weeds, etc. and demand an investigation.

 

[TSwizzle]

Climate cultists from The Sunrise Movement demonstrate outside the VP Harris' Brentwood home and a couple of them get arrested;

The protest, made up of a group of 25 people, aimed to push the vice president to present a climate plan addressing the ongoing wildfire crisis and broader impacts of climate change, particularly in Southern California. One of the protesters, Corina McDonald, 24, whose home was nearly destroyed in the Bridge Fire, urged Harris to meet directly with residents and commit to a concrete plan. "Kamala Harris must visit our neighborhoods to convince us that she cares," McDonald said. "She needs to meet us face-to-face and announce a clear plan to prevent climate destruction while creating good jobs and transitioning the country to 100% renewable energy."

Newsweek

Climate change did not cause the Bridge Fire. Do these morons not understand the wildfires have always been a thing in California?

"Sunrise Movement" definitely has a cult ring to it.

It is a catastrophic 61 degrees this morning, oh the humanity!! #PrayForSantaMonica

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

There is some evidence of an uptick in cancer in and around the Three Mile Island site in the years after the incident, but the evidence is inconclusive. That’s about it. Of course a huge amount of conclusively linked cancer is caused by smoking, not nuclear plant accidents.

A cluster around one source doesn't prove much.

I'm reminded of a case from Australia, a cluster of birth defects around a nuclear plant. Because there were a bunch of new houses that couples were moving into and having babies. High per capita, not high per baby.

Yep. Make a dot on a map at each house of a cancer victim in an average town. Its pretty much a guarantee that by random chance you will find a more dense than average cluster of dots in some neighborhood in town. Of course, some busybody will notice that and will start blaming radiation, tap water, electric power lines, cell towers, Roundup spraying on the weeds, etc. and demand an investigation.

Okay... what? That was making so much sense and then you finished with something that isn't a cluster. People that work with high quantities of chemicals aren't exactly a widespread distribution.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

It is a catastrophic 61 degrees this morning, oh the humanity!! #PrayForSantaMonica

Meanwhile, Hurricane Helene is currently prog'd to intensify to a Cat 3 in 24 hrs... with probably a strong likelihood it'll get to at least a Cat 4 in the 36 hour run up to landfall.

 

[pood]

Climate cultists from The Sunrise Movement demonstrate outside the VP Harris' Brentwood home and a couple of them get arrested;

The protest, made up of a group of 25 people, aimed to push the vice president to present a climate plan addressing the ongoing wildfire crisis and broader impacts of climate change, particularly in Southern California. One of the protesters, Corina McDonald, 24, whose home was nearly destroyed in the Bridge Fire, urged Harris to meet directly with residents and commit to a concrete plan. "Kamala Harris must visit our neighborhoods to convince us that she cares," McDonald said. "She needs to meet us face-to-face and announce a clear plan to prevent climate destruction while creating good jobs and transitioning the country to 100% renewable energy."

Newsweek

Climate change did not cause the Bridge Fire. Do these morons not understand the wildfires have always been a thing in California?

Climate change makes wildfires in California more explosive


Oh, and, uh, that is a SCIENTIFIC STUDY.

 

[TSwizzle]

It is a catastrophic 61 degrees this morning, oh the humanity!! #PrayForSantaMonica

Meanwhile, Hurricane Helene is currently prog'd to intensify to a Cat 3 in 24 hrs... with probably a strong likelihood it'll get to at least a Cat 4 in the 36 hour run up to landfall.

OMG!!! And hurricanes are unheard of in the region I assume?

 

[pood]

It is a catastrophic 61 degrees this morning, oh the humanity!! #PrayForSantaMonica

Meanwhile, Hurricane Helene is currently prog'd to intensify to a Cat 3 in 24 hrs... with probably a strong likelihood it'll get to at least a Cat 4 in the 36 hour run up to landfall.

OMG!!! And hurricanes are unheard of in the region I assume?

How climate change makes hurricanes more destructive

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

It is a catastrophic 61 degrees this morning, oh the humanity!! #PrayForSantaMonica

Meanwhile, Hurricane Helene is currently prog'd to intensify to a Cat 3 in 24 hrs... with probably a strong likelihood it'll get to at least a Cat 4 in the 36 hour run up to landfall.

OMG!!! And hurricanes are unheard of in the region I assume?

Rapid intensification for any storm in the Gulf is a new thing in the last couple of decades, yes. A storm with a 15 foot storm surge is going to cause a lot more damage than a storm with a 6 foot storm surge. The cost in damage can increase by billions.

Personally, I can't wait until your home is swallowed up in a fissure from an earthquake. Oh noes... plate tectonic cult is whining again. Out here in Ohio, no houses falling into the Earth.