Category Archives: Nuclear Power Energy

Nuclear powered airplanes, cars, and tanks

Preface. If trucks, tractors, ships, locomotives, and airplanes can’t run on electricity or the electric grid stay up without natural gas to balance wind & solar (see When Trucks Stop Running), if cement and steel and other products requiring the … Continue reading

Posted in Airplanes, Automobiles, Far Out, Nuclear Power Energy | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

The U.S. May Soon Have the World’s Oldest Nuclear Power Plants

Preface. This is nuts. Sea level rise threatens many nuclear power plants and drought has shut plants down since they need cooling to operate. As nuclear reactor age, they require more intensive monitoring and preventive maintenance to operate safely. But … Continue reading

Posted in Nuclear Power Energy | Tagged , , | Comments Off on The U.S. May Soon Have the World’s Oldest Nuclear Power Plants

High-level nuclear waste storage degrades faster than thought

Preface. Burying nuclear waste ought to be a top priority, now that it appears peak oil may have happened in November of 2018 (Patterson 2019) and perhaps even sooner if covid-19 crashes the world economy (Tverberg 2020). It won’t happen … Continue reading

Posted in Nuclear Waste | Tagged | 10 Comments

Nuclear waste will last a lot longer than climate change

Preface. One of the most tragic aspects of peak oil is that it is very unlikely once energy descent begins that oil will be expended to clean up our nuclear mess. No one wants the spent fuel! New Mexico is … Continue reading

Posted in Nuclear Waste, Planetary Boundaries | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Nuclear Power problems

Preface.  There are half a dozen articles below. Although safety and disposal of nuclear waste ought to be the main reasons why no more plants should be built, what actually stops them today are the high costs: it can take … Continue reading

Posted in Electric Grid & EMP Electromagnetic Pulse, Nuclear Power Collapse, Nuclear Power Energy | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Wind, solar, and natural gas are driving nuclear power out of business

Preface. I’m no fan of nuclear power because we may already be at peak uranium, there’s nowhere to store nuclear waste, and a spent nuclear pool fire could harm millions of people. But renewable wind and solar and natural gas … Continue reading

Posted in Nuclear Power Energy, Solar, Wind | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments

Boston Globe: the false promise of nuclear power

Last Updated August 2021. Preface. This article raises many objections to nuclear power. Theoretically it could be cheaper, but the exact opposite has happened, it keeps getting more expensive. For example the only new reactors being built in the U.S. … Continue reading

Posted in Nuclear Power Energy | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments

Climate change risks could cause an American “Fukushima”

Preface. Nuclear power plants need a constant supply of electric power to pump cool water into a reactor’s core. Ninety percent of them, 54 plants, have at least one flood risk exceeding their design. If flooding stops the power supply … Continue reading

Posted in Climate Change, Nuclear Waste | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Decommissioning a nuclear reactor

Preface. Below are excerpts of articles about the costs and challenges of dismantling nuclear power plants.  This is at the top of my “Energy Descent To Do List” given the consequences for future generations for up to a million years, … Continue reading

Posted in Nuclear Waste | Tagged , | Comments Off on Decommissioning a nuclear reactor

Book review of Jaczko’s “Confessions of a rogue nuclear regulator”

Preface. After presenting a lot of evidence for why nuclear power plants are inherently unsafe, Jaczko concludes: “There is only one logical answer: we must stop generating nuclear waste, and that means we must stop using nuclear power. You would … Continue reading

Posted in Nuclear Books, Nuclear Power Collapse, Nuclear Power Energy, Nuclear spent fuel fire | Tagged | 3 Comments