Wave goodbye to fission
I've spent a lot of time mulling over nuclear power, specifically the Japanese plants. Why would anyone want to expose a population, and the environment to inherently harmful and dangerous chemical reactions? How is it justified, and what glitzy marketing scheme actually convinced people to OK it?
In all my mulling and weighing, I've realized that nuclear power is in fact imperative to Japan. A curse indeed, Japan doesn't have fossil fuels to utilize as an energy source, and it does not want to be dependent on imports. As it seems, Japan's adopted nuclear fission as its home brewed fossil fuel. To address the fuel rod proponents, yes, I can see how meltdowns could be paralleled in harm and distress to coal mine disasters and oil spills. (Though do you think there could ever be a glorious Chilean miners-type rescue in a nuclear meltdown? EDIT: see Fukushima 50: WSJ - 3-24-2011 ) I agree that across the board, all sectors of the energy market exhibit regulatory negligence and safety apathy. Is that an excuse for nuclear power to be considered a reliable energy source?
I think it's important to realize that we don't need to practice something simply because we can.
Japan may not have coal or oil, but it is surrounded by water, giving it access to the alternative energy source: waves. I don't know why the Japanese just skipped out on researching and creating new, efficient, and effective technology to harvest energy from waves. Hot pursuit: why not waves?
Extra extra, I'm going to read more about this. I've read a bit about harvesting wave energy, but it doesn't generally make headline news since it's fairly uncharted technology. I assume the noted flaws in wave-energy technology are ecological repercussions, inefficiency in wave harvesting technology, a tone of general adversity towards alternative energy sources. Regardless, with renewed general lack of confidence in nuclear power, Japan should focus its strength, wits, and innovation on researching and developing technology for a more common-sense energy source.
P.S. A shout out to the town to which I attribute to my formative years:
http://www.npr.org/2011/03/21/134743606/the-end-of-the-road-saying-goodbye-to-freeways
In all my mulling and weighing, I've realized that nuclear power is in fact imperative to Japan. A curse indeed, Japan doesn't have fossil fuels to utilize as an energy source, and it does not want to be dependent on imports. As it seems, Japan's adopted nuclear fission as its home brewed fossil fuel. To address the fuel rod proponents, yes, I can see how meltdowns could be paralleled in harm and distress to coal mine disasters and oil spills. (Though do you think there could ever be a glorious Chilean miners-type rescue in a nuclear meltdown? EDIT: see Fukushima 50: WSJ - 3-24-2011 ) I agree that across the board, all sectors of the energy market exhibit regulatory negligence and safety apathy. Is that an excuse for nuclear power to be considered a reliable energy source?
I think it's important to realize that we don't need to practice something simply because we can.
Japan may not have coal or oil, but it is surrounded by water, giving it access to the alternative energy source: waves. I don't know why the Japanese just skipped out on researching and creating new, efficient, and effective technology to harvest energy from waves. Hot pursuit: why not waves?
Extra extra, I'm going to read more about this. I've read a bit about harvesting wave energy, but it doesn't generally make headline news since it's fairly uncharted technology. I assume the noted flaws in wave-energy technology are ecological repercussions, inefficiency in wave harvesting technology, a tone of general adversity towards alternative energy sources. Regardless, with renewed general lack of confidence in nuclear power, Japan should focus its strength, wits, and innovation on researching and developing technology for a more common-sense energy source.
P.S. A shout out to the town to which I attribute to my formative years:
http://www.npr.org/2011/03/21/134743606/the-end-of-the-road-saying-goodbye-to-freeways
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