"new generation" nuclear plants???

[Diane Monaco]

At 08:44 AM 2/3/2003 -0800, you wrote:
> > As far as I know, it's IMPOSSIBLE to operate a nuclear plant
> > without releasing radioactivity -- during normal operation,
> > that is, not just accidents.
>
>That's also true for coal plants; in fact, most coal plants release far
>more radiation in normal operation per megawatt than current generation
>fission plants.  Search Google for something like '"nuclear plant
>radiation coal' for references, or read this book:
>http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0911762167 (though it's a
>little old and obviously coal has gotten better since then).
>
>However: that's not necessarily an argument against ever trying to use
>nuclear power, though I agree that a) the cost of mistakes can be much
>higher and b) so far the track record of plant management is pretty
>spotty.  I'd argue that we just have much less experience; there have
>been some awful accidents in non-nuclear energy generation plants over
>the years too, and of course until we learned to spell "scrubber" the
>environmental aspects of most electricity plans (other than hydro, I
>think) have been positively anti-human.

Good arguments.  And there are also the costs of "constructing" nuclear 
power plants which are long and drawn out leading to excessively high 
energy costs for consumers.  This is the case here in Toledo.


>The old slogan "No Nukes!" always reminded me of "Without chemicals,
>life itself would be impossible!" ...
>
>(Recently saw a "chemical free" chicken at a store; I wonder what it was
>made of instead?)


:)))  How true!

Diane