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- Xref: sparky sci.environment:14240 sci.energy:6601
- Newsgroups: sci.environment,sci.energy
- Path: sparky!uunet!paladin.american.edu!gatech!emory!wa4mei!ke4zv!gary
- From: gary@ke4zv.uucp (Gary Coffman)
- Subject: Re: Nuclear Power and Climate Change
- Message-ID: <1993Jan3.200102.6609@ke4zv.uucp>
- Reply-To: gary@ke4zv.UUCP (Gary Coffman)
- Organization: Destructive Testing Systems
- References: <1992Dec30.174327.10706@daffy.cs.wisc.edu> <1992Dec30.182038.26674@vexcel.com> <1992Dec30.195749.11721@daffy.cs.wisc.edu> <1992Dec30.211459.28435@vexcel.com>
- Date: Sun, 3 Jan 1993 20:01:02 GMT
- Lines: 31
-
- In article <1992Dec30.211459.28435@vexcel.com> dean@vexcel.com (Dean Alaska) writes:
- >
- >I have posted proof that efficiency improvements should be enough to
- >forestall the need for new capacity in general for 10 to 20 years.
-
- It takes 10-12 years to bring new plant on line in the US. So if
- efficiency will carry us for 10-20 years before we need new capacity,
- we have to start building *today*. Existing plant is wearing out
- *today*. We can't wait long to make generation decisions. The cleanest
- generation we can do on the necessary scale with *today's* technology
- is nuclear, the dirtiest is coal. We can't base our energy future on
- technologies that are unproven, and we can't wait for the proof of
- economic generation, storage, and the distributed networks needed for
- alternative energy systems. We can't afford to pour large sums into
- their development at the same time we replace existing plant, build
- new generation for increasing demand due to growth, and pay for
- efficiency improvements. We must do what we know how to do at an
- economically tolerable cost now, and continue development of other
- technologies in the hope they may prove out for the following generations
- of plants that we will have to start building thirty years down the road.
- We should fund *demonstration* plants on the scale of Luz to prove
- out the viability of alternative systems. Note that Luz itself is
- not competitive today on it's solar generation, though it is nearly
- reasonable with cheap natural gas assist. That produces CO2, however.
-
- Gary
- --
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