Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Idaho - YOUR federal lands are for sale

Wouldn’t all that heat have a significant impact the local ecosystem? Seriously, that’s the first thing I thought of unless I misunderstand the article. Heat is what they are storing correct?

I am not even a layman when it comes to this stuff but it seems to me nuclear is what we ought to be developing and building. Certainly not the damn windmills or solar farms.

Not true.

They are basically heating sand in a silo. Silo is insulated, of course, so no meaningful interaction with the environment.

The Danes are putting a similar system in on their "energy island", called Hot Rocks (cue Stones..... ).


Nukes are not economically viable. Boomers still remember "electricity will be too cheap to meter" promotional bulls#it from the 60's, and think it was true then and still is. But it never was, and never will be, cheap.

https://www.pacificorp.com/transmission/transmission-projects/energy-gateway/gateway-west.html#:~:text=The%20Gateway%20West%20project%20is,of%20two%20major%20line%20segments.

This one is for the power from several wind farms in Wyoming and Idaho now. They have also enhanced transmission lines already in use, upgraded. Many small substations are also built near the wind farms.

If you believe in man caused global climate change nuke power is the best long term answer.

If you don't believe in man caused global climate change nuke power is the best long term answer.

If you want lots of abundant energy to drive the future nuke power is the best long term answer.

What is the land being used for now, grazing?

BLM is Federal public land, managed, at least theoretically, for the benefit of all citizens, not just for those who live close to that land. Lots of Americas want to feel good about renewable energy and wind farms do that for them. Electricity needs to be sent where it is needed as it is produced. If the land is currently leased or permitted for grazing most of it will still be available for that, so BLM could collect both AUM grazing money and windmill money from most of the same acres. Besides, BLM manages around 12M acres in Idaho, so 73K acres is about 6/10 of 1% of that total.

I see

I’m all about cheap, but Morse-so about sustainability, longevity, and minimal Impact.

A guy can dream can’t he?

How so?

Cracking (fission) or smashing together (fusion) atoms is the cheapest, most abundant form of enery in the universe. Stars use Nuke power for a reason.

Carriers and sub the same.

Long term Nuke power is extremely important to provide the power needed for a growing civilization. Things like desalinization only make sense when fed power from atoms.

Shorter term fossil fuel is still the best answer but we should have been building out a nuclear powered infrastructure long ago.

Russian agitprop drove the anti nuclear propaganda of the 70s an 80s.

Huh, and here I thought TMI, Chernobyl and Fu-koshima had something to do with it....

All that said, nukes are the most expensive way to generate power right now. Advanced nuclear comes in at 8 c/kw, and combined solar / storage at a nickel. Solar alone is 3 c and under, wind at 4 c, combined cycle gas at 4 c.

The lowest steady supply generation is geothermal.

Why nukes if they are twice as expensive as standalone solar, and 60% more expensive that solar / storage combined?

(see Table 1b at https://www.eia.gov/outlooks/aeo/pdf/electricity_generation.pdf)

I know, lets build some wind mills in Delaware......

Dick

3 Mile Island from the 70s? Chernobly where the Commies cut every corner? Explain with specificity why our energy policies should be driven by isolated instances multiple decades in the past?

Give the class a run down of what bad happened a Fu-koshima. It shut down like it should when flooded. Don't build any power plants in areas when tsunamis are problemmatic.

France is a great reason for nukes and Germany is a great reason for nukes.

One has them (France) has Nuke power and is pretty immune to Russky energy games and one of them gave up Nuke power (Germany) and is getting bent over by Russky energy games.

The Germans do have lots of pretty windmills for tilting but now are going back to burning the dirtiest brown coal on the planet.

Subsidised wind power costs are not even a real arguement and solar storage simply does not exist in the real world.

But solar does have a tremendously large footprint that can be seen from space.

Wake me up when solar or wind can reliably power a carrier or sub.

And you get extra credit for the Biden Administration EIA cite.

Don't like the numbers?

Show me yours.......

Hot air may sell guns, doesn't sell electricity....

Natural Gas!

Oh...wait. We had to start a land war in Europe instead.


Wind I guess.

And for safety, they will be inaccessible acreage.

Good points.

What is the solution to waste disposal is a safe manner?

One of the latest methods of nuke waste disposal is tying it up in glass. Once that's done, you can break, crush, grind, or whatever and it's still in glass. It can't get out in the environment. Barrels of glass can be stored for decades or sunk in water with no affect whatever. The barrel might rust apart but the glass stays intact.
My nephew did his PhD research on the process. Now it's being used all over.

They build what's most profitable.

Nukes are the lowest cost to operate but the build costs coupled with the end of life shutdown expenses takes all the profit out of owning one.
If Nuke plant owners were on the hook for disposal of their spent fuel rods the first one would have never been built.

Of course the tax payers pick up those costs.

Combined Cycle and renewables are profitable so that's what they build, pretty simple.

Used all over?
Where?