One of the biggest impacts of a Nuclear plant is water consumption. The cooling required can either be a local water source which as some environmental implications or cooling towers which evaporate a tremendous amount of water with the loads required.
I will be interesting to see how new plants will handle these challenges.

The people who use Clinton Lake in Illinois don't have too much problem with that environmental impact. They got a 1/2 cool, half always warm lake for their use when it was created to both supply and cool that nuclear plant. See, it can be done!

The new reactors are pressurized instead of the boiling style. The water that is heated from the reactor never boils because of the high pressure. I think most plants have one extra loop of water to keep reactor temperatures in specs that's not captured for energy purposes. Outside of that, they don't require more water than the typical coal plant. One thing they do need is a secure, steady source of water such as a lake, rather than a river. But, most of the reactors are going to existing sites where a lot of that infrastructure is built, and most of the new plants are strategically placed hear a solid source of water.

Yes, it is a small problem, but the evaporation amount is usually not more than a coal plant. A man-made lake is less damaging to the environment than 10,000,000 tons of crap.

And PH: We need to capture grid power to use in vehicles with secondary power supplied (fuel cells, small diesels, etc).

D

I agree that the cooling is no more than for coal. My thoughts are that if you tried to use an existing body of water, it can be an environmental issue. Man made lakes are no problem, but you have to get the water in from somewhere unless you dam a river or something.

That's a good point. It has to be a high-volume lake or on a high-flow rate lake/river system. Either is manageable.

What do you guys think about Fusion as our next energy source?

It is feasible and now with energy prices going up, more development will come about. It is just too bad that our government has put themselves into a position that does not allow proper grants for actually pertinent research.

We as a country have become very reactionistic, and not progressive. With the need to show big profits every year, there is not much R&D or advancement on current design being done. Now that we need to have something put in place immediately, 10 years worth of research and/or construction will start.

It works for the sun, I'd love to see it work for us!

I like the lower (very low) amounts of radioactive waste!!

Many of you don't know this, and probably do not care, but energy is a big hot-button topic in Kansas at the moment.

Sunflower Electric wants to build a twin 700MW coal plants at a site in Western Kansas. Only about 15% of the electricity created will go to Kansas residents and the rest is sold to Colorado, etc.

Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) rejected the permit. The legislature is trying to remove that power from KDHE so that Sunflower can resubmit the permit request. The governor has vetoed one such attempt. It's a mess to say the least. As far as I am concerned, we should NOT allow that plant to be built.

Same old argument every time a plant of some description wants to be built, be it a power plant, oil refinery or prison.
Build it, just not in my backyard.

Mark

Well, they can built a nuclear plant around me if they want! I already have on about 60 miles south of where I am sitting right now.

I grew up about 35 mile from the 1st commercial nuclear reactor in Shippingport, PA. No problems whatsoever. It was neat to see it on the barge going by on the OH River on its way to GFC's neighborhood, when the reactor was decommissioned!

They got a bad rep because regulations wasn't strict enough and even then, some didn't play within the rules. Badly disposed nuclear waste was being found and the media ball kept rolling.

I would prefer they improved on a green technology that's already here. If I can build an off the grid house tomorrow that solely depends on solar panels, wind turbines, geothermal heat pumps. Then companies can do the same if they want to continue selling electricity to increasing eco-conscious customers.