Coal…. Where does it stand?

[JonC]

How

How much waste does it produce and where are they storing it now? What do countries such as France that are almost totally nuclear do?

The power to supply an average home for a year would produce some high level waste (about as much as a sheet of paper). A little more low level waste.

Spent rods are stored in water to decay. At some point they can be moved into a canyon and stripped using a chemical process.

We had the Mixed Oxide Fuel project (MOX) but that was scrapped a few years ago. We get tritium from rods as well.

The waste goes into a tank farm. The waste stream is split (chemically) into high level and low level waste. The high level waste is turned into a type of glass and stored in stainless steel vessels. The low level waste is mixed with a grout like substance and stored in tanks.

In Los Alamos containers are stored 2150 feet underground in limestone tunnels. Over time the limestone encapsulates the containers.

 

[atpollard]

What are Small Modular Reactors (SMRs)?

Five of the World’s Leading Small Modular Reactor Companies

What is nuclear recycling?

 

[JonC]

What are Small Modular Reactors (SMRs)?

Five of the World’s Leading Small Modular Reactor Companies

The TVA has a SMR program. Looks good.

 

[atpollard]

The TVA has a SMR program. Looks good.

It is a solvable engineering problem … and a formidable POLITICAL problem.

Nuclear is good for generating the Base Load and can be sized for the constant demand. Solar is actually good for the variable demand because it roughly follows the same generation curve as the daily demand peak curve. We just need an “emergency” generation technology that can kick in as needed for areas without reasonable Solar potential or for extended cloudy days. Either an improvement in energy storage (batteries) or I personally like Natural Gas fired electric generators with the Natural Gas made from Coal. We (America) already has natural gas delivery systems and emergency generators for blackouts powered by Natural Gas, so a small investment in infrastructure could have Coal supplying Natural Gas for a variety of uses (many commercial/industrial) as well as for local electric generators for those special cases.

 

[JonC]

It is a solvable engineering problem … and a formidable POLITICAL problem.

Nuclear is good for generating the Base Load and can be sized for the constant demand. Solar is actually good for the variable demand because it roughly follows the same generation curve as the daily demand peak curve. We just need an “emergency” generation technology that can kick in as needed for areas without reasonable Solar potential or for extended cloudy days. Either an improvement in energy storage (batteries) or I personally like Natural Gas fired electric generators with the Natural Gas made from Coal. We (America) already has natural gas delivery systems and emergency generators for blackouts powered by Natural Gas, so a small investment in infrastructure could have Coal supplying Natural Gas for a variety of uses (many commercial/industrial) as well as for local electric generators for those special cases.

Problem is the politicians.

 

[Earth Wind and Fire]

At work (commercial site planning) we worked with a team of former NASA engineers (laid off with the cutbacks) that were attempting to commercialize a membrane they developed for long-term human Spaceflight. Sewage flows into one end and the Hydrogen and Oxygen molecules are absorbed by the chemical compound of the membrane. The pressure differential forces an equal number of hydrogen and oxygen molecules out the other side of the membrane as water … pure distilled water. It will convert any water source to fresh water: salt water, sewage, bacterial contaminated water, chemical contaminated water, etc. because it just absorbs hydrogen and oxygen molecules from the water and sweats water out the other side.

So the technology exists to clean the water pumped out of the ground to drinking water quality.

That’s encouraging! As a boy, my great grandfather had a business pumping out water from mine shafts which were constantly flooding. They then threw the water into the rivers and tributaries that fed the mighty Susquehanna River and in the process polluting it. All in all, the coal business was a hard & dirty business but it did provide jobs, mostly to immigrants coming to America to start a life.

 

[Earth Wind and Fire]

Just a guess, but like NASA, the plan changes with each new administration. So Trump lost the 2020 election is what happened to “Beautiful Clean Coal”. Now we have Biden’s electric cars by 2025 initiative.

I wonder if Biden’s living in Scranton PA has something to do with it.

 

[Earth Wind and Fire]

Problem is the politicians.

And who’s hands are in the payoff cookie jar! You do know the “Big Guy” gets his usual cut.

 

[Earth Wind and Fire]

It is a solvable engineering problem … and a formidable POLITICAL problem.

Nuclear is good for generating the Base Load and can be sized for the constant demand. Solar is actually good for the variable demand because it roughly follows the same generation curve as the daily demand peak curve. We just need an “emergency” generation technology that can kick in as needed for areas without reasonable Solar potential or for extended cloudy days. Either an improvement in energy storage (batteries) or I personally like Natural Gas fired electric generators with the Natural Gas made from Coal. We (America) already has natural gas delivery systems and emergency generators for blackouts powered by Natural Gas, so a small investment in infrastructure could have Coal supplying Natural Gas for a variety of uses (many commercial/industrial) as well as for local electric generators for those special cases.

I was going to ask you your opinion on how to fire up & fuel generators but you beat me to it. Is there any emergency power programs in place now that emulate your suggested design? So you know, I like it… it provides varied technologies to function together & Im a big believer in that. But Jons correct, politics drives funding and at present they are both crooked & dysfunctional. I would greatly appreciate for someone to come forward with a logical plan to power America other than the nonsense we have now.

 

[Earth Wind and Fire]

What are Small Modular Reactors (SMRs)?

Five of the World’s Leading Small Modular Reactor Companies

What is nuclear recycling?

Love this…useful inf., Thanks!

 

[Reynolds]

Then why hasn’t this been adopted as an alternative fuel source?

Costly

 

[atpollard]

Costly

So is Solar and Wind without the heavy subsidies.

 

[Reynolds]

So is Solar and Wind without the heavy subsidies.

Agree fully.

 

[JonC]

Everything is costly. Nuclear is probably the most effective, and one of the cleanest. But it is costly.

 

[Earth Wind and Fire]

Costly

In Biden’s USA, “cost is no Object”…. Not when you have the taxpayers footing the bill.

 

[Earth Wind and Fire]

Everything is costly. Nuclear is probably the most effective, and one of the cleanest. But it is costly.

Oh child of the military government,, you especially should know that our dysfunctional Congress will misappropriate funds to any initiative to improve the welfare of the nation dont you . Of course there are exceptions like deploying Marines and Rangers to some god forsaken country and delaying pay so their families have to go on welfare to make ends meet. Isn’t that the American way?

 

[Earth Wind and Fire]

On a personal note, I worked for an Israeli company in NJ for a few years and had to endure insults the President continuously made about the USA and our infrastructure being inadequate. His commentary was that we were a 3rd world country masquerading as a world power. Israel is the most modern country on the globe… just look at our military prowess, our advanced Research and medical R &D, our Education ad nauseam. God, the arrogance. Oh and that Iron Ceiling Dome thing ( that the US paid for.. or at least contributed to ). I didn’t like him for operating in this country while disparaging us… so I got an American flag and put it in my office. That didn’t go over big.

 

[Reynolds]

In Biden’s USA, “cost is no Object”…. Not when you have the taxpayers footing the bill.

Agree. Not saying we shouldn't do it, but that's why we haven't.

 

[Earth Wind and Fire]

Agree. Not saying we shouldn't do it, but that's why we haven't.

Got it… btw, the Germans are looking at revamping there power grid using DC vs AC. I don’t really know what that technology they are using to create power though but I do find this stuff fascinating.

 

[OnlyaSinner]

I wonder if Biden’s living in Scranton PA has something to do with it.

My uncle (now long deceased) had a 42-acre woodlot in Bradford County - took my first deer there in 1968 - and our route from NNJ went past Scranton and the two huge coal-slag piles. In the daytime there was just acrid smoke but at night the piles had hundreds of spots with pretty blue flame. In the late 1960s the piles were removed, and the fires put out, but anyone who had lived in the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton area prior to that project knew the effects of big coal.

Different topic - Gas is good for emergency power but hydro (where available) might be even better.
Also, 20+ years ago I read an article about the problems with US nuclear reactors. The article's thesis was that the folks building them were used to the somewhat lax tolerances for fossil fuel generators, and nuclear requires them to be much tighter. The naval use of nuclear needs even tighter ones, as people are working within a few feet from the reactor vessel, and while any radiation accidents in that program are likely military secrets, there are still hundreds of US reactors powering ships and especially submarines. If the big on-grid reactors had been built to the tolerances demanded by Admiral Rickover, maybe TMI and other issues would not have arisen. (Of course, those much tighter tolerances mean higher costs.)