Lots of Interesting News

Many interesting things have happened in the last few days. The biggest one, in my mind, is that for the first time since 1973, a utility has applied to construct new nuclear reactors. These reactors would be Advanced Boiling Water Reactors (ABWR) from General Electric. None of these advanced BWRs have been built in the United States, but four have been built in Japan since 1996, with another three under construction in Japan and Taiwan.

NRG Energy Submits Application for New 2,700 Megawatt Nuclear Plant in South Texas

On another note, I found a website that is giving the straight "dope" about coal and how filthy it is. It also has the courage to compare the environmental efforts of some major organizations to coal plants, to see how easily any positive effects are drowned out by the negative impacts of coal operations.

Architecture 2030: Think You're Making a Difference? Think Again.

There are 151 new conventional coal-fired power plants in various stages of development in the US today. California passed legislation to cut CO2 emissions in new cars by 25% and in SUVs by 18%, starting in 2009. If every car and SUV sold in California in 2009 met this standard...
The CO2 emissions from only one medium-sized coal-fired power plant, in just eight months of operation each year, would negate this entire effort.

Finally, an admission from an Australian coal union of something we've known for a long time--solar is not a threat to coal, nuclear IS!

The Australian: Nuclear threatens our jobs: union

As his union launched an advertising campaign attacking the Howard Government's greenhouse policy, Mr Maher said: "The real threat to coal miners' job security and power workers' job security is 25 nuclear reactors in Australia. That's the harsh reality. A solar farm down the road is not going to close down a coal-fired power station. But 25 nuclear reactors will," he told the Ten Network's Meet The Press program.

We must stop building new coal plants immediately. We must shut down coal plants currently in operation. And to replace this immense power generation capability we need inexpensive, inherently-safe, and efficient nuclear power plants. We need the thorium-fueled liquid-fluoride reactor.

More Reasons for Better Energy

Dirty energy threatens health of 2 billion

The health of about 2 billion of the world's poor is being damaged because they lack access to clean energy, like electricity, and face exposure to smoke from open fires, scientists said on Thursday. Dangerous levels of indoor air pollutants from badly ventilated cooking fires are a common hazard, while lack of electricity deprives many of the benefits of refrigeration.

Indoor air pollution widespread in Asia

Up to 3 billion people around the world rely on solid fuels such as wood, coal, crop waste or animal dung for indoor cooking and heating. The resulting smoke ranks as the fourth-biggest health risk in the poorest countries, yet it is typically overlooked.

Having access to electricity for microwaves and ovens is one of the basic reasons that we in the West don't suffer from many of these problems. But these people don't have electricity--in fact, many of these problems are coming from burning "carbon-neutral" fuels like wood and dung. They may not be contributing to global warming, but burning these fuels is killing them. They need electrical energy, but not from coal--from clean forms of nuclear energy like thorium.

Now this is just wrong...

Wired: Blowing the Top Off Mountaintop Mining

Coal mining--in all its glory.

Mining companies clear forests from mountaintops, dynamite the peaks, excavate buried coal, and dump the waste into nearby valleys. It's cheaper and more efficient than old-fashioned mining, but the effects of mountaintop removal -- or MTR -- are devastating.

In just two decades, hundreds of mountaintops, more than a thousand miles of stream, and hundreds of square miles of forests have been obliterated by the practice. Opponents say the pollution is also dangerous to people who live in the region.

Why do they do this? Because they can get away with it.

"We have to change our ways of producing energy and where we get our energy from," she says. "It's time for us to face the fact that coal is a filthy and finite resource. Why would we destroy our very earth and air and water, that we need and our children need, for short-term gain?"

What should we do about it? Replace coal power plants with energy from thorium. We won't even have to mine the first 3200 metric tonnes of thorium.