US Approves Two New Nuclear Reactors

[YosemiteSam]

"For the first time in 30 years, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved licenses to build two new nuclear reactors in Georgia. These are the first licenses to be issued since the Three Mile Island incident in 1979. The pair of facilities will cost $14 billion and produce 2.2 GW of power (able to power ~1 million homes). They will be Westinghouse AP1000 designs, which are the newest reactors approved by the NRC. These models passively cool their fuel rods using condensation and gravity, rather than electricity, preventing the possibility of another ***ushima Daiichi-type meltdown due to loss of power to cooling water pumps."

"Expected to begin operation in 2016 or 2017, the pair of new AP1000 reactors will produce around 2GW of power for the southeast. This is the first of the new combined construction and operating licenses ever issued by the NRC; hopefully this bodes well for the many other pending applications."

 

[CowboyWay]

Maybe I missed it, but I couldn't find "where" these reactors would be located. Georgia is a pretty populated state. I'm all for nuke power, but I have to admit, I'd by lying if I said I wouldn't be concerned if my family lived close to these things.

 

[Yeagermeister]

Now they need to approve some new oil refineries.

 

[Jammer]

Now they need to approve some new oil refineries.

I doubt that will happen anytime soon. Fuel is the country's top export. We're refining more fuel than we can use.

NEW YORK (AP) – For the first time, the top export of the United States, the world's biggest gas guzzler, is — wait for it — fuel.

 

[YosemiteSam]

Maybe I missed it, but I couldn't find "where" these reactors would be located. Georgia is a pretty populated state. I'm all for nuke power, but I have to admit, I'd by lying if I said I wouldn't be concerned if my family lived close to these things.

They are "for" Georgia. (the power they make) They are actually going to be built in Sunnyvale, TX.

 

[basstapp]

They said they would be located in Augusta, Georgia . I live like 2 hours from there yay!

 

[CowboyWay]

They are "for" Georgia. (the power they make) They are actually going to be built in Sunnyvale, TX.

lol.

 

[arglebargle]

Just make sure they are not built in flood plains or earthquake zones....

 

[TwoCentPlain]

Now, if they could only figure out where to store the nuclear waste. Nevada doesn't want it. So, continue to "store" it in a bathtub next to the reactor. Brilliant.

 

[ROUSH8692]

They are "for" Georgia. (the power they make) They are actually going to be built in Sunnyvale, TX.

Great! Nobody with any intelligence lives near there anyway...

 

[burmafrd]

Now, if they could only figure out where to store the nuclear waste. Nevada doesn't want it. So, continue to "store" it in a bathtub next to the reactor. Brilliant.

Yucca Mountain would have been fine. All we need is a place to store it for a few hundred years at most. By that time we will have figured out how to destroy it or we will be able to cheaply send it off planet.

It was always BS about how they needed a place that was safe for thousands of years.

Actually what they should do is dump it in the deep trenches of the ocean. Encased in concrete and steel, in a few years it will be buried so deep in the mud that even when the tanks leaked it would not matter that deep in the ocean.

 

[Hoofbite]

I saw a video about a potentially new fuel source for nuclear power that would reduce waste by some ridiculous amount.

Wish I could find it.

Won't be long and we'll have a means to get it to space safely and cheaply and we'll be sending that stuff to Uranus.

 

[Hoofbite]

Yucca Mountain would have been fine. All we need is a place to store it for a few hundred years at most. By that time we will have figured out how to destroy it or we will be able to cheaply send it off planet.

It was always BS about how they needed a place that was safe for thousands of years.

Actually what they should do is dump it in the deep trenches of the ocean. Encased in concrete and steel, in a few years it will be buried so deep in the mud that even when the tanks leaked it would not matter that deep in the ocean.

I think the problems is, what if it leaks before a few years?

 

[Future]

Yucca Mountain would have been fine. All we need is a place to store it for a few hundred years at most. By that time we will have figured out how to destroy it or we will be able to cheaply send it off planet.

It was always BS about how they needed a place that was safe for thousands of years.

Actually what they should do is dump it in the deep trenches of the ocean. Encased in concrete and steel, in a few years it will be buried so deep in the mud that even when the tanks leaked it would not matter that deep in the ocean.

Wouldn't the pressure that deep like cause that thing to just implode well before it got all the way to the bottom?

 

[Hoofbite]

Wouldn't the pressure that deep like cause that thing to just implode well before it got all the way to the bottom?

Good point.

Saw a figure that says that the pressure in the deepest parts is like 8 tons per square inch.

Factor in the temp down there and things may not hold up.

And even if they could, how heavy would the encasement be? That much concrete and that much steel? How would you move something like that out there?

It's not like a giant platform rig that you could use buoyancy to lighten the load. We're talking a solid structure completely sealed and filled with nuclear waste.

How big would it have to be?

In the OECD countries, some 300 million tonnes of toxic wastes are produced each year, but conditioned radioactive wastes amount to only 81,000 m3 per year.

81,000 meters cubed? After some fiddling around, it would be about this big.

A box 160 feet wide, 120 long and 150 feet tall.

A visual depiction.

http://i5.***BLOCKED***/albums/y188/thehoofbite/dallas-cowboys-stadium-trapassocopy.jpg

That box is sideline-to-sideline and that is just what it would have to hold, not the actual size itself. That's internal volume.

And actually, I shorted the height by about 15 feet but didn't want to fix it. You'd have to imagine about 10 feet of visible screen.

Every year? I don't think dumping it in the sea would even be feasible.

 

[reddyuta]

I saw a video about a potentially new fuel source for nuclear power that would reduce waste by some ridiculous amount.

Wish I could find it.

Won't be long and we'll have a means to get it to space safely and cheaply and we'll be sending that stuff to Uranus.

its a thorium reactor .you can watch a lecture on it on youtube here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2vzotsvvkw&feature=player_embedded.

It has zero support from the establishment though.

 

[SaltwaterServr]

Oh noes! We's all gonna dies like everbodies at ***ushima!!!!

Oh, wait...

 

[theogt]

Good.

 

[trickblue]

Great! Nobody with any intelligence lives near there anyway...

Care to clarify that response? You are a Cowboy fan yet you imply only dumbarses live in a burb of the team you root for?

The CEO of a company I used to work for lives in Sunnyvale... he is worth millions...

 

[burmafrd]

I think the problems is, what if it leaks before a few years?

if the containers are made right they will last 20-30 years