science4life_1984

Without knowing many specifics, I think Thorium is quite an exciting prospect. All I know about it is based on books I've ready on the energy industries (ie, high level information), so I don't know "how close we are."

In my opinion, one of the biggest challenges to Thorium is public acceptance and the political aspects of it.

I see a modern (North American) society that is slowly straying away from scientific understanding. This will be our greatest challenge to such technologies. I mean, we have a society where evolution vs creationism and global warming are being debated in the public realm. I find this quite depressing.

Hi Frajer, I am not the OP, but I work at a nuclear generating station in North America (as an engineer). I created my account to try and answer your question. Anything I write is my own, personal opinion.

To be as short and concise as possible: nuclear energy, like any modern technology, is only as safe as the people who design and use it. Fundamentally, in North America, nuclear energy is very safe.

There are challenges to the safe use of this technology, but the same can be said for many other technologies. Many people fear nuclear energy and have their minds made up before asking the question (not saying you are like this, but many friends are like this).

This kind of question can get philosophical very quickly. One can replace "nuclear energy" with almost anything and get into a very deep, and potentially long debate.

Are there any specific questions / concerns? Maybe you can ask for some clarification, as this is a big question, and I don't want to go off on too many tangents.

"the need for millennia-long storage of nuclear wastes poses unprecedented security and vigilance demands, a challenge that has yet to be solved by any modern society" (Smil, "Energy at the Crossroads").

The challenges of Yucca Mountain are.... unfortunate. In Canada, they are undergoing many assessments for nuclear storage in North Ontario (a region with some pretty stable rock thanks to the last ice age).

This is a significant challenge that proves nuclear energy is not perfect. I could write more, but I'll stop before too much of a personal opinion comes through.

edit I just wanted to clarify: when I say "the challenges of Yucca Mountain are unfortunate" I meant mostly political, not technological. Please accept my apologies for being so vague.

I hope the OP doesn't mind my jumping in here and there to answer questions.

I work at Nuclear Generating Station, and I remember these events quite vividly, as I was too young to understand Chernobyl and Three Mile Island when those events occurred.

So, here are the basic facts of Fukushima: 9.0 earthquake followed by a tsunami. Every single safety system operated as designed and the plant began an automatic shut down. The real problem occurred when the tsunami wave hit. I think that the wave was about 20 ft or something. Well, the protection wall at the plant was only 14 ft high. As a result, the wave went over the wall and flooded the back-up generators. The station lost back-up power and cooling ceased. This in turn led to melt down.

Fundamentally, the station and the technology reacted as it was design. The issue was the design of the wall. The organization had performed a risk based assessment (which is standard in ANY engineering / scientific field) and decided that a 14 ft wall was sufficient.

There was a lengthy report on the response to this accident, I will try to find it.

I am mostly here to say thank you. My family is Polish, and my grand-father's brother was in the Polish cavalry when Germany attacked; he was captured and spent the entire war in a POW camp. He survived and upon the end of the war came to Canada. He is the reason my parents were able to come Canada, and reason I am here today.

Thank you.

Uhm, a general question: do you like to read? (fiction/non-fiction?) What are your favourite books?

I just wanted to say thank you.

Also, what is your strongest memory of living through the Depression?

I hope you can answer my questions, thank you again.