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twitterSUN EDITORIAL:
A shortsighted vision
Recruiting a nuclear power plant is on the mind of eastern Nevada mayor
Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2009 | 2:07 a.m.
The mayor of Ely in eastern Nevada foresees a day when the mines that give employment to residents of his small city begin petering out. So a goal of starting now on a plan to diversify Ely’s economy would be understandable.
What is not understandable, however, is the direction he has taken to achieve this goal. In a state that has vigorously fought for more than 25 years against a federal plan to locate a dump for nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, just 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, and in a state that suffers from a scarcity of water, Mayor Jon Hickman is advocating for a nuclear power plant.
Hickman envisions an economic boom for the city: Thousands of workers would be required to build a plant, and new businesses would spring up to serve them, bringing even more jobs. Following construction, locals could land jobs at the plant and taxes would increase.
But that is a shortsighted vision for Ely, which is about a 230-mile drive northeast of Las Vegas. Nuclear energy cannot be produced without using massive amounts of water and creating tons of radioactive waste that will be lethal for hundreds of thousands of years.
On the waste issue, the federal government has spent billions of dollars over more than 20 years on a proposed solution — burying the deadly material at Yucca Mountain. But the state has raised numerous safety objections that cannot be refuted. The flawed Yucca Mountain solution is now dormant.
As for water, a nuclear power expert recently briefed Ely residents on the particulars of nuclear power plants. He said they consume at least 25,000 acre feet of water a year, with one acre foot being nearly 326,000 gallons.
In addition to the waste and water obstacles, it would be almost impossible to attract a nuclear power plant without support from the state Legislature, which funds Nevada’s legal opposition to Yucca Mountain. Hickman should turn his attention to other opportunities for diversifying Ely’s economy.
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LOL Reid got rid of the clean coal so now we get Nuclear Power
Nuclear power will take the less cooling water per MW since it run at a higher temperature than a solar plant. Hence it has a more efficent turbine-generator cycle and will take up less room in the desert
As the LV Sun has repeated pointed out the spent fuel rods can be safely stored at the plant as they are supportting for the other hundreds of site in the US.
Stop whining LV Sun you brought this on yourself.
is jon hickman incapable of thinking of a solution that won't make our children glow in the dark???
isn't this just the easy way out???
Before any reader takes the word of something called "Future" about water use by nuclear versus solar check out the article referring to an NREL study on this aspect of power production:
http://www.solarfeeds.com/nen/9461-the-q...
The Solar plants you are supporting will also use the same amount of water. Because their output is so low, you want a few dozen-each using 3000 acre feet. That will add up to probably more water.
But there's a bigger lesson here. The mis-use of the word green-which the Sun is guilty of.
When we dummy down all environmental issues to only carbon emissions, we end up calling something like Nuclear "green". Solar Millennium is about to announce that their facility in Amargosa Valley is now going to be dry cooled. This will be the end of this project due to the concerns the military will have over 400 foot dry cooling towers that would need built. That messes with their radar. But all along, most of your reporters with the exception of Alexandria, were calling Solar Millennium green, even though it may have destroyed some near by wet lands.
You can worry about carbon emissions and other problems, and you should. But you used the word green as a sales pitch to jump start the economy,and you are getting what you wanted. A nuclear plant, as dangerous as it would be, will start the economy and produce even more energy per plant than CSP plants. But they are not big contributers to climate change. This is what you wanted. You wanted to use the word green for the economy and it backfired on you. The Las Vegas Sun is really the PR for any new power plant that is not a global warming political football. That is what the nuclear industry is counting on. You guys are bringing nuclear back.
Gas, oil, and nuclear, and coal fired plants use almost 40% of Americas fresh water. Why not funnel the steam through a condenser and sell the water back to the cities or keep their water use at almost zero?
Ely looks like the perfect place, provided the cooling issue can be worked out. Continuously recycling the cooling water should help with that.
Nevada is ideally suited to site nuclear, solar & hydroelectric power generation stations, which along with increased efficiencies in transmission and consumption, could very well make NV nearly self-sufficient in energy (we'd still need a long range mobile fuel source like gas or it's equivalent) with some ability to export power out of state. If both France & Japan can manage multiple nuclear power plants, with their denser populations & political sensitivities, surely Nevada can manage one!
By the way, I'd be very surprised if 400 foot dry cooling towers in Amargosa Valley have an impact on Nellis Range operations unless they're inside the range or near Creech(obstructing aircraft, which may be manageable depending upon the exact location) or sited near an active radar (blocking transmission/reception).
I believe the Sun will not be happy with anything until the lights go out.
You get more irradiated flying cross-country then you would have got from Yucca. Imagine, a power source that produces 24x7. Nah, hopefully the sheeple will enjoy their lower standard of living and the children won't mind paying our debts.
Fellow Idiots - Nuclear Subs since the late 1950's and no problems. Put the plant in and also allow Yucca to be THE place. Now that we have a President who can pronounce the word 'nuclear'which the CriminalBush could not, we can move ahead. Thank you.
Clean, efficient energy with a small amount of waste that can easily be safely stored. The Left's anti-nuclear power stance is simply anti-science.
Your getting closer there fosimmons to being able to post something without mentioning "CriminalBush." One of these days you will make it. Other than that, I agree 100% with what you posted... The world must be coming to an end...
hey patrick...
it really is very simple...
nothing is safe for a million years...
especially the most toxic crap known to man...
besides...
we don't want our children to glow in the dark...
do you have children patrick???
Concentrating solar power (CSP) facilities using wet cooling can consume more
water per unit of electricity generated than traditional fossil fuel facilities with wet cooling.
A typical coal IGCC fired plant uses 340 gallons per megawatt hour; a nuclear plant ranges from 430 to750 gallons/MWh; and a solar parabolic trough plant typically uses 840-1000 gallons/MWh.
Source: data calculated from DOE, Energy Demands on Water Resources: Report to Congress on the Interdependency of Energy and Water, Dec. 2006, available at http://www.sandia.gov/energy-water/docs/...,
http://www.g-a-l.info/Solar-Water-Use-Is...
The bases for cooling water gallon/MWh used is the difference between the hot steam temperature entering the turbine-generator (e.g., the temperature output of the coal boiler, the nuclear reactor, or the solar collector) and the turbine condenser temperature (bottom of the "closed-loop" steam cycle) which is site dependent. The highest temperatures are coal or natural gas, followed by nuclear, then solar typically just 350 degrees C.
Efforts to increase water efficiency in power plant operations not on a body of water involve modifying a conventional cooling tower. For example, dry desert air could be used instead of water to cool the operation.
This, however, would greatly increase building costs because enormous cooling towers would need to be constructed. Also relying on air to cool would not cool the water circulating through the plant to a low enough temperature for peak performance, decreasing the efficiency of the plant. Read also
http://www.ag.arizona.edu/azwater/awr/se...
The LV SUN Editorial writer opines:
"In a state that has vigorously fought for more than 25 years against a federal plan to locate a dump for nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain..."
Maybe that's whats wrong with this state. Maybe Nevada should have been the leader in producing nuclear energy and selling it to other states.
Someday soon we will be burning Leftists for our power requirements.
Dear Sirs:
Where do you get these people who author these stories? Recruiting a nuclear power plant is NOT a correct grammatical usage of the word recruiting in the context of the sentence.
Shortsightedness, is a refractive defect of the eye. Those with shortsigntedness see nearby objects clearly but distant objects appear blurred. This is more the case for the author of this story than is the case with the Ely Mayor. Nuclear power is a vision "with" a future.
Nevada's fight against Yucca MT for 25 years has demonstrated the state's low I.Q. with any knowledge of nuclear science, not unlike the author of this article. Many of Nevada's University professors support Yucca privately but are threatened of their jobs by the politics not the science. "Hickman envisions an economic boom" . . . damn straight, what the he _ _ do you think would result from a 7 billion dollar construction project? And where do you get off calling it shortsighted, you are insulting to anyone with an I. Q. two points higher than a plant.
"But the state has raised numerous safety objections that cannot be refuted". Absolutely incorrect, the state has never provided a "qualified logical" objection to the safety of Yucca MT. The science supports the Yucca facility; the State science (most of which was purchased out of the country) does not prove Yucca unsafe this is why the NRC accepted of the DOE license application.
. . . support from the state Legislature, which funds Nevada's legal opposition to Yucca Mountain". You might want to check your facts, you will find that the majority of this funding comes from the DOE. "Hickman should turn his attention to other opportunities for diversifying Ely's economy". And to expound on your astounding grasp of economic diversification what would those be?
How dare Nevadans think anything but casinos are a way to make money. When MGM or Wynn determines that a nuclear power plant themed resort will make money, only then will Nevada have a nuclear reactor. Oh, and remember that it will be able to use all of the water it wants just like the strip does now...