Is it time we went nuclear?

[Finn]

and then behead Helen Clark!

So what's the downside?

[Jantar]

Westinghouse you say? So Fisher and Paykel will service it here in NZ? Could I pick one up from Smiths City?

Probably. And they may even send some 17 year old straight from High School to install it for you.

[Jantar]

There's a lot opposition towards wind power which is actually the main problem. There's always going to be wind somewhere in NZ - so the trick is to have substantial wind farms spread out all over the country. (Unfortunately off-shore is tricky down here)....

Really? Right now every wind farm that we can monitor from Te Apiti in Waiarapa to White Hills in southland is showing 0 MW.

[rainman]

What the hell do you do with the rest of the electricity the smallest commercial reactor available at present, a 600MW Russian built device (that'll be safe)produces?

Heat up some of the cold bits? Invercargill?

[NighthawkNZ:Me]

You are all wrong... Fussion, fission, Nuclear, thermal, fossile, solar, atom, photon, Tachyon, radion, triton, proton, pinton, and on and on and on

the answer to endless energy is baked beans...

[Zuki Bandit]

You are all wrong... Fussion, fission, Nuclear, thermal, fossile, solar, atom, photon, Tachyon, radion, triton, proton, pinton, and on and on and on

the answer to endless energy is baked beans...

[Mom]

I have not read the thread, I liked the question but I see that another thread has sucummed (sp?) to the KB BS.

I am staunchly ANTI Nuclear weapons, and the threat of the use of them. I was lucky enough to nurse a survivor of the Hiroshima bomb who really gave me a good look at life after such an event. I support the No NUKES policy that is NZ!

BUT...

We have to be realistic here. Nuclear energy is the way of the future! We are very lucky here in NZ, we have thermal/wind and hydro generation that have been our mainstay of electricity generation. I read today we are facing a dark winter because our lake levels are low due to Mother Nature giving us a fantastic summer.

Our delivery systems are failing, peace to the man that died yesterday falling from a pole because it broke, and yahoo for the flaming street in Welly today! Seems we may need some assistance if we want to be able to continue the way we want.

Bring on the Greenies...(I mean bling of course )

[homer]

How many times does this have to come up?

We don't use enough electricity to operate even one of the smallest Nuclear power plants you can buy.

It has nothing to do with danger, economy of operation or waste disposal (though this is glossed over rather too readily). Our lowest draw is at about 5:30am. We're pulling about 10kW. What the hell do you do with the rest of the electricity the smallest commercial reactor available at present, a 600MW Russian built device (that'll be safe)produces? They AREN"T economical if you have to shut them down and start them back up all the time, which I believe takes substantial amounts of time, more like days than seconds.

Plus our grid is a hideous hodge podge that bleeds energy and can only have certain high output stations on at a particular time. You can graduate the output of fossil fuel and hydro plants relatively easily. A 600MW nuclear generated output is just that. There's no rheostat to ramp it down to 10kW.

um ...the whole point would be to use the nuke station and not the hydro ....shut them down

[Skyryder]

We have enough coal to power our needs more centuries.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0215135731.htm


Skyryder

[Jantar]

um ...the whole point would be to use the nuke station and not the hydro ....shut them down

Then what are you going to use for spinning reserve?

[Mikkel]

Fission is a chemical reaction compared to a Fusion reaction, but we're arguing semantics.

I'd like to know how a nuclear process could be considered a chemical reaction regardless of semantics. Could you enlighten me?

The problem with being a geek is that you have to come up with an argument where the non-geeks don't just give up and walk away.

Blowing up shit most people get.

Coulumb barrier is guaranteed to make people snore, as are a series of equations.

True, blowing shit up gets peoples attention.

However, you're assuming that my target audience are people who don't give a shit about how stuff actually works as long as it looks pretty doing it. (E.g. blowing up).

I enjoy Mythbusters and that kind of stuff as much as the next guy - but I never pretend that it's anything but pseudo-science.

If you don't want to make people snore when you enlighten me on how to define fission as a chemical reaction then do feel free to send me a PM. I am actually rather curious about it and you usually seem to be able to back your statements up.

Really? Right now every wind farm that we can monitor from Te Apiti in Waiarapa to White Hills in southland is showing 0 MW.

That is impressive. How many wind farms are there in between those two locations? How many acres are covered with wind farms? Personally I live in Chch and I think there's a grand total of ONE wind mill on the entire banks peninsula... Given that this is a place where there's a lot of wind quite often it seems a bit weird...

Or let me reformulate that: Are you of the honest professional opinion that NZs current energy infrastructure explores the potential of wind energy adequately?
I doubt it.

[Jantar]

That is impressive. How many wind farms are there in between those two locations? How many acres are covered with wind farms? Personally I live in Chch and I think there's a grand total of ONE wind mill on the entire banks peninsula... Given that this is a place where there's a lot of wind quite often it seems a bit weird...

One farm, just over the hill from Te Apiti, the wind turbine at Wellington, and the one on Bank's Peninsular. so not a lot so far.

Or let me reformulate that: Are you of the honest professional opinion that NZs current energy infrastructure explores the potential of wind energy adequately?
I doubt it.

No, our current infrastructure does not lend itself to wind generation. That doesn't mean it couldn't nor that it shouldn't.

The main barriers to wind generation are: that wind supplies energy, but not controllable power; and the sites most suited to wind generation are also the poorest ones for transmission.

Because wind is neither fully predictable, nor controllable, wind cannot be counted in assessing peak generation capability. That means that for every MW of wind generation installed a matching MW of fast start / fast ramp generation must also be built. Thus the actual cost of building wind generation is 2 - 3 times the build cost. We are currently facing a possible crisis simply because wind farms have been built without a matching fast start backup.

The planned wind farms in the South Island are inside an already constrained area. If they go ahead then when they generate water will have to be spilled past the Clutha hydro stations.

The solutions are quite simple:
Companies building wind plant should be compelled to match them with fast start plant. Either they could build new plant, buy existing plant, or contract existing plant. Our current market rules do not allow such matching to occur.
Wind generation should be tied to transmission capability. Companies building wind gfarms in areas where there is a transmission constraint should be permitted to build transmission lines to carry the energy. Again, our current laws do not allow that to happen.

[homer]

We have enough coal to power our needs more centuries.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0215135731.htm


Skyryder

We also have more than enough oil to do so to but youd think not ...A

[homer]

what is coming one day ..is fision

instead of nuclear blowing parts apart
fision implodes .you still get the power and near no waste at all

itll be what we have ,just a matter of time

all the tossers with the wind "thing" more water "thing" thermal "thing"

are just doing what the petrol oil companys are doing

milking you for more money all the time

[Jantar]

Fission is what we have now. I believe you mean Fusion.