http://xtramsn.co.nz/news/0,,11964-4253215,00.html

This article got me thinking about nuclear power and so did another internet forum so what is your opinion on the matter?

I have voted but will post my opinion later on.

Um that article was about a Toxic alert?

I think a country as small as ours couldnt really afford to set up and maintain a Nuclear power plant right now, besides it seems a lot has already been invested in Wind Power.

Maybe in future as our population progresses it would be feasible, but only when we're ready, if we're not organised enough to have a proper transport system in place in our biggest city, I wouldnt like to see us handling something as dangerous as a nuclear power plant

Yes it was about a toxic alert, I needed another excuse to post about nuclear power though.

Well of course there would have to be safety measures in place. Another element of nuclear power plants to consider is, where would they go?

I am not opposed to nuclear power as it costs the public less money in finances. Nuclear power, according to an article on a website also can prevent global warming and is the only thing that is able to.

Hydropower, geothermal power, wind power and solar power are all feasable and used options here that do not directly increase global warming. We do not need nuclear power. Infact with our population size it would be silly. As a nation, for tourism, political and environmental reasons, we are better off currently continuing to be known as the "clean green nuclear free country".

Michelle, Auckland does not have a clean green image but for the rest of the country you are right.

I think there are other alternatives out there but solar power is not one of them as it is very expensive to set up and to run.

I think hydro power is a bit of a thing of the past and is outdated.

Turbine power is something I would be in support of and with being a narrow country it could be the most efficient. They already have it in the suburb of Brooklyn Wellington.

the main rpoblem with nuclear power is what to do with the waste. The by-products of the fission are highly radioactive, and will stay that way long past our lifetimes. When fusion power comes around, which produces only helium as a waste product, I'll be all for it. But til then I'm skeptical, although not strictly against.

Allowing nukular powered ships into our harbour is another matter though.

Wind power is already in a lot of places

http://www.meridianenergy.co.nz/WindProjects/

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3218385a13,00.html

Tidal power! Fuck the Aucklanders taking our power, make them generate their own!

*grumbles in the corner, in typical Waikato fashion*

Sarey there actually could be wind generated power for Waikato and Auckland. there is loads of unused land past the bombay hills so this could be turned into a turbine farm.

tidal is still experimental. Currently its very expensive to maintain due to the unpredictable nature of the sea. Aucklanders already have to scab off the rest of the country just to build some roads. Tidal barrages can also cause silt build-ups where ever they're build. This affects the wildlife in the area in changing their habitat.

NZer have too much of a NIMBY attitude, partly due to this clean green thing everyone believes in.But why dam up all our beautiful pristine rivers and plonk great big WHOMPWHOMPing fans on our lush, fertile hill when we can just have 1 tidy nuclear plant supplying the whole country's needs. It'll give clean green a whole new meaning.

But alas, that would result in hypocracy to match that of the US. And indeed there is the whole infrastructure for the waste problem to solve. Other countries look up to our environmental policies. Even if fission is kept as clean as possible, people still frown at the mention of the word. And lastly, sitting on a faultline as we are, itll be hard finding a stable site, not to mention all the protection that will have to be built. However note that Japan has managed it.

Keep your fingers crossed for commercial fusion reactors in the next few decades, and then all we'll have to do is figure out some way to be able to afford one.

Thing is, someone will complain regardless of whatever solution is proposed. So far I've heard:

Wind turbines are too noisy
Pylons are supposedly detrimental to health and are ugly. Woohoo aesthetics.
Tidal power as mentioned above by yams


Why doesn't every house get their own solar panels? Oh wait, that'll be too expensive, won't it ;)

current solar cell panels are only about 5% efficient on average. Meaning online 5% of the sun energy they collect are turned into electricity. Thats the main reason they are expensive i guess, and u'll need lots of them..

About the power pylon, who the hell cares if a blemen diary farm looks aesthetically pleasing or not. Also, the power pylon crossing those farm are carrying high voltage, and therefore low current. This allows them to transfer power without losing it through heat. It is current that produces magnetic fields. The field strength, by the time they get to u will probably be as much as that produced by those biomags gullible people sleep on.

And IIRC each solar panel only generate 0.6 of a Volt.... *_*

Each power solution will have its own trade offs. like noise associated with wind power, and nuclear waste with nuclear power etc. So you can't get a perfect solution to this power problem (maybe through fusion, donno). But in my point of view, the best solution would be either wind or nuclear (definitely not coal plants). With nuclear we can just dump all the waste to japan, like everyone else does...

They don't produce that much waste anymore, there are power plants that can go for a decade before they need refueling. As said we can dump the responsibility of disposal onto the Japs.

Not quite that simple though. Fusion can be just as bad as fission depending on what you use for fuel. The clean reactions tend to use rare and hard to get istopes of Hydrogen (re, more expensive), while the more plentiful isotopes release neutrons which make the containment walls radioactive which is A Very Bad Thing.

Being an engineer, i do in fact know best (?) There is nothing cheap about nuclear power, and dragonorchild is right. we dont need it. i love the stand new zealand takes on the nuclear issue, and so do people the world over. The last thing this country needs is a backward, barely sustainable power source with the waste nuclear power creates. Wind power is completely viable, i dont know about 'heaps of free land' but in the wellington and palmerston north regions you've already got turbines up and running. You get some serious wattage out of 47 wind turbines on the ridge north of wellington.

but lets be honest, were all speculating. although i can attest, with family members involved in sustainable design, and having been to every damn wind farm in new zealand, that they really arent that noisy and i find the aesthetically pleasing.... :rolleyes:

we have quite a few engineers here, good to see.

Represent!

lol.. yeah engineers are cool
Another form of energy generation would be geothermal electricity.

Basically you extract dry steam from about 1000-2000m below ground level and run it through the turbine. Basically waste free. Though you have to place reinjection wells around the extraction site as you don't want a big empty hole in the ground which might collapse.

The steam is around 270C and this drives the turbines damn well.