Blue states are generally where there are nuclear plants, dams, or where the state imports their electricity. SC has 4 nuke plants, PA has 5. IN is flat and has no nukes. WA has 33 hydroelectric-producing dams. VT imports 40% of its power.

Yes, PA has 5 nukes and we don't all glow in the dark, imagine that. Who've thought nukes can be safe. :rolleyes:

3 Mile Island anniversary was just a few days ago...Just sayin'.

I know, I was within the 20 mile radius along with all my friends!

I favor nukes 100%, there have long since been new designs which would have prevented the TMI problem.

I got no probs w/nukey energy.

Never forget why TMI2 happened. They knew they had a problem at 4 AM. Desperately called corporate saying they needed help. The only guy in corporate who knew anything about nuclear power was on National Guard duty. So management told plant operators that everything was OK. And continued telling the press same for three days.

As things got worse, plant operators could not even place outgoing phone calls. Management would not even ask Bell of PA to provide upgraded service or more phone lines. A solution did not happen until Jimmy Carter (after a request from the PA Governor) connected all phones in TMI directly through the White House switchboard.

Just another example of why we are so damn lucky and the thing that makes nuclear power so dangerous. In this case, 99% of all problems were directly traceable to top management. Top management lies so often that the press ignored everything that GPU top management said.

Every time we built a nuke they changed to rules and regulations, so no two were alike and more expensive. In France they settled on a design and built them all the same which was much cheaper.
The Westinghouse Pressurized Water Reactor system was reasonably safe in that the radioactive water transfers the heat in a heat exchanger to the water that became steam and drove the turbines.
GE came out with the cheaper Boiling Water Reactor System where the radioactive steam drove the turbines making the machinery and turbine hall hot. In order to overhaul the turbines, the radioactive parts would be shipped back to GE for machining.

The real problem with the nukes is how to dispose of the spent fuel, but all they have to do is build a wall out of it.;)

And it's not just the nuclear stations and the disposal of their waste we have to worry about, hydro-electric stations seem to be causing just about as many and more immediate problems.

Around the globe dams are failing and it turns out that a whole load of them, even in what we call the developed world, were shoddily built and have been even more poorly maintained.

High Rhianne, how goes it?

This is the only real issue. A functional government would have settled it long ago.

Just about hanging together. I hope you are well.

Don't they break up the spent fuel rods into bullet-sized pieces and shoot them at brown people in sandy places?

Don't want to help fuel their nuclear program.;)

Something like 3% of Uranium gets used in those rods. Problem is those rods are still highly radioactive. And now contains Plutonium.

Uranium ore has less than 1% U-235. Depleted Uranium is the byproduct after removing as much U-235 as possible So depleted Uranium is even less radioactive.

MOX fuel is the process of extracting both Uranium and Plutonium. Then combining those materials to create another useful nuclear fuel. It has not been successfully used in the US but is more commonly used in Russia, Japan, and France. It could substantially reduce the amount of spent nuclear uranium rods. But makes Plutonium proliferation (nuclear weapons and 'dirty' bombs) easier.

Hours of searching strange sites ( other than the above ) and I've found the reference that I was looking for.

It's a book in German with no translation and not available in Kindle.

Another project.

It might be a while before I get to it. Grief councilors are on standby.