Anyone live near a windfarm?

[bdhsfz6]

Yeah but they’re BUTT UGLY and ruin the beauty of open country.
Nuclear is the answer. Not pretty, either but one nuke plant will make more power than thousands of windmills chopping up birds and ruining views.

I live near the Three Mile Island reactor in PA, where we had a near melt down incident in 1979. Evacuation was ordered but it was chaotic. Although no one was killed, there has been a noted increase in certain cancers among residents in the area. I was just outside the evacuation zone at the time but still scared sh!tless. An experience I don't ever care to experience again.

Plans are underway to reopen the undamaged reactor at TMI to power Microsoft's AI initiative and everyone around here is very concerned. Sure, a lot has changed in the nuclear industry since then, but can anyone really say they are 100% safe?

Nuclear may well be the answer but a lot needs to be done to address the location, safety and contingency planning. Unfortunately, those of us who live near nukes are in the minority and feel a whole lot differently than the general population.

That being said, I'm not against nuclear power generation. It holds great promise for our future energy needs. It's the location of these plants that causes the greatest concern. Unfortunately, due to transmission losses, they need to be located near population centers where energy is needed most. This puts a greater portion of the population at risk.

 

[Eagle1]

Just out of curiousity, what is above it?
Presumably all forms of manufacturing.

• The energy industry is the most polluting industry in the world

 

[Jstpssng]

• The energy industry is the most polluting industry in the world

Thank you

 

[D&D]

Anyone live close to a wind farm?

 

[KennyG]

I can’t argue with that, except as I stated earlier about nuclear. It needs a large and abundant water source, so not a really good idea for the interior western U.S. The Arizona nuclear plant is sucking the groundwater dry.

Not sure where you got that information. The Palo Verde plant in Arizona is cooled by waste water from Phoenix. They pipe the sewage to the plant and the plant cleans it and uses it for cooling. It's Phoenix that's sucking the groundwater, not the nuclear plant.

Power plants of various types have been built in deserts. It's possible to cooling them with closed loop systems (large radiators). A little more expensive but it's been done.

 

[KennyG]

I live near the Three Mile Island reactor in PA, where we had a near melt down incident in 1979. Evacuation was ordered but it was chaotic. Although no one was killed, there has been a noted increase in certain cancers among residents in the area. I was just outside the evacuation zone at the time but still scared sh!tless. An experience I don't ever care to experience again.

Plans are underway to reopen the undamaged reactor at TMI to power Microsoft's AI initiative and everyone around here is very concerned. Sure, a lot has changed in the nuclear industry since then, but can anyone really say they are 100% safe?

Nuclear may well be the answer but a lot needs to be done to address the location, safety and contingency planning. Unfortunately, those of us who live near nukes are in the minority and feel a whole lot differently than the general population.

That being said, I'm not against nuclear power generation. It holds great promise for our future energy needs. It's the location of these plants that causes the greatest concern. Unfortunately, due to transmission losses, they need to be located near population centers where energy is needed most. This puts a greater portion of the population at risk.

We could argue all day about the TMI effects. I think the studies that show cancer increases have cherry picked the data. As I recall, one of the studies that showed the largest impact used data that showed cancer increased upwind of the plant, not downwind.

However, nuclear plants don't need to be located near population centers any more than wind farms and solar installations, which tend to be in the middle of nowhere. With high voltage transmission lines, you have to be hundreds of miles away before losses become a concern.

 

[gsganzer]

Not sure where you got that information. The Palo Verde plant in Arizona is cooled by waste water from Phoenix. They pipe the sewage to the plant and the plant cleans it and uses it for cooling. It's Phoenix that's sucking the groundwater, not the nuclear plant.

Power plants of various types have been built in deserts. It's possible to cooling them with closed loop systems (large radiators). A little more expensive but it's been done.

You're correct. Many of the new combined cycle gas plants I commission are using air cooled condensers that are closed loop.

 

[jyoutz]

Not sure where you got that information. The Palo Verde plant in Arizona is cooled by waste water from Phoenix. They pipe the sewage to the plant and the plant cleans it and uses it for cooling. It's Phoenix that's sucking the groundwater, not the nuclear plant.

Power plants of various types have been built in deserts. It's possible to cooling them with closed loop systems (large radiators). A little more expensive but it's been done.

Palo Verde is also supplemented by ground water. And that waste water could be used for landscape irrigation; instead more freshwater is used. A closed system would be the way to go; there must be a reason why that plant wasn’t designed for that.

 

[ponytug]

Air cooled steam driven power plants lose a percent or three due to the inefficiencies in air cooling, primarily that air cooling doesn't get the condensed water as cold, due to higher air temperatures, and radiator inefficiencies.

So, yes, thermal power plants aren't a great match for water stressed areas.

I suspect that waste water will become increasingly valuable to cities in the arid areas of the country. Using it as cooling water is a pretty low grade use. Power can from many sources, and readily substituted forms, but there is only so much water. For much of the southwest, if the current weather trends continue, there will be less and less of it, making water an ever more precious resource.

All the best,

Peter

 

[MossRoad]

Palo Verde is also supplemented by ground water. And that waste water could be used for landscape irrigation; instead more freshwater is used. A closed system would be the way to go; there must be a reason why that plant wasn’t designed for that.

Because when the closed loop blows out, there has to be a large enough reservoir to continue cooling indefinitely would be my guess.

The nuclear plants near us use Lake Michigan and put it back in the lake, so not much water loss.

The fishing is quit good at the warm water discharges in spring and fall, but the fish glow in the dark.