I WILL SUGGEST THIS IS THE WAY TO GO...We all know, with a few exceptions, that being our 'leaders', that as long as we depend on fossil fuel our power costs will never decrease. You can minimize the number of employees, you can lower the salaries of management, you can legislate all you want, you can even privatize management but the simple fact remains fossil fuel is just that, a fossil, a thing of the past. There were many articles written by Dr. Thomas Arkle on the advantages of a nuclear powered power plant. Lately more people are looking into this alternative source of power and are coming to the same conclusion that I also have...
Nuclear power is the power of the future.
Here are a few of the latest thoughts on the subject..
Shooting Oneself in the Foot , and
An Urgent need to Change
Our 'leaders' in their own old fashioned and backwards ways aren't even considering the possibilities nuclear power affords. Now before you get your bowels in an uproar, read the articles linked above. I will not accept old outdated positions on this subject unless you know what you are spouting off about.
Nuclear power is the power of the future.
Here are a few of the latest thoughts on the subject..
Shooting Oneself in the Foot , and
An Urgent need to Change
Our 'leaders' in their own old fashioned and backwards ways aren't even considering the possibilities nuclear power affords. Now before you get your bowels in an uproar, read the articles linked above. I will not accept old outdated positions on this subject unless you know what you are spouting off about.
I will put it to you this way... If there is ever going to be an improvement in your power bills it will come from nuclear power. The Geo-thermal thing won't work and any amount of private management of fossil fuel powered plants will not give you relief from the high costs of fossil fuel.
You can take this to the bank.....
.....GED.....
You can take this to the bank.....
.....GED.....
16 comments:
The problem would be funding the construction of such a plant. How attractive would this market be to a possible private company? I don't know the answer to that. I'm pretty sure that the federal government will put zero funds towards such a project. They might help fund other alternative energy plants.. I highly doubt they'll fund a nuclear power plant. Why? It's still a sizzling hot topic in the mainland. They're certainly not going to extend assistance to a facility like that out here, when most there are plenty of battles against them ongoing stateside.
Personally, I've no problem with a nuclear plant. There are major wave/current generators now in operation in a number of places. We should also look at that technology. We have the infinite and free resource of the ocean after all.
I just see Homer Simspon at the controls, this idea is so crasy...so crazy it...just...might...work!
We presently spend $72,000,000 that's millions, in one year for fuel alone. (This is from CUC claiming that is their fuel costs.)
After the initial cost of construction there would not be any fuel costs for at least 10 years.
Do that math. It is $720,000,000 million dollars, almost a 3/4 of a BILLION dollars. We cannot afford not to do this....
We could probably pay the cost's of the initial construction with one year's fuel cost.
But what would we do without fuel for one year? Or longer? And how long will the project take? 3 years? More?
I agree with the concept and the need for a new power facility.
Coming up with the capital to do it, is a whole other matter. We can barely pay for the partial fuel needed for a two week span right now.
Someone needs to come up with a solution to the need for initial capital to fund any new powerplant.
Now my family and I would gladly go without power for one year, if all of the funds were to address a new powerplant of that or a renewable type. My concern would be the length of time we'd really have to go without power to see that happen.. 2 years, 3 years, 4?
If we can't fund this we can't fund geo thermal,wave generators,
windmills, solar power, etal.
There must be a way to get anyone of these done, nothing will come free. Nuclear will be the least costly to install and definately less costly to operate.
Nuclear power appears to have some appeal provided that the size of a plant can be scaled down to meet the demands of Saipan, Rota and Tinian. The money that would be saved by not purchasing fossil fuel and reducing manpower at CUC may convince a private company to build ,own and operate a nuclear power plant. Perhaps the feds would partially fund it and use it as a demonstration/pilot project.It would have to be managed and staffed by professionals and free from all forms of political interference.Freedom from political interference was one of the reasons why Secretary Montoya insisted on establishing CUC back in the 80's and we all know how that noble experiment worked out!
Anon, You appear to be on the right track. I don't claim to know all the nuts and bolts of a nuclear power plant by even a long shot, however your comment makes good sense. Now to get the powers to be to see the light.
Free of government ...A must....
Post of the month. How about the cost of fuel per KW? If I was selling uranus for power generating purposes, I would price it the same as fossil fuels. You wouldn't need the volume of fuel as with oil or coal (less transportation costs), but if I was selling fuel rods, I would tie the numbers to a barrel of oil. All the same; save on volume/transport and pay one time for all the "scary" things associated with nucs.
From a reality standpoint though, You would have to float a major bond issue and where is the collateral? Pagan? Fishing rights? I'm depressed just thinking about it all. Wind turbines combined with the Glen D small inexpensive solar water unit or go without is my best guess. At least you aren't burning coal laced with Uranium. Cheers, Mark
BSF, Hello, The price of a nuclear KWh would be 7 to 10 cents. We all could live with that!
I ignored the greater efficiency of nuclear vs traditional plants, which would account for the savings. Well, build it and they will come. I've been reading the give and take for a while now and the proposed small units seem attractive. If they can fit a reactor in a ships hull, then why not Saipan? I would imagine the cooling water exhaust area's might attract some interesting marine life. Whoops, gonna have to do an environmental impact study first.
I give up, seems no place is free from study this, study that.. Not that siting a nuclear reactor doesn't need some attention, but I'm sure someone has built one in a warm water environment. Lets not take ten years for what a competant mechanic can accomplish in a few months and then the lawsuits. Better start now or study by candle. Some NGO group is distributing laptops which run off a hand crank, place your order now.
Really scary news; Mongolia is negotiating with the Russians to build a reactor in exchange for acess to Uranium reserves. Crikey, that's like asking the Corps of Engineers for help putting up a levee.
I agree Glen. Whatever route we take with regard to another power source.. it needs to be done.
Maybe I'm being too negative, or maybe too much of a realist with regards to the funding issue.
Personally, and it really pains me to say this.. I don't think we'll have anykind of new powerplant built here anytime in the near future.
The only way I can foresee this happening, is through privatization, that would require the selected vendor to do this, while they maintained the current system in the meantime.
If you are interested, I happened to run across a decent series of energy articles at "der Spiegel" this afternoon. http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/0,1518,559370,00.html
The Germans are so much kinder and friendlier, since they gave up on the whole gas and burn thing. I wouldn't want them conducting my foreign policy ever, but they do pretty well with nucs and sausage. and beer and cheese.
Glenn, now how do you suppose the CNMI is going to afford to buy either a nuclear submarine or build a nuclear plant when we cannot even pay our vendors, pay tax returns, buy parts for generators, and etc.
Anon, how can we keep the status-quo? There will need to be some type of funding to get a plant stsrted. I'll not suggest a certain way but there are some different methods. The bottom line is there will always be an income/ cash flow to repay it.
Right now we are spending $72 million a year for fuel that should go a long way.
glenn, 5 years ago I suggested that CUC needed to develop new technology to prepare themselves for the rising cost of maintenance and fuel cost.
CUC water was also suggested many times to be separated because it was sinking the utilities agency but the problem is that politics played into the picture not during the fitial administration but during the republicans and guess who was the culprit for dragging the desal project...a candidate for NVD.
Everytime those augers drill for water it cost more than $30,000 fucken thousand dollars whether it finds water or not. with over 300 wells being dug you do the math.
What i'm saying is that before we start investing in new technology you need to start anew by revamping the existing structure of CUC and getting out the old and bringing in qualified people.
Makes no sense in investing 100 million dollars when the company will be managed by the same guys who fucked it up...kapish.
Hey Glen, I had an idea. The reality of Saipan lacking any burnable resources in the ground, bothers me. The atlternatives; Geotherma, nuclear, and wind have their problems. However a segment shown on National Geographic here gave me an idea. Don't focus on taking energy from the ground, take the energy from what is put into the ground.
Everyone who reads the odd website knowns that the largest source of methane in the atmosphere comes from cow farts. The second biggest source is compostable garbage. They are already covering the landfill in Marpi. How about running pipes under the cover and recovering the gas.
Stop the gas jokes and google recoverable resources. Collect the gas, store it, burn same with a turbine, and there you go. If the population doenst come up with enough raw material, then collect greens from the boonies. Must be enough useless workers up on the hill to accomplish that.
No jokes, this is a serious idea. Perhaps, the only thing I can contribute to your lovely island, but there it is. I’ll look up some links and send them your way. Cheers, Mark
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