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loss of Japan's nuclear power => 317,000,000 ton increase in greenhouse gases

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trud Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-19-11 09:49 PM
Original message
loss of Japan's nuclear power => 317,000,000 ton increase in greenhouse gases
Edited on Fri Aug-19-11 09:54 PM by trud
"Japan’s greenhouse gas emissions could rise by as much as 210 million metric tons, or 16 percent, by 2013 from 1990 levels if its nuclear reactors were shut permanently. Under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, a global agreement on greenhouse gas emissions, Japan promised to reduce its emissions by 6 percent over that period."

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/20/business/energy-environment/quake-in-japan-is-causing-a-costly-shift-to-fossil-fuels.html

Math Day: 210 million times 1.1 to convert to U.S. tons divided by 16 multiplied by (16+6)
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iemitsu Donating Member (524 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-19-11 10:27 PM
Response to Original message
1. tough, the reactors are too dangerous to keep even if they
contribute less than other conventional sources of power to the carbon levels in the atmosphere.
i guess we will just have to come up with some other ways to fuel our lives and burn fewer carbons.
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BeFree Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-19-11 10:46 PM
Response to Original message
2. I'll take GHG over radiation
And Japan will, in five years, be a solar success strory and show us even more how conservation is the real key to reducing AGW.
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SnoopDog Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-19-11 10:57 PM
Response to Original message
3. All the more reason for solar energy....
Nuclear energy - kills us and the planet with radiation

Coal energy - kills us and the planet with co2.

Answer: Solar,wind,wave,geothermal energy...duh...
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JDPriestly Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Aug-20-11 12:22 AM
Response to Reply #3
7. Japan might do well with wave -- oceanic currents -- energy.
I don't know how sunny it is there.
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bahrbearian Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Aug-20-11 10:19 AM
Response to Reply #7
11. Wave and tidal are Hypotheical sources , so I've been told.
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JDPriestly Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Aug-20-11 10:53 AM
Response to Reply #11
12. I first heard about tidal power from the Baron (I think it was Guy) de Rothschild
in 1974 at the First International Energy Conference. It is an established idea. I doubt that it is unworkable or harebrained. It may be expensive and difficult to implement. Most likely it is simply disliked by the same traditional energy proponents who hate solar and wind energy.
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bahrbearian Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Aug-20-11 11:29 AM
Response to Reply #12
13. Acually they have a working plant in Scottland
and are building plants off the Oregon Coast , in Coos Bay. Here is a plant being built a little north of Seattle http://www.pnwlocalnews.com/whidbey/wnt/news/103752099.html
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plumbob Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Aug-20-11 01:12 AM
Response to Reply #3
9. Yes, the wind farms in Japan just kept producing all through and still
are.

The only people who NEED energy from fuel are those that sell fuel.
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jimlup Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-19-11 11:25 PM
Response to Original message
4. Actually after much serious thought I still favor "safe" nuclear
Though what we are planning to build now doesn't fall in that category and Japan has some real work to do to get their reactors safe. I doubt the public will allow it.

Frankly - I think the risk with existing reactors and existing technology is too great. But with the advanced designs I have become aware of nuclear may be a viable future option that I don't want to see closed because of politics.

The problem right now is that mostly the nuclear industry can not be trusted to be honest and the politicians don't know how to get the reactors we really need and they are not likely to learn since the existing technology is so much cheaper they will sign off on it which is a mistake.
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ProgressoDem Donating Member (145 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-19-11 11:34 PM
Response to Original message
5. Let's just not build nuclear reactors near fault lines / tsunami areas... n/t
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jeff47 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Aug-20-11 12:21 AM
Response to Reply #5
6. Which means you're excluding all of Japan. (nt)
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The Traveler Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Aug-20-11 12:22 AM
Response to Original message
8. Guess that means us humans had better develop
some freakin' modern sources of energy.

Trav
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kristopher Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Aug-20-11 03:44 AM
Response to Reply #8
10. We already have them - here you go.
Edited on Sat Aug-20-11 03:45 AM by kristopher


Mods, this is a single paragraph abstract (see original form below) that I’ve broken apart for ease of reading:
You can download the full article at his webpage here: http://www.stanford.edu/group/efmh/jacobson/Articles/I/revsolglobwarmairpol.htm

Or use this direct download link: http://www.stanford.edu/group/efmh/jacobson/Articles/I/ReviewSolGW09.pdf

You can view the html abstract here: http://www.rsc.org/publishing/journals/EE/article.asp?doi=b809990c

Download slide presentation here: http://www.stanford.edu/group/efmh/jacobson/Articles/I/0902UIllinois.pdf

Results graphed here: http://pubs.rsc.org/services/images/RSCpubs.ePlatform.Service.FreeContent.ImageService.svc/ImageService/image/GA?id=B809990C

Energy Environ. Sci., 2009, 2, 148 - 173, DOI: 10.1039/b809990c

Review of solutions to global warming, air pollution, and energy security

Mark Z. Jacobson

Abstract
This paper reviews and ranks major proposed energy-related solutions to global warming, air pollution mortality, and energy security while considering other impacts of the proposed solutions, such as on water supply, land use, wildlife, resource availability, thermal pollution, water chemical pollution, nuclear proliferation, and undernutrition.

Nine electric power sources and two liquid fuel options are considered. The electricity sources include solar-photovoltaics (PV), concentrated solar power (CSP), wind, geothermal, hydroelectric, wave, tidal, nuclear, and coal with carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology. The liquid fuel options include corn-ethanol (E85) and cellulosic-E85. To place the electric and liquid fuel sources on an equal footing, we examine their comparative abilities to address the problems mentioned by powering new-technology vehicles, including battery-electric vehicles (BEVs), hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (HFCVs), and flex-fuel vehicles run on E85.

Twelve combinations of energy source-vehicle type are considered. Upon ranking and weighting each combination with respect to each of 11 impact categories, four clear divisions of ranking, or tiers, emerge.

Tier 1 (highest-ranked) includes wind-BEVs and wind-HFCVs.
Tier 2 includes CSP-BEVs, geothermal-BEVs, PV-BEVs, tidal-BEVs, and wave-BEVs.
Tier 3 includes hydro-BEVs, nuclear-BEVs, and CCS-BEVs.
Tier 4 includes corn- and cellulosic-E85.

Wind-BEVs ranked first in seven out of 11 categories, including the two most important, mortality and climate damage reduction. Although HFCVs are much less efficient than BEVs, wind-HFCVs are still very clean and were ranked second among all combinations.

Tier 2 options provide significant benefits and are recommended.

Tier 3 options are less desirable. However, hydroelectricity, which was ranked ahead of coal-CCS and nuclear with respect to climate and health, is an excellent load balancer, thus recommended.

The Tier 4 combinations (cellulosic- and corn-E85) were ranked lowest overall and with respect to climate, air pollution, land use, wildlife damage, and chemical waste. Cellulosic-E85 ranked lower than corn-E85 overall, primarily due to its potentially larger land footprint based on new data and its higher upstream air pollution emissions than corn-E85.

Whereas cellulosic-E85 may cause the greatest average human mortality, nuclear-BEVs cause the greatest upper-limit mortality risk due to the expansion of plutonium separation and uranium enrichment in nuclear energy facilities worldwide. Wind-BEVs and CSP-BEVs cause the least mortality.

The footprint area of wind-BEVs is 2–6 orders of magnitude less than that of any other option. Because of their low footprint and pollution, wind-BEVs cause the least wildlife loss.

The largest consumer of water is corn-E85. The smallest are wind-, tidal-, and wave-BEVs.

The US could theoretically replace all 2007 onroad vehicles with BEVs powered by 73000–144000 5 MW wind turbines, less than the 300000 airplanes the US produced during World War II, reducing US CO2 by 32.5–32.7% and nearly eliminating 15000/yr vehicle-related air pollution deaths in 2020.

In sum, use of wind, CSP, geothermal, tidal, PV, wave, and hydro to provide electricity for BEVs and HFCVs and, by extension, electricity for the residential, industrial, and commercial sectors, will result in the most benefit among the options considered. The combination of these technologies should be advanced as a solution to global warming, air pollution, and energy security. Coal-CCS and nuclear offer less benefit thus represent an opportunity cost loss, and the biofuel options provide no certain benefit and the greatest negative impacts.


As originally published:
Abstract

This paper reviews and ranks major proposed energy-related solutions to global warming, air pollution mortality, and energy security while considering other impacts of the proposed solutions, such as on water supply, land use, wildlife, resource availability, thermal pollution, water chemical pollution, nuclear proliferation, and undernutrition. Nine electric power sources and two liquid fuel options are considered. The electricity sources include solar-photovoltaics (PV), concentrated solar power (CSP), wind, geothermal, hydroelectric, wave, tidal, nuclear, and coal with carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology. The liquid fuel options include corn-ethanol (E85) and cellulosic-E85. To place the electric and liquid fuel sources on an equal footing, we examine their comparative abilities to address the problems mentioned by powering new-technology vehicles, including battery-electric vehicles (BEVs), hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (HFCVs), and flex-fuel vehicles run on E85. Twelve combinations of energy source-vehicle type are considered. Upon ranking and weighting each combination with respect to each of 11 impact categories, four clear divisions of ranking, or tiers, emerge. Tier 1 (highest-ranked) includes wind-BEVs and wind-HFCVs. Tier 2 includes CSP-BEVs, geothermal-BEVs, PV-BEVs, tidal-BEVs, and wave-BEVs. Tier 3 includes hydro-BEVs, nuclear-BEVs, and CCS-BEVs. Tier 4 includes corn- and cellulosic-E85. Wind-BEVs ranked first in seven out of 11 categories, including the two most important, mortality and climate damage reduction. Although HFCVs are much less efficient than BEVs, wind-HFCVs are still very clean and were ranked second among all combinations. Tier 2 options provide significant benefits and are recommended. Tier 3 options are less desirable. However, hydroelectricity, which was ranked ahead of coal-CCS and nuclear with respect to climate and health, is an excellent load balancer, thus recommended. The Tier 4 combinations (cellulosic- and corn-E85) were ranked lowest overall and with respect to climate, air pollution, land use, wildlife damage, and chemical waste. Cellulosic-E85 ranked lower than corn-E85 overall, primarily due to its potentially larger land footprint based on new data and its higher upstream air pollution emissions than corn-E85. Whereas cellulosic-E85 may cause the greatest average human mortality, nuclear-BEVs cause the greatest upper-limit mortality risk due to the expansion of plutonium separation and uranium enrichment in nuclear energy facilities worldwide. Wind-BEVs and CSP-BEVs cause the least mortality. The footprint area of wind-BEVs is 2–6 orders of magnitude less than that of any other option. Because of their low footprint and pollution, wind-BEVs cause the least wildlife loss. The largest consumer of water is corn-E85. The smallest are wind-, tidal-, and wave-BEVs. The US could theoretically replace all 2007 onroad vehicles with BEVs powered by 73 000–144 000 5 MW wind turbines, less than the 300 000 airplanes the US produced during World War II, reducing US CO2 by 32.5–32.7% and nearly eliminating 15 000/yr vehicle-related air pollution deaths in 2020. In sum, use of wind, CSP, geothermal, tidal, PV, wave, and hydro to provide electricity for BEVs and HFCVs and, by extension, electricity for the residential, industrial, and commercial sectors, will result in the most benefit among the options considered. The combination of these technologies should be advanced as a solution to global warming, air pollution, and energy security. Coal-CCS and nuclear offer less benefit thus represent an opportunity cost loss, and the biofuel options provide no certain benefit and the greatest negative impacts.


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