Antinuclear

The nuclear industry can be all but written off

Nuclear power likely casualty in tide of change, NZ Herald News, By Anthony Doesburg  Mar 28, 2011. Nuclear power can be all but written off in the wake of Japan’s reactor emergency, believes the director of energy studies at Otago University.

“I would have thought that Japan will pretty much spell the end of the nuclear industry,” says Bob Lloyd, an associate physics professor whose research speciality is renewable energy…….Lloyd holds out little hope for development of new nuclear generation methods, the proponents of which believe they solve some of the intractable problems of today’s fission reactors. Chief among fission’s shortcomings is the risk of a reactor core meltdown and release of large amounts of highly toxic radiation, and the disposal of radioactive waste.

Fusion reactors – mimicking, for instance, the Sun’s conversion of hydrogen to the lighter element helium, with the the release of limitless energy – remain a pipe dream. Some researchers are pinning their hopes on hybrid fusion reactors instead….Lloyd is unconvinced, saying more sophisticated technology tends to be orders of magnitude more complex and, as the Japan emergency demonstrates, today’s difficulties are hard enough to solve……..Anthony Doesburg : Nuclear power likely casualty in tide of change – Japan disaster – NZ Herald News

March 28, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized