Energy Talk Podcast – Episode 5
A discussion of upcoming electric capacity shortfalls in Michigan with representatives from Northern Michigan electric utilities and the Traverse City Chamber of Commerce.
Reliability Effects of Closing Coal Plants
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About the Author: Cherryland
Have you heard anything about the new integral reactors that can get close to 90% of the energy out of spent fuel from the light water reactors giving us an almost unlimited supply of energy we already have and it would alleviate part of the problem we have dealing with what we do with our spent fuel problem. Also have you seen the movie “BLACKOUT” to get people out of their complacency over nuclear power. You see all these people saying has our government forgot about us when no one comes to their rescue and they are on their own to survive, it is a real eye opener for those who have never seen or understood what happens if the power grid goes down and because electricity has been so reliable people get lulled in a false sense of security thinking this can never happen to them till they meet the business end of a neighbors gun because he has kids that are starving to death and it becomes a life and death moment either kill or be killed do you give up your life because you prepared but your neighbor did not so now they are coming after your food to survive, it gives you a whole new belief in how important electricity is in our modern life and what we would be required to do to stay alive without it! Could this not be used to motivate people to get off this opposition to nuclear power and to get the government to help subsidize the building of these power plants to replace the retiring coal fired plants. With people using natural gas to heat their homes is there enough to meet residential needs as well as the electric utilities needs? If one pellet of uranium contains the same energy as 6 freight car loads of coal how more dense is this form of energy compared to all the other sources out there?
Fuel supply is certainly a concern with any generation source, from coal to natural gas. We do have access to vast natural gas reserves here in the US. But, as you point out, the competition for those reserves will be high as more and more electric generators switch from coal to natural gas. That’s why it’s so important to try to maintain diversity in our portfolio. We don’t want to be too dependent on any generation source so that we have a hedge against both price and supply variability.
We agree that nuclear energy should be a part of our portfolio moving forward. It is both highly reliable and a carbon-free generation source. If you haven’t already seen it, you might check out the documentary, Pandora’s Promise. It refutes a lot of the main criticisms that nuclear faces. We are planning to release a podcast later this week that talks more about nuclear energy and the role it could play in our energy future. Stay tuned!