Sellafield nuclear waste storage and development

JimmyA programme on BBC2 on Tuesday  was most enlightening but concluded that we need more nuclear power to avoid CO2 emissions that cause climate change in the future, but did not see any solution to the waste problem.

Is the requirement for such low  Sievert  levels really necessary.??    Japan I believe were allowed to empty slightly radiated water into the sea with no problem?

Are we over specifying and wasting tax payers money for no benefit at all? 

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  • That's really going to go down well with the public.

    Nuclear power is too expensive.  So we'll make it cheaper by dumping low level nuclear waste in the sea.

  • Well of course we already do,  'low level' in this context means you can swim in it and the ill effects will be due to other things, sewage probably, if its the UK coast we are considering, that and hyperthermia at this time of year.
    Your comment about it not going down well with the public is exactly my point, it is only expensive because by choice we made it so.
    If we banned carrying petrol in single skinned tanks at 70mph a few inches above the road surface, and required special fuel containment, cars would be more expensive too, but for some reason, that is a risk we are happy with.

    Mike.

    (if you have just fuelled up it is enough petrol to launch the driver into orbit if used as efficiently as a propellant, but  that is most unlikely so quite correctly  it does not worry you. You are far more likely than that to be burnt to death while in the vehicle, and far more likely still, to arrive at your destination completely unhurt, though how likely that is  depends slightly on who is driving..)

    PPS , perhaps don't get in if the Taxi looks like this... risk is a very subjective thing - he is happy with it...

  • Is nuclear power really too expensive or is it just that it has to cover all it's own costs? The tech industries appear to have looked at the options of renewables plus long term storage or nuclear power and have come down in favour of nuclear power. 

    Google turns to nuclear to power AI data centres (bbc.com)

    Renewables might be claimed to be cheap when subsidised in various ways and operating parasiticly using the existing fosil/nuclear powered grid as a back up. An appropriately sized reactor appears to offer better value when consistency of supply is important.

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  • Is nuclear power really too expensive or is it just that it has to cover all it's own costs? The tech industries appear to have looked at the options of renewables plus long term storage or nuclear power and have come down in favour of nuclear power. 

    Google turns to nuclear to power AI data centres (bbc.com)

    Renewables might be claimed to be cheap when subsidised in various ways and operating parasiticly using the existing fosil/nuclear powered grid as a back up. An appropriately sized reactor appears to offer better value when consistency of supply is important.

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