[ExI] Hazards near your home

[Stuart LaForge]

Quoting extropy-chat-request at lists.extropy.org:
  -----Original Message-----
> From: extropy-chat <extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org> On Behalf Of
> BillK via extropy-chat
> Subject: Re: [ExI] Hazards near your home
>
> On Wed, 29 Sept 2021 at 16:11, spike jones via extropy-chat
> <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>>
>> Hi BillK,
>>
> ...
>>
>>> ... Nuke plants may be hazardous and create radioactive waste, but at
>> least they are clean and safe for the environment.
>>
>> spike
>> _______________________________________________
>
>
>> ...Nuclear plants seem to have become too expensive to build. The one the
> UK is trying to build is way over budget and time schedule...
>
> Ja, they are damn expensive to build, even more expensive to get them thru
> the environmental review.  There have been no serious attempts to build new
> ones to replace the one in California which are nearing retirement.
>
>> ...Home Battery Packs seem to be selling well these days. Often linked to
> solar panels for charging...
>
> Ja, and I very much encourage people to buy the hell outta those.  My
> neighbor has two teslas and a powerwall plus the roof panels and inverters
> to run his house for a few days off of his cars.  With those items he has
> over a quarter of a million bucks invested.  Good for him.
>
> I have a gasoline-powered generator I use for charging my batteries while
> remote camping, investment less than 1k.
>
> My neighbor's investment in the power wall is not a power generator, but
> rather a storage device.  The roof panels make some power, but not nearly
> enough to run the house.  This is typical of Silicon Valley homes: you can
> run your lights and computers and electronics from solar panels but not your
> HVAC.  The roof space is too small.
>
>> ...Power cuts are one of the ways that the world is telling us that the old
> lifestyle can no longer be supported...
>
> Ja, but when we went thru those about 20 yrs ago, the power cuts told us to
> cut the bullshit and build a natural gas peaker plant, which they did.
> Turns out people got serious about LED lighting and adding insulation, so
> power demand started to reduce about that time.  2000 was the highest per
> capita power use ever for Silicon Valley, after which it trended downward,
> but now it is heading back up, as people are cranking up high-powered
> graphics/gaming computers to do bitcoin mining.
>
>> ...Too many people now...
>
> Ja.  Notice I mentioned per capita power use for the valley.  That is down
> about 17% from the peak in y2k, but the number of capitas has gone up
> dramatically, which means we consume more power, even before we take into
> account the power hungry bitcoiner mines.
>
>> ...We have to do things differently if we want to avoid much more
> unpleasantness....BillK
> _______________________________________________
>
> OK how?
>
> I would suggest we start building nuke plants as fast as we can slam them
> into the ground.  We start by transferring the cost of permits to build them
> from the investor to the agencies responsible for issuing the permits.
>
> spike

I don't necessarily think nuclear reactors should be privately owned.  
Terrorism, and other risks suggest that nuclear power-plants should be  
built and run and by the DoD and DoE. Say it is for national security  
(it is),screw the permits, and build them on military bases. Clear out  
some of that tinder on Federal land in California that catches fire  
every year, and use the land to build military forts with nuclear  
power-plants in them. Use them to power surrounding cities, and maybe  
sell power cheap to the power companies almost like the Fed does money  
to banks.

Stuart LaForge