PV Gap

Leslie Said:

Is nuclear energy the panacea that John McCain claims will solve our energy woes?

We Answered:

While nuclear energy isn't a panacea, it's really the main tool we have if we wish for civilization to continue on. Wind and solar are nice but we can't just replace the energy we're getting from oil and coal with wind and solar right now... the amount of energy we get from each category is in a different ballpark. If we're lucky and persistent, we could replace 15-20% of our electricity with wind and solar over the next 20 years, but even that would be a tremendous effort. On the other hand, nuclear energy is much much safer then you think (Chernobyl was poorly designed and the accident was caused by a stupid test when it was undermanned in the middle of the night, and the 3 Mile Island incident never affected the public). Nuclear facilities are now passively safe.

Over 80% of France's electricity comes from nuclear, so it can replace oil and coal usage, and we have the technology now to make full use of it. While I'm not too fond of dumping waste in the mountains either, if I'm to weigh that against the end of civilization and mass starvation, I'd choose the waste. And to be honest, we can make some use of spent fuel rods so by the time the reactors go online there's a good chance we wouldn't be accumulating so much waste. Personally, I think Obama would be screaming "Don't Vote For Me!" if he doesn't have building nuclear facilities as a major facet of his energy plan.

Enrique Said:

what do you think about the upcoming solar maximum?

We Answered:

Solar maxima always cause a few problems - downed power lines, increased radiation (a problem for people in space or on the moon; not so much on Earth), satellite interference (reducing communications and interferring with GPS systems).

As for the 2012 thing, the solar cycle reaches a minimum once every 11 years, so it had a 1 / 11 shot. Those aren't bad odds. Note how it didn't line up with the last millinium or 2007, the last two years the world was supposed to end. No one pointed it out then for that reason.

The Sun has never thrown out a flare big enough to harm the Earth in that fashion - never in it's history. And it's not going to be significantly more active this time than ever before - it also has cycles of increased and decreased activity on larger time scales that we've been able to measure.

Basically, most people won't even notice. It's not going to be a big deal.