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And heat-polluted waste waters? People keep pretending there are no externalities.
by pishpash 5y ago
And heat-polluted waste waters? People keep pretending there are no externalities.
- lazide 5y agoIf the biggest externality is heated water in a subarctic climate, or nuclear waste that gets stored on-site indefinitely in casks and produces no notable leaks or accidents (like has been done in the US for a long time now), the externalities are way less than literally any other form of energy production. That includes Dams, solar power, geothermal, wind, you name it.
- seanmcdirmid 5y agoWhat prevents heated waste water from being used for…heat? Surely Finland uses central heating plants that pump hot water throughout the city (or maybe that’s just a Chinese/Russian thing?). What makes waste heat water less suited to heating, higher entropy?
- Ekaros 5y agoI think it just not hot enough after electricity production. So temperature is not high enough after it passes through turbines. Specially due to distances involved.
- ProblemFactory 5y agoCombined Heat and Power in Finland is very common, much more so than in rest of Europe. 80% of the fossil fuel power plants output both electricity and heated water. Compared to (quick googling) 8% in the US and 11% in EU.
- RF_Savage 5y agoFear of nuclear power. People don't want water heated by it in their homes. So it is not done. It's not a purely rational thing. The plants are also located away from cities, so utilizing the waste heat for district heating is uneconomical.
- kortilla 5y agoNo, people aren’t pretending that. Heat pollution in water is a tiny local issue compared to global warming. It’s like complaining that a wool blanket is itchy so it might be better to catch hypothermia and die.
- rsynnott 5y ago> And heat-polluted waste waters? That's hardly unique to nuclear plants; in particular, coal plants typically have lower thermal efficiency.