French only for the first 20 seconds or so.
Don’t like all the arguments as much as the last one. Nuke people will say the 4th gen technology will solve all the problems – all except one, maybe.
Worth listening to the end. Find out why Nuclear is not like Napster.
I would simply open up Yucca Mountain and start putting waste into it. True, the people of Nevada don’t like that solution. So we cut a deal: some subsidies for solar energy facilities, free health insurance, whatever. But we get that facility operational ASAP.
The containers used on trains and on trucks have gone through almost ridiculous tests, being slammed into massive concrete walls on rocket sleds, plunked into a large pool of flaming diesel fuel, etc, etc, and they just don’t show any leakage. That’s not one of our worries.
One of my suggestions is to make the rad waste repository a feature, not a bug. Use the millions of tons of coal ash to make big blocks that we use to build that largest pyramid in the world and plunk it down next to the casinos. My calculations show that we could build something three times the height of the Great Pyramid of Giza. That would sure draw the tourists! 😉
Agree with the criticisms of his take on distributed energy production in particular: are there any studies actually showing it’s capable of meeting our energy needs, or is it wishful thinking? I’d love it to be true, but wishful thinking doesn’t help us.
Where does the 40% water figure come from?
One final comment. Every single problem Rifkin identifies as a problem with “nuclear” power is actually a problem of one single design, the pressurized water reactor. It’s like he had said “aviation” will never work because dirigibles are too expensive and hydrogen is too flammable.