tech

EPA head says advanced nuclear tech key to mitigating climate change

29 Comments
By MARI YAMAGUCHI

The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.

© Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.


29 Comments
Login to comment

consider developing safer, smaller nuclear reactors

The emphasis seems to be on finding ways to burn smaller amounts of fossil fuels, which is needed to reduce the amount of pollution. But I wonder whether those pushing for more nukes of any kind have factored in the response from warmongering fossil fuel nations like Russia controlled by a mentally ill, psychopath like Putin, a leader that has used nuclear power plants as another way to threaten the lives of millions of people, like Putin and his armies are doing now in Ukraine. In other words warmongers like Putin and perhaps his partners Xi Jinping, Kim and the Ayatollah might see 'smaller nuclear reactors' and think more targets. There are over 30 nuclear power plants within Russia's borders. But maybe Putin thinks the fallout shelters at his palaces are enough to save him. Putin has shown he cares less than two nothings for anyone else. In that regard he's little different from Xi, Kim, and the Ayatollah, and other warmongers other places and other times.

-7 ( +3 / -10 )

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said last week he instructed his government to consider developing safer, smaller nuclear reactors, in a renewed emphasis on nuclear energy years after many of the country's plants were shut down.

Go nuclear--go green.

-2 ( +6 / -8 )

But then generations for 1000 years have to take care of the nuclear waste just so we could have a good time.

-6 ( +6 / -12 )

gokai, your viewpoint is technologically outdated, that was true in the past but there are reactor designs that can actually burn the “spent” fuel rods from the woefully inefficient legacy rectors and eradicate the vast majority of the problem.

5 ( +9 / -4 )

The key to this agreement is, 'advanced' nuclear tech. Japan is relying on its 50 year old plants to fill the void in power generation. And, they just keep extending the lifespan of these ageing plants and telling people they are safe. It's already been proven that the Fukushima disaster was manmade due to safety upgrades being fudged and disregarded by the both the J-Gov and the nuclear power agency. This is all just spitballing smaoke and mirrors guff to win public favor.

4 ( +10 / -6 )

The shift towards nuclear power generation should be a stopgap measure until we have developed nuclear fusion technologies—-a safer and cleaner way of power generation.

6 ( +7 / -1 )

Solar, Wind, Water, Nuke, anything but Fossil Fuels for the obvious reasons, for years scientists warned the world of the climate we are facing now and yet many government ignored them or even tried silence them.

California as a starter soon many to follow just announced the end of sales of new gas burning automobiles by the year 2035, japan better shape up if it wants to sell Automobiles.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Coal, oil and gas have the highest worker mortality rate in the energy industry and nuclear has the lowest.

2 ( +6 / -4 )

Anti-nuke was always weak in its arguments, mostly relying on poor implementation to make its point. Take out the creaky Russian ones etc...and it's perfectly manageable.

Only thing is, and this is a rumour, but I'm told most western reactors still run on ancient SGI Irix operating system, because it's immensely robust and stable and runs BSD codes. Only that SGI is kaput, liquidated....done and dusted, so good luck finding backup hardware should something fail.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Nuclear power is dangerous. When a nuke plant blows its damage Is spread over a wide area and it lasts for thousands of years. Within recent memory we've two major nuclear accidents that could have been more catastrophic than they have been.

The head of the U.S. Environment Protection Agency, Michael Regan is dead wrong in pushing nuclear power which is not only dangerous but also outdated.

-1 ( +3 / -4 )

How serious is Japan about the environment?

The answer is that it is not!

Those living in Japan know full well.

Rebuilding houses after 30 years due to cheap and shoddy construction is the norm in Japan.

What a complete waste!

Where are the solar panels on roofs in cities in Japan and other huge buildings?

There aren’t.

Why not?

But building nuclear reactors in a land plagued with earthquakes is ok?

No, it isn’t

Japan hasn’t got it’s priorities right…

-9 ( +2 / -11 )

Peter NeilToday  09:03 am JST

Coal, oil and gas have the highest worker mortality rate in the energy industry and nuclear has the lowest.

2( +4 / -2 )

Why are you voting down facts?

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

But then generations for 1000 years have to take care of the nuclear waste just so we could have a good time.

This is a popular misconception, nuclear waste is stored in such a fashion that it can be accessible at a later date should the technology to process it further as a fuel becomes available. I don't believe there has ever been a nuclear waste incident only incidents involving reactors that meltdown in the case of Chernobyl dur to human error and Fukushima was due to poorly mantained old technology with insufficient safety protocols.

More people die from radiation associated with the coal industry and burning and mining coal than have died from power generation from nuclear plants.

If your going to have a stable non CO2 producing baseload then you need nuclear, most new reactors and SMRs are far safer and more efficient than the older tech, be interesting what Germany does this winter since they have the ability to restart their plant but seem more content on making their population suffer through winter and burn firewood than start the plant backup.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

Finally, some truly sensible, proper projects that are not from the fantastical idiotic Democrats and their "carbon dioxide" lies are beginning to rise to the surface. Go Nuclear without the hysterical left.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

Europe gave up on nuclear energy in favor of so-called clean energy like wind and solar. Now that Russia has stopped supplying energy to Europe especially Germany, the Germans are now back in the dark ages collecting wood for the coming cold winter ahead.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

This is the person,if you want too stop this radioactive water into the Pacific,office to complain,they even have online complaints Google EPA Online Complaints

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Japan is way too smart to know that energy from solar and wind are not sufficient to meet the demand so Japan capitalize on the unlimited abundant efficient the cleanest most reliable source of energy - nuclear.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

The head of the U.S. Environment Protection Agency said Friday that advanced nuclear technology will be “critical" for both the United States and Japan as they step up cooperation to meet decarbonization goals.

This is just about the only sensical thing this nightmare of an administration has done.

0 ( +4 / -4 )

Japan could quite easily supply at least 50% of its energy needs with geothermal. However, most of the geothermal vents are in national parks and they won’t release the land for development.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

But then generations for 1000 years have to take care of the nuclear waste just so we could have a good time.

Better than the 50 years we apparently have left if we keep using fossil fuels.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Climate change is overplayed. The Green Energy movement cannot withstand a Russian shock in the Ukraine, so it is re-defining nuclear power as "green", when it is not even renewable and contributes to rising temperatures. In that respect it is worse than fossil. Fossil fuels captured energy during their long formation period, and burning them now merely releases the captured energy into the environment. So they don't increase earth's heat content. This is unlike nuclear power, whose heat source is at the atomic level.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

The "market" will drive the green conversion. Until technology advances to implement, we are foolish to remove fossil fuel as a source of energy. Any one major volcano eruption that happens causes more CO2 and other gas emissions than man has done in our total history on earth. Think about that!

0 ( +1 / -1 )

What could go wrong…..

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Chances are high, that when all those current useless renewable or green transformation, nuclear energy and hydrogen hypes etc are over, they’ll soon whip us slaves as pensioners or latest the next generation again into the mountain shafts for hard and unpaid 16 hours work shifts plus overtime, on the search for coal, other fossils, rare earths and all such. It’s obvious they already row back, the only question is how far and how fast.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

Any one major volcano eruption that happens causes more CO2 and other gas emissions than man has done in our total history on earth.

That's actually false!

"Fact Check-Volcanoes do not produce more CO2 emissions than human activity"

https://www.reuters.com/article/factcheck-volcanoes-co2/fact-check-volcanoes-do-not-produce-more-co2-emissions-than-human-activity-idUSL1N2XV1HA

An eruption of Italy’s Mt. Etna, Europe’s highest and most active volcano, does not produce “10,000 times” more carbon dioxide (CO2) than “mankind has in our entire time on earth”. Contrary to a years-old meme containing this false statement, the combined activity of all volcanoes on earth is actually estimated to be a fraction of the CO2 emitted by human activity.

The meme reads: “That one little burp by Mt. Etna has already put more than 10,000 times the CO2 into the atmosphere than mankind has in our ENTIRE time on earth but don’t worry a scam is in the works to tax you your minuscule footprint.”

The same allegation has been shared since at least 2016 ( here ) ( here ). More recent examples are viewable ( here ) ( here ) ( here ).

An iteration posted on Twitter on June 2, 2022 has been retweeted nearly 9,000 times as of the writing of this article ( here ).

In an email to Reuters, Boris Behncke, vulcanologist at the Etna Observatory of Italy’s National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) ( here ) described the meme as “complete nonsense” and “misinformation”.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey ( here ), published scientific estimates of the global CO2 emissions for all on land and submarine volcanos “lie in a range from 0.13 gigaton to 0.44 gigaton per year.”

This is a fraction of the CO2 produced by human activity. In 2021, the global CO2 emissions from energy combustion and industrial processes alone reached a record high of 36.3 billion tonnes (or gigatons, GT), data from the International Energy Agency (IEA) showed ( here ). A graph by the IEA tracking the increase of emissions since 1899 is viewable ( here )

“On a global level, volcanoes currently emit just a few percent of the man-made CO2 production,” Bechkne said, highlighting that CO2 emissions of human activity have dramatically increased in the past decades, while volcanic emissions have not.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

But then generations for 1000 years have to take care of the nuclear waste just so we could have a good time.

Reprocessing permit fuel to be reused and long term radioactive waste reduced by over 80% compared to not reprocessing spent fuel. And obtw, if you think it's all so "we could have a good time", imagine what life is like without electricity.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Login to leave a comment

Facebook users

Use your Facebook account to login or register with JapanToday. By doing so, you will also receive an email inviting you to receive our news alerts.

Facebook Connect

Login with your JapanToday account

User registration

Articles, Offers & Useful Resources

A mix of what's trending on our other sites