On 02/05/2019 11:16, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
John Rumm wrote:
On 01/05/2019 13:43, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
John Rumm wrote:
Are you saying there is no point in reducing CO2? Got to be all or nothing?

No, I am suggesting that its unwise to opt for a solution that only
has a limited reduction effect, and once implemented, will make it
much harder to achieve any further reductions - thus taking the
option of "nothing" off the table.

Especially when you consider we already have existing proven
technology that goes straight to "nothing" in one hit.

But "we" don't have such technology. We'd have to buy it in.

Well that's a legacy you get from listening to green nimbys for decades
after being world leaders in the field...

We buy in all the renewable generating kit as well.

And you really blame that on green nimbies?

No I blame our loss of expertise in large scale nuclear power plant on
that. Pretty much like I said above.

As far as I am aware, we don't have a long and industrious history of
solar panel production or wind turbine production. Hence like any other
manufactured product, you buy it from whoever makes it at a price you
are willing to pay.

Also many renewable technologies are heavily dependant on a number of
rare earth elements, of which 80% are currently mined in China, who also
do 95% of the refining, so it ought not be too surprising that when lots
of the manufacturing is concentrated.

Nor is the
latest technology 'proven' either.

You don't have to have the latest, just working.

All so easy, isn't it?

No, building large scale nuclear power generation is difficult, it takes
time and planning, and lots of money. However if you invest that time
and money and get a standardised / modularised design that can be built
(and later decommissioned) with *relative* ease, then it does get
cheaper and easier with time. Others have made that investment, we
haven't. Hence we buy theirs.

We do still have world class expertise on small modular propulsion style
reactors though - hence why we can roll those out far more cost
effectively and also export them. There does seem to be some effort
going into re-purposing those for commercial power generation:

https://www.rolls-royce.com/products...eactors.aspx#/






--
Cheers,

John.

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