Nuclear vs Green – World – November 2010

It’s an ongoing debate around the world – nuclear power or green energy? Nuclear developments continue to inspire global protests, but are the magic words ‘renewable energy’ really a viable alternative? We’re told that today’s nuclear plants are environmentally friendly, but they still “leave a 100000 year disposal problem”. After Chernobyl, scientists worldwide are trying to develop a way to store radioactive waste safely for a million years. The intense opposition to this ambitious aim is clear: “humanity is not yet equipped to deal with this responsibly”. But is nuclear power that easy to replace? In theory, if 1% of the Sahara was covered in solar panels, it could provide enough power for the whole world. Despite the vast cost and complex logistics of running a solar plant in Morocco this idea may yet have potential, but it isn’t a fairytale solution. ORF

23 thoughts on “Nuclear vs Green – World – November 2010”

  1. Solar will fail considering there is a movement in Africa where they are growing food in the desserts meaning less space for energu considering fun is more important

    People fail to see the sollutions is not going green or building taller houses but to start 1 child/family like in China and no use so much energi

  2. Well done documentary. I was all for nuclear untill recently. When i found out that it can be done with solar almost exclusively. This video seemed to give a pretty fair assesment of the issues. Bravo.

  3. existentialvoid

    funney. . . i was under the impression that nuclear power was the best stand-in until true green power. So the ‘vs.’ seems a bit off.

  4. Of course the marketing departments are using the clean energy title, it is clean on the green house gasses front so they have that opening to exploit, but on the other hand when it comes to nuclear waste, then it is anything but clean.
    Because of the lack of true funding into finding alternatives it will become necessary to build more reactors. There is even a lack of funding into nuclear technology because funding is calculated with military uses in mind.

  5. What ever you think the reality is that Greenpeace have helped to create good working practices and have been a positive force in many industries.

  6. @macspud28 @macspud28 Oh yes I worked my comment wrong, thanks for pointing that out! Can’t delete it I’m on my phone

  7. @macspud28 Yes you are right it is, but operated in a completely different way to the cool water reactors, but yes fission occurs in both, molten is much much safer and produces a tiny fraction of the waste of traditional methods, check it out there are a few good videos on the tube! Peace.

  8. To my understanding (which is limited) molten salt reactors are still fission.

  9. Technology is advancing so fast in 10,20 years all this might be a settled debate and nuclear could be considered obsolete.
    .
    However there seems to no way of harvesting energy without some impact on something or someone.
    .

  10. they need to find a spot that will be secure for a “million years”, wtf. humanity will be extinct long before a million years.

  11. pufferfish0567

    Nuclear is not quite clean when you have to plan on maintaining the waste for a million years now is it?

  12. Molten salt reactors! No substantial amount of radioactive waste and it’s walk away safe. Governed by physics instead of pumps, if something goes wrong the process shuts down, no meltdown threat. The US chose fission over this in the ’50s so they could get weapons grade Uranium/plutonium 🙁 Such a tragic mistake.

  13. We need nuclear as a transition, renewables are not feasible for mass energy production at the moment.

  14. SuomiFinland93

    Sometimes I wonder why the duck do those Greenpeace activists vote against nuclear power? First they want clean energy, they get it and next they want it to go away… Should we build coal power plants then?

  15. im all for clean energy , but now because the amount of demand nuclear is the way to go , dont believed ? just shutdown those reactor and opinions will change very very fast ,

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