ASUG8 wrote:93henfan wrote:I don't understand why people always take sides on US energy. Fucking do it all. Carbon-based, sun-based, wind-based, hydro, nuclear, etc.
It's all the NIMBY's. People want all this stuff out in the god-forsaken desert, not messing up their view with solar panels or disrupting their cookouts with the sound of the windmills in their backyards or off the shoreline. I'm all for nuclear power and clean coal, but I won't be a hypocrite and say that I'd like to be close to the plants.
I live 10.7 miles straight line from the plant in Iowa. My house is in the "You're instantly fucked" zone of the "OH SHIT, THE DUANE ARNOLD PLANT IS MELTING DOWN". It's never crossed my mind outside of the first Wednesday of every month at 10 AM when they test the "OH SHIT, THE DUANE ARNOLD PLANT IS MELTING DOWN...EVERYONE RUN BEFORE YOU'RE FUCKED" sirens. I've typically forgotten about that test and the first 3 or 4 seconds of each test I have a bit of a "fuck" moment but then it's gone for another month.
From the main roads around it the place is even nearly impossible to see. The roads to get to it are locked/guarded.
I guess that's partially a lie. The steam plume that rolls of that plant is visible for 30+ miles from the plant. So I guess, technically, everyone thinks about it every day to some extent.
The plant opened in 1974 on a 40 year licence. That licence was extended through 2034 a couple years ago. Seems that no one in the area actually cares about "the risk"
MidAmerica Energy voted against a second Iowa plant a few years ago though.
In March of 2011, the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan was intensely damaged by a tsunami, and the plant’s near meltdown became the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986. Though plant workers successfully averted a complete nuclear meltdown, there was a heavy release of radioactive material into Japan’s environment and a sparked debate on the future of nuclear energy. It was more than a year later in February of 2012 that an Iowa Poll found 77 percent of Iowa residents opposed MidAmerican Energy plans to charge customers for the planning and construction of a second nuclear power plant in the state.
The 2011 Japan disaster instilled a worldwide debate over the future of nuclear power, and just this week, MidAmerican announced it would not pursue Iowa’s second nuclear plant. MidAmerican vice president for regulatory affairs Dean Crist told The Des Moines Register that the company “opted for what was in the best interest of our customers.” The decision puts the Duane Arnold plant alone in Iowa’s nuclear energy affair, and also puts a halt on the future of nuclear energy debate in Iowa and how to pay for the plant.
MidAmerican will now focus on its $1.9 million investment to build approximately 656 wind turbines across Iowa.
http://www.iowaenergycenter.org/2013/06 ... ear-plant/
