gwolf
New member
- May 30, 2005
- 182
In the UK at the moment there are strong mutterings about building more nuclear power stations. I feel this may be intrinsically sensible given that we already have about a dozen very radioactive sites anyway, some with active plants, some not.
However, someone told me that if you evaluate all of the energy (not monetary costs) required to build, maintain, and decomission a nuclear power station, you end up with a net loss. The point being that if you were trying to use nuclear power to avoid using oil, you might be wasting your time.
I have been told that for wind-turbines, the energy payback time is very low, of the order of 2-5 years with a machine life of about 25 years. Solar cells are worse, maybe 5 years to pay back the energy to produce them and 10 years life. etc.
Does anyone have any information on the energy balance on nuclear power stations, and on any other forms of energy like renewables?
However, someone told me that if you evaluate all of the energy (not monetary costs) required to build, maintain, and decomission a nuclear power station, you end up with a net loss. The point being that if you were trying to use nuclear power to avoid using oil, you might be wasting your time.
I have been told that for wind-turbines, the energy payback time is very low, of the order of 2-5 years with a machine life of about 25 years. Solar cells are worse, maybe 5 years to pay back the energy to produce them and 10 years life. etc.
Does anyone have any information on the energy balance on nuclear power stations, and on any other forms of energy like renewables?