The views expressed do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of BBB. It is a food for thought week!
Help for Japan:
Donate to the Red Cross – http://american.redcross.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ntld_main
Donate to Doctors without Boarders: http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/donate/overview.cfm
By the way – Happy Spring! (March 20 at exactly 7:44 AM. ET) Yahoo!!!!!!
Boggie and Beubo discuss possibilities for power options.
(Illustration at Posts end) Given the state of the world – the Beauties and the Beasties thought they ought to look into various power/energy sources and learn a bit more. Since Boggie is Chief Energy Office for the local power company Natural Renewable Resources Power Inc. and Boubolicious (Boubo) is Ambassador of Wisdom they will be leading the discussions for the week.
Today they will be thinking about Nuclear since that is on everyone mind. There are pros and cons. The cons are obvious these days. However, there are Pros as well – here are some interesting stats and a noteworthy article about France and Nuclear power – a country that basically runs on nuclear and its residents by in large are fine with that.
- France derives over 75% of its electricity from nuclear energy. This is due to a long-standing policy based on energy security.
- France is the world’s largest net exporter of electricity due to its very low cost of generation, and gains over EUR 3 billion per year from this.
- France has been very active in developing nuclear technology. Reactors and fuel products and services are a major export.
- It is building its first Generation III reactor and planning a second.
About 17% of France’s electricity is from recycled nuclear fuel.
http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/inf40.html
“France’s decision to launch a large nuclear program dates back to 1973 and the events in the Middle East that they refer to as the “oil shock.” The quadrupling of the price of oil by OPEC nations was indeed a shock for France because at that time most of its electricity came from oil burning plants. France had and still has very few natural energy resources. It has no oil, no gas and her coal resources are very poor and virtually exhausted.” http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/reaction/readings/french.html
FYI here in the USA – “Vermont gets more of its power from nuclear energy than any other state: 72 percent. Other top nuclear-generating states include New Jersey (four plants), Connecticut and South Carolina (seven plants), which all get more than half of their power from nuclear facilities. Illinois is right behind them at 48 percent (11 plants). California has four major nuclear facilities that generate about 15 percent of the state’s electricity. Officials say those plants are protected from any potential tsunami threat in the Pacific Ocean.”
http://www.cnbc.com/id/42071742/France_Is_World_s_Biggest_Nuclear_Power_Producer