I want your job...

That's great. It's very safe, endless fuel supply in our own back yard, it's cheaper, the money stays in our country, by-product is steam, no ozone damage, no acid fish killer, no global warming damage & you say it's regulated. Great!!! So why don't we have them all over the place????????????????????????????????

Yes I did..... several......now what???????

Sorry buddy,
Thousands get murdered in the U.S. every year, thousands get killed in traffic accidents, people die from lightning, thousands, I can go on:) Doesn't mean we shouldn't drive or go out of our safe houses. NOT ONE person died in the U.S. as a result of a Nuke power plant. Doesn't get better than that. What I'd like to know is, with such a great record, why are young people like you so spooked????

Because we have history books with sections on chernobyl.

its not the immediate effect a meltdown could have on an area that scares people. its rendering that area COMPLETELY unliveable for years to come.

see: radioactive half life for more ino

^^ You left out the part about radioactive waste and the possibility of a meltdown. Considering what happened to Japan, one should never be complacent. Yes, there are other ways to die, but look at Chernobyl and honestly tell me there are no risk. I'm not saying Nuclear plants should be shut down, I just don't think its the end all solution. It's "safe" because there has to be zero margin for error. I don't care how good the technicians are who work on these reactors, that simply isn't possible. That's why there are failsafes. What worries people is the possibility of something catastrophic occurring that was not taken into consideration. If something like that happens, then what? only 10 people died, maybe 100, 1000... That's hardly justifiable

What control systems have you done ?

We aren't "spooked," we want to maintain it. It's tough and expensive to get the talent together to make sure things are done right.

:iagree:

Also there's not really a good way to deal with the nuclear waste. After it's used up in the plant, all we're really doing with it is burying it underground and hoping for the best. That material is still radioactive.

I'm not opposed to nuclear power, I actually support it. However, I don't think we should just rush into it. It should be well thought out and planned and all the necessary safety measures should be implemented.

Working at a chemical plant, I see how things can go horribly wrong because the operators did something stupid or forgot to do something he usually does. With a nuclear reactor, you want it to be absolutely idiot proof, which means adding a lot of security systems to make sure everything is ok in case of a failure.

:iagree:

I like coal :tup:

*looks down at investment portfolio*

Yup
I believe coal is the future :D

:bowrofl:

Things are never this simple. Look at Chernobyl. Look more recently at Japan. The only thing most people see is that these events illustrate exactly why nuclear should never be tried. Chernobyl is a wasteland and will continue to be a wasteland and who knows how many people have died because of the radiation in Japan. These types of fallouts will always cause major concerns for people.

However, like I said earlier:

For example, and people please correct me if I am wrong beacuse I am going from memory, the Japanese reactors that failed and melted down were built and designed to stand up to a magnitude 6 earthquake. The one they experienced was a magnitude 9 and they didn't fail. It was not until their backup generators responsible for operating the cooling system (unwisely put in the basements) got flooded from the tsunami that the reactors blew up.

But how many people actually know that? How many people realize that the reactors themselves were mostly fine and would have faired much better had the backup generators been placed in an area that couldn't flood?

My point is a simple one, don't rely on others all the time, educate yourself.

If you think young people are the ones responsible for preventing the adoption of nuclear power in the US, you are sadly mistaken. Young people have nothing to do with this. I'm 25 and am a big proponent of nuclear. Especially Thorium.

Yep, there is no margin for error. Designing idiot-proof systems is really hard.

From my understanding, and I am no expert and know very little about the whole system here in the US, but our nuclear power plants should have very little chance of experiencing the type of problems they had in Japan. And I am meaning from the flooding and the earthquake, not the tsunami. We actually had a "scare" earlier this year when the massive flooding was going on in the southeast part of the country (shortly after Japan) and people were afraid the plants would be flooded. They never did and life moved on.

This is the beauty of some Thorium power plants. They can actually use and burn off our current stockiles of radioactive waste and produce next to none themselves. And they do not produce any weapons grade material so illegal proliferation is not a problem.

Also, we are currently up to the 4th generation of nuclear power plant design and what little bit I have read on them, they are quite safe. Not sure what we have here in the US but I think they are mostly 2nd generation plants. Once again, I'm not entirely certain on that last part. Pulling from memory and need to leave work so I'm not bothering to dig this up again.

Once again, back to Thorium power plants and maybe other types of plants can do this as well, but a Thorium plant with a salt dome built into the ceiling that melts above a certain temp can effectively shut itself down. I can try to find where I read this when I get home in a bit if you want.

At last
 

When I said young people, I didn't mean you. The world had/has nuke plants for decades. Even with a tsunami & a magnitude 9 earthquake & 3 nuke reactors & much of their core under sea level, how many died from the tsunami, how many from the earthquike & how many from the nuke reactors?????? It's not like a nuke plant would have a spontaneous nuke bomb type explossion.

Even Chernobyl (the rusty, neglected at that time broken/broke Russia) Today(saw on tv) has a blossoming plant & animal haven. Reason given was that there was no human presence in the area. A little window on what would happen if human presence disappear:)

All of this talk of energy sources, environmental considerations, and power distribution is a waste of effort. If we want to really solve these problems in the long run we need to focus on reducing the number of people on this planet.

So, what we should be discussing is how to distribute condoms and family planning pamphlets.

I think a hybrid Z would be silly. From my understanding a hybrid would add considerable weight and not add any more power than what could be added with turbos. Thus, it is a compromise.

An electric Z could be good. While the batteries would be heavy, they could be placed almost anywhere in the car and distributed however you wanted them to be. No oil changes would also be a cool feature. And if you could put motors on each wheel you could have a killer all-wheel drive set-up. It could be created to be similar to the GTR's ATTESA system.

The 370Z is pure sex! It is hot, loud, and rough!

What about the price we will pay WHEN mid-east explodes. Whether it is Iran blocking oil shipping lanes or oil producers like Saudi Arabia having a revolution & the people that hate us decide to cut our oil & sell to others(China/India). What about all our lakes/rivers desimated by acid rain from coal operated North East factories & electric producing companies. If we had all our cities getting electricity from nuke plants, think about all the extra oil we would have for gasoline production. 93 Sunoco could cost $1.29. You can heat ALL our homes with clean electricity. Clean air/clean waters/better life & energy independence. Well????

You are right in that the tsunami was what caused the total failure.

Buildings aren't really designed based on magnitudes though. Magnitude is just a measurement of how much energy the earthquake released. Buildings are designed based on how much ground acceleration the earthquake causes. In the Japan earthquake, even though the magnitude was one of the highest ever, the acceleration was pretty low (~0.5g). California tends to get higher accelerations though (Northridge >1.0g) which causes alot of building damage. I'd be more concerned about eathquake damage to nuclear plants in California.

Agree with you 100% on everything. I even posted how nice the planet would be with a billion people instead of the 7 billion we have today.

You make a great point. I would rather have an all electric Z than a hybrid Z. You'll have to change your usual quote to "It is cool, quiet, and smooth!" though.

Keep it relevant please. This does not have a whole lot to do with the 2 conversations this thread has seems to have gravitated towards. It does somewhat, but we have already strayed away from the main topic enough, don't inject anything that could get this locked. And I am not saying I disagree/agree or anything in between, just that we need to be careful.

A lot of discussions like this can sway into taboo territory very easily and quickly.

Interesting, I have no experience with building design or anything outside of phone apps.... :happydance: So would that mean the magnitude scale is more or less irrelevant when it comes to measuring the dangers of a given earthquake?

Would not surprise me if it was because I vaguely remember a couple interviews from the Japan incident with experts where it was mentioned the magnitude scale is a bit out of date.

Guess I have something to go research on now. I always love finding new things to figure out. :tup:

yeah, magnitude is very misleading.

sooooo the moral of this thread is, keep internal combustion engines and keep burning fossil fuels.

the end

I have no idea how much the weight would increase if they made the Z a hybrid, but depending on how much the power increased with how much weight it added (and where of course) and if they could get set the suspension to handle the extra weight, this could be very benificial to not only the car, but the entire segment going forward.

I suspect that done properly, a hybrid would "outperform" a basic TT Z from the DD standpoint. On a track, I would think the opposite would be true just because the batteries would run out of juice.

And.....think about a TT, hybrid Z... That's like... a pipe und a crepe. :happydance:

Or, put nuclear reactors in them and make them self-sustaining electrics. :tiphat:

It goes where ever spikuh says it should go. Just don't go into taboo teritory:rofl2:

Haha, that would be badass! Would we all have to start wearing those special tags that tells how much radiation you have been exposed to? And if so, once you reach the limit are you not allowed to drive for the rest of that month/quarter/year?

Nope, you keep going. Growing a third leg is great for replacing heel/toe.
:driving:

Chernobyl actually has an alarmingly high cancer rate. Hundreds of thousands were exposed. Yeah there are plants and animals, but the plants have arms and the animals glow in the dark. You can't reason and justify safety based on the number of deaths. We've had nuclear reactor for decades, but we are only just starting to understand the long term effects. http://www.who.int/mediacentre/facts.../en/index.html

And one of the reasons that there aren't many deaths is BECAUSE of all of the safety precautions that are taken. The low number of deaths and catastrophic failures just proves how well they work.

I think the biggest things holding nuclear power plants back is lack of education among the general public and all the politics that gets in the way.

IIRC, Nissan wants to use a supercharger on their upcoming Altima hybrid.

That's pretty cool. You know if they are dropping the displacement or keeping the engines the same? If they keep the same engine, the supercharger would probably add another 50ish hp putting it in the 250 range. I like it!!!!

Now if only it was RWD....

Yeah I think they're keeping the displacement at 2.5 L.

Chernobyl is a mere drop in the bucket compared to the myrad of health problems coal mines have caused....I'm just sayin'.......:D

:icon18:

The Autocar article said that Nissan would continue the 370Z NOT make it electrice. Nissan is planning a new, smaller, electric sports car. NOT a Z replacement.