Climate change protests at Sizewell B nuclear power station?

Question

Why are these people protesting at Sizewell B nuclear power station? Don’t they know that from a CO2 and Climate perspective, Nuclear power is one of the cleanest and best to prevent Global Warming???

Haven’t they got their issues mixed up here a bit? Just how stupid are these people?

mick t - WOW! You put my thoughts perfectly. Thank you.

Answer 1

Like all other global warming protesters, these don't have a clue. They just protest where they are being paid to protest.

Answer 2

1. - Nuclear is not carbon neutral since energy is needed to process the ore, enrich the uranium, decommission the site, store the waste. Some people believe that it produces more than gas powered plants.
2. - We have about 85 years of Uranium left at current rates of usage. If nuclear option is taken up say six fold then this will decrease to about 13 years.
3. - Nuclear power is not safe and no-one knows what to do with the waste.
4. - Even if we nuclear was the answer to global warming it will come too late since we need to do things now and not 15-20 years down the line.
5. - Nuclear power is not reliable. Power stations are complicated and necessarily have strict operating procedures. They often break down. They also have to either run or shut down for a couple of days (Xenon downtime - one of the problems at Chernobyl). They can only act as baseline supply and cannot be switched on and off to meet demand.

Answer 3

There are some people who actually want to stop global warming and know what it'll take to do it, those people are not protesting in front of nuclear power plants but are more likely to be saying how we need more nuclear power plants.

Then there are the ones who have motives other than saving the environment as their main motivation (mick t pretty much sums that up). They bring up crap about nuclear releasing more CO2 than coal (which is untrue) or releasing so much during construction that it is worse than anything else (also very untrue) or some crap about a bad Soviet reactor design being somehow related to western reactors (again untrue and even the Chernobyl type reactors that are left are still safer than coal although they were probably safer than coal even before the post Chernobyl safety upgrades) or they'll go on about nuclear waste which is a solved problem (once those damn politicians get out of the way).

Now we just need to get the greens out of the way so that those of us who want to solve the problem can take over and build a few thousand nuclear reactors.

Answer 4

Well, if they're protesting global warming at a nuclear plant, they're obviously motivated more by a desire to get on the evening news than any concern for the environment.

But they may be protesting the use of nuclear power itself. Bear in mind a lot of people have some very serious reservations about the safety of nuclear power--and there's legitimate concern there (look at Chernobyl). Personally I don't agree--based on what I've read it looks like the technology exists now to design nuclear power plants safely. But that's not yet proven.

Answer 5

I have an MSc in ecology and have been working in nature conservation for 30+ years. During that time I have come across many environmental activists and have been appalled at their ignorance of ecological concepts and even basic science.
I have come to the conclusion that these people are orphans of the left. After the collapse of communism world wide, these people will jump on any issue they feel they can use as propaganda against the western capitalist democracies, regardless of whether they have any scientific validity or not. They rely on the fact that the vast majority of their audience are just as ignorant of science as they are.

Answer 6

Protesters make me chortle plenty! And to answer your question those anybody is very stupid!! How did they get to their little protest? by using a CO2 producing bus/automobile I think of. How do they capability their properties? back an identical. i'm thinking approximately status up to your ideals yet heavily, a number of those human beings would desire to stop being hypocritical and get jobs!

Answer 7

students waiting to go back to college and the usual layabout suspects and the posers hoping to get on the tv, this lot would turn up at any so called protest, ever since the Ban the Bombers they have been around, maybe they should all go to Iran and protest, I am sure that the Revolutionary Guard will welcome them with open arms, well cocked ones, but then the precious little darlings may put themselves in real danger and that wouldn't do would it? Twits

Answer 8

Because nuclear power is far worse than people let on. Technology is good and the actual running is safe, what people forget is the waste! Even worse when the plant shuts down, the method to clean the site and make things "safe" creates more Co2 than a coal powered power station.

Don't get conned into the "Nuke" is good camp!

Answer 9

Weather they protest or not they are not going to solve the problem so why do they bother in the first place.

Answer 10

Unfortunately, the climate problem isn't as simple as the businesses that promote (profitable) carbon trading would like to claim.

The processes used to make, service, maintain and decommission a nuclear power station produce more CO2 than the station is supposed to save.

In addition, the CO2 calculation is only a MARKER. Carbon dioxide is produced by human activities that release heat (energy) into the environment. Natural CO2 production is from reactions that divert energy FROM the environment into 'biomass'. The energy in coal &oil was stored in this way, by the natural activities of plants and animals.

Nuclear power is MORE damaging than other technologies, because of its massive 'energy density'. Producing a huge amount of electricity in one place, means that you need to transmit it somewhere else to be used. Along the way, some is wasted. These 'transmission losses' mostly arise from heating up the wires, switches, transformers etc.

Currently, more than TWO-THIRDS of the electricity produced in the UK, escapes into the environment as heat, before it gets anywhere near a customer.