Eskom looking at nuclear power reactors

[OCP]

"ANC" should cease to be

FIFY

 

[ToxicBunny]

That's not quite true. For one, the scientific theory is advancing. For another thing, the practical aspect is making progress as well. In recent years, research teams have managed to achieve self-sustaining fusion reactions, BUT they produce very little power and require something of the order of megawatts to make the magnetic field needed to keep them stable.

So yeah. Inching.

Nope, nobody has produced self-sustaining fusion reactor yet. ITER is meant to be the first to manage that, but even then it won't be a commercial design. DEMO is meant to be the first fusion reactor to produce enough power to actually produce some onto a grid (whether its commercial or not is unsure). After reading the rough outlines this afternoon, I would actually push my 30 year estimate out to at least 50 or 60 before Fusion is a commercially viable product.

 

[DeSLAM]

By the way - flue ash that is released into the atmosphere by coal burning power stations (Medupe/Kusile etc) is far more radio active than any emission released into the atmosphere from any nuclear power station - but nobody worries about the flue ash.

I'm surprised people from the northern provinces - the coal belt - aren't setting off Geiger counters across the world yet.

 

[Zophos]

By the way - flue ash that is released into the atmosphere by coal burning power stations (Medupe/Kusile etc) is far more radio active than any emission released into the atmosphere from any nuclear power station - but nobody worries about the flue ash.

I'm surprised people from the northern provinces - the coal belt - aren't setting off Geiger counters across the world yet.

This is a misunderstanding of the data

I assume you are referring to the observation of 10 times radioactive waste around coal plants than around nuclear plants.
Three points to make:

1. Both are 20 to 70 times smaller radiation levels than background radiation experienced by an average person in one year.
2. The smaller amount of nuclear waste reflects the more stringent safety requirements required from a nuclear station.
3. If all the fuel were to be released from a nuclear station it would be far more in quantity and more hazardous than the total amount of radioactive fly ash that could ever be emitted from a coal station.