Quiver you wouldnt need thousands of nuclear power plants to replace fossil fuel power plants in the USA. They can produce the same amount, if not more power than fossil fuel plants.

There has been a concerted scare campaign against nuclear power by big oil and it has worked. People dismiss or dont even know how much of an evironmental disaster burning coal and oil has been for the planet. But nuclear power is seen to be some kind of massive polluter, this is completly untrue.

A handful of uranium generates the same amount of electrical energy as 70 tonnes of coal or 390 barrels of oil. Now think how much pollution is generated by burning 70 tonnes of coal - destroying ozone and polluting the entire ecosystem. Nuclear waste on the other hand can be stored in containers and the radioactive material goes no further. This can be buried in geologically stable areas with absolutely no ecological impact.

Even with all this as common knowledge people still fear nuclear power.

[edit on 9/4/05 by subz]

Yes! Let's thank China...

Which during the period of isolationism spent resources only on keeping the military as modern as they could.

Thank the USA and Capitalism.
China's demand for more energy did not accelerate until US corperations began building manufacturing plants there after the fall of the Bamboo Wall. In order to support the manufacturing base, China has had to upgrade it's infrastructure so that the manufactured goods can get from the factory to the consumer. Of course the greedy China men (sarcasm) would like to experience a better way of life so instead of living like they have for the last 5000 years they want to live in modern highrises with water and power and television and maybe evern a microwave.

Maybe the greedy western world should reconsider the idea of living in a house on it's own property with a private pool and two cars and an SUV and the entertainment center with the 1500watt speakers and the fuel burning barbeque pit and the bass boat and the waterski boat and the skidoos and the six dirtcycles and ATVs and all the other energy sucking things that corporate america tells us we need to keep up with Mr. and Mrs. Jones down the block.

China has also upped its energy requirements recently in the massive, energy-intensive manfacture of portland cement for the Three Gorges dam projects. Lime is heated either by oil- or coal-burning furnaces to transform it to useable product.

Expect a temporary down-turn in China's energy imports, as the projects conclude, followed by a more gradual steady increase as industrial development then continues.