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AshenGrey · #18 (**permalink**) 08-25-2007, 07:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pb5927317

I am in Government IT. We are being informed, that rolling blackouts by 2010 will be a consistant problem for much of the aging power grid.

Many of us are trying to shift power hungry process to run at night to help with this upcoming problem.

Plus the power grid needs maintenance, being able to shut down portions of the grid at night for maitenance is absolutely necessary.

I think for electric at home cars to be trully successfull, we will need home power generation. The electric companies will get into the home fuel cell buisness. THey will glady rent you the unit for a nice monthly fee.

This is a bit off-topic, but...

I agree with you that the nation's power grid is on the verge of having serious reliability issues. Nuclear power is the key to generating enough power for a huge fleet of electric cars. There are several ecelent properties of nuclear power seem to always get overlooked:

-- The fuel is compact. A nuclear fuel rod is very small and yet generates an amazing quantity of power before it is ehausted.
-- The fuel rods last a long time. I could be wrong, but the figure I hears was a 30-year service life.
-- The fuel is recyclable. There are military applications for spend fuel rods, such as uranium armor and uranium munitions. There are civilian applications as well, such as the Troxler nuclear moisture gauge, which measures roof leaks and insulation contamination.
-- The fuel does not generate CO2 or other greenhouse gasses.
-- The United States has a huge reserve of fissionable materials.
-- The United States has a huge receptical for waste fissionables (Yucca Flats).