[mitchntx]

Katrina is gonna cause a $.20 spike in fuel costs .....

[pknowles]

I worked in the Nuclear industry doing catasrophy research for a few years. Nuclear power has come a long way since the 60's, just like almost every other technology. The problem is that the new designs (for power generation) are built oversea's because we havn't built one since the 70's. Coal is still very cheap and in the end it comes down to cost. As gas prices rise, the shipping of coal may not be so cheap anymore. One good thing about Nuclear power is you pretty much know the operational costs up front, unless a catasrophy happens of course. I.E. the cost of refining U238 doesn't change as much as coal prices can.

Alternative energy sources all have issues although fuel cells look more and more promising. Europe pays about twice the price for gas that we do and guess what, they still use gas and deisel because alternative energy can't offer the same benifit for even eqaul money.

This post has been edited by pknowles: Aug 30 2005, 02:59 PM