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120 comments on The World according to Gave

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Euan Mearns on September 28, 2006 - 11:37am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Hello Alan - I even posted a picture of an electric train.  I was on vacation in Paris with my family this year and agree that the French have a lead over most other countries when it comes to an integrated, nuclear electricity based transportation system.  They have benefited from not being cursed with having indigenous oil reserves - had to find some other way of doing business.  I think the rest of Europe / OECD need to follow the French lead.  But this will not likely relieve our dependence on imported energy.  As things stand at the moment it is Africa and Kazakhstan that are the most likely sources of uranium.

And then there will need to be a pretty ferocious debate with the public about whether or not nuclear electricity is a good idea or not.

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AlanfromBigEasy on September 28, 2006 - 1:36pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Uranium is unlike oil, coal and natural gas and dependence upon imported U is not as problematic.  First look at the list of nations that can export U.  Quite diverse, and Australia is generally friendly (as long as one does not test bombs nearby).

It is "fairly easy" to recycle used fuel (try doing that with oil !) if fuel imports become a problem.  CANDU reactors can burn used fuel basically "as is".  France has enough used fuel in country today to get by for decades with recycling.  A a breeder reactor remains a theoritical possibility.

The fuel cost per BTU is quite low for U.  Always good if one is importing energy.  Recycling and breeding are viable only at much higher fuel prices IMHO.

France is finally getting interested in wind as well, for some diversity of supply.

Best Hopes,

Alan

PS: yes you did include a picture of a TGV train.  Sorry for my oversight.

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Chris Vernon on September 29, 2006 - 6:58pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Coming from the UK (or the US) European continental trains are most impressive. I holidayed in Italy this year travelling by train from Rome to Florence and on to Venice. Cheap, fast, efficient, comfortable - a completely difference experience to the UK where trains are expensive, slow, crowded and unreliable.

Switzerland it the similar, I spent a week in Switzerland a few years ago working on a telecoms projects for the train operators. Spent most the time riding the trains which were absolutely faultless. One interesting observation was how much road freight from Italy, France and Germany was loaded onto trains at the Swiss border and offloaded at the other side having passed through the country without touching the road networks or burning a single gallon of oil. When I say loaded and offloaded I mean the heavy goods trucks themselves were transported by train from one side of the country to the other, drive on - drive off.

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