Shorting the Grid The Hidden Fragility of Our Electric Grid

the third book a little controversial is called shorting the grid by meredith angwin ... the first half of the book is like the best explanation of how electricity markets actually work ... she argues that electricity markets are not the right structure to organize our electricity system and that they give preferential treatment to natural gas and renewables

I hear environmentalists saying this and saying that and then when I say well you know nuclear plants are very helpful about not putting out CO2 they have a very small footprint, I've worked around them for years they're very safe and they say no no no not nuclear anything but nuclear and I'm like wait a minute anything but nuclear global warming but not nuclear and that seems to be it has made me sad many times.

Chernobyl was a power plant built in the Soviet era it was built for dual purposes it was built to make weapon weapon grade plutonium and it was built to make power and it was run by people who did not have the kind of safety culture that plants in the West have and so Chernobyl was a big problem I mean it's actually the only power plant nuclear plant commercial one that ever killed anybody

Well you see when you you say okay we're going to build a wind turbine here well the wind turbine has a 20 to 30 capacity factor maybe if it's offshore it has a 40 capacity factor that means that it can make power 40 percent of the time if it's offshore 30 percent of it's onshore so what about the rest of the time?

Nuclear is a superior solution because we control it because we can you know we build it we can turn it on we can turn it off solar panels a nuclear plant can last 40 years maybe 60 years and they're getting license extensions in 60 years it has to have a big inspection and a lot of work done on it at 40 years but what I'm saying is it lasts a long time

I'm afraid I come at this from one of you of a chemist I've worked with a lot of dangerous stuff in my time and so the idea that nuclear waste is somehow extraordinarily dangerous I mean I acknowledge that people are fearful I do not mean to downgrade that but coming at it from a chemist I'm like are you kidding I mean look at it look at this way nuclear waste what they call nuclear waste is spent nuclear fuel it is a ceramic it is put into a cask which re-shields it from the outside and and and it stays there.

Well it's something that I've been sad about for a while because you know I hear environmentalists saying this and saying that and then when I say well you know nuclear plants are very helpful about not putting out CO2 they have a very small footprint, I've worked around them for years they're very safe and they say no no no not nuclear anything but nuclear and I'm like wait a minute anything but nuclear global warming but not nuclear and that seems to be it has made me sad many times.

Chernobyl was a power plant built in the Soviet era it was built for dual purposes it was built to make weapon weapon grade plutonium and it was built to make power and it was run by people who did not have the kind of safety culture that plants in the West have and so Chernobyl was a big problem I mean it's actually the only power plant nuclear plant commercial one that ever killed anybody I mean people say oh Three Mile Island well you know there was a release of some radiation and which quickly dissipated which gave people in the area like less than a x-rays worth uh anyway I guess what I'm trying to say is that the Western plants are very very well designed Chernobyl didn't even have a containment structure around it.

Nuclear is a superior solution because we control it because we can you know we build it we can turn it on we can turn it off solar panels a nuclear plant can last 40 years maybe 60 years and they're getting license extensions in 60 years it has to have a big inspection and a lot of work done on it at 40 years but what I'm saying is it lasts a long time wind turbines people are claiming they're lasting 25 years but I don't know so if you begin looking at the wind turbine only makes power 30% of the time and only the last 25 years and you begin putting that into the mix then the nuclear doesn't look so expensive.

I'm afraid I come at this from one of you of a chemist I've worked with a lot of dangerous stuff in my time and so the idea that nuclear waste is somehow extraordinarily dangerous I mean I acknowledge that people are fearful I do not mean to downgrade that but coming at it from a chemist I'm like are you kidding I mean look at it look at this way nuclear waste what they call nuclear waste is spent nuclear fuel it is a ceramic it is put into a cask which re-shields it from the outside and and and it stays there.

Look it's been very very helpful I encourage people to go and to read your book and to consume some more of the podcasts and others that you put out there and we really appreciate you joining us and helping educate us in the audience so thanks very much for thank you so much Meredith it's great to meet you our pleasure thank you Meredith

Well it's something that I've been sad about for a while because you know I hear environmentalists saying this and saying that and then when I say well you know nuclear plants are very helpful about not putting out CO2 they have a very small footprint, I've worked around them for years they're very safe and they say no no no not nuclear anything but nuclear and I'm like wait a minute anything but nuclear global warming but not nuclear and that seems to be it has made me sad many times.

Chernobyl was a power plant built in the Soviet era it was built for dual purposes it was built to make weapon weapon grade plutonium and it was built to make power and it was run by people who did not have the kind of safety culture that plants in the West have and so Chernobyl was a big problem I mean it's actually the only power plant nuclear plant commercial one that ever killed anybody I mean people say oh Three Mile Island well you know there was a release of some radiation and which quickly dissipated which gave people in the area like less than a x-rays worth uh anyway I guess what I'm trying to say is that the Western plants are very very well designed Chernobyl didn't even have a containment structure around it.

Well you see when you you say okay we're going to build a wind turbine here well the wind turbine has a 20 to 30 capacity factor maybe if it's offshore it has a 40 capacity factor that means that it can make power 40 percent of the time if it's offshore 30 percent of it's onshore so what about the rest of the time? And of course the wind turbine makes power when the wind blows as opposed to when a operator in the control room says the grid needs power gets them going over their wind turbine and nobody can turn the wind on so that doesn't happen.

Nuclear is a superior solution because we control it because we can you know we build it we can turn it on we can turn it off solar panels a nuclear plant can last 40 years maybe 60 years and they're getting license extensions in 60 years it has to have a big inspection and a lot of work done on it at 40 years but what I'm saying is it lasts a long time wind turbines people are claiming they're lasting 25 years but I don't know so if you begin looking at the wind turbine only makes power 30% of the time and only the last 25 years and you begin putting that into the mix then the nuclear doesn't look so expensive.

I'm afraid I come at this from one of you of a chemist I've worked with a lot of dangerous stuff in my time and so the idea that nuclear waste is somehow extraordinarily dangerous I mean I acknowledge that people are fearful I do not mean to downgrade that but coming at it from a chemist I'm like are you kidding I mean look at it look at this way nuclear waste what they call nuclear waste is spent nuclear fuel it is a ceramic it is put into a cask which re-shields it from the outside and and and it stays there.