RE:Swiss vote on exit from nuclear energyThe swiss news is reporting that the stepping out of nuclear energy is unlikely to occur and that in this case the greens are likely not to win the vote.
This is however the pre-vote summation. Votes don't always come out as expected though, so we should know shortly.
The Swiss, I believe have 5 Nuclear generators. of which one is about to shut if not already. Apparanently it is the oldest in the world having been built sometime in the 60's. Its my understanding that it is not worth refurbishing this one and likely a second one is coming due.
I haven't been able to make out if there is any thought of building any new reactors. Maybe when they determine a more failsafe way to work with reactors, ie the pebble reactors that the Chinese are working on, may pave the way. That, and a way to reuse or limit the amount of radiioactive residue may help things along.
I gather that the Swiss do not want to import energy from outside their country as it is likely that it will or may come from dirty sources such as the coal generating plants in Germany. The Swiss don't produce enough green energy from wind, solar or biomass to replace their nuclear reactor energy if they were to shut down their reactors. I gather that they are as high as 50% nuclear power at present.
It follows too that they don't really want dirty energy as they see that the polution kills the ring of trees they have around mountains that help to reduce the danger from avalanches and of course are really beginning to see the affects of the meltback of the glaciers in the alps and how fast it is progressing.
I wonder how Europe is going to fare when the glaciers are reduced to the extent that they no longer feed the rivers in europe sufficiently to maintain the population there.
TN