The Mustang Forum for Track & Racing Enthusiasts

Taking your Mustang to an open track/HPDE event for the first time? Do you race competitively? This forum is for you! Log in to remove most ads.

  • Welcome to the Ford Mustang forum built for owners of the Mustang GT350, BOSS 302, GT500, and all other S550, S197, SN95, Fox Body and older Mustangs set up for open track days, road racing, and/or autocross. Join our forum, interact with others, share your build, and help us strengthen this community!

Electric cars... the cons

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

1,482
408
They might soon enough. Tesla already announced their plans for moving away from cobalt for their batteries. FWIW, the current shove towards electrifying everything is to drastically cut down on CO2 emissions, everything else be damned.
 

TMSBOSS

Spending my pension on car parts and track fees.
7,529
5,242
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
10-20 Years
Illinois
FWIW, the current shove towards electrifying everything is to drastically cut down on CO2 emissions, everything else be damned.
Agree. Not sure the current direction will get us to the desired end state. Solar and wind are too variable. Hydro....oh god, don't go there. Nuclear is likely the way to go for a solid dependable grid base. I just don't see this government allowing the necessary number of nuke plants to be built to ensure stable power production. The sun goes down, cloud cover last days, and the wind does stop blowing for days. This leaves us with the Requirement to have a steady base of power not dependent of green renewable power. A friend of mine puts it so clearly when he say "They are putting us in a round room and directing us to piss in the corner". I just don't see and have not been given a logical explanation as to how we can achieve the goals of low to zero carbon production and stay inside the box we are building for ourselves.
 

Norm Peterson

Corner Barstool Sitter
939
712
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
5-10 Years
a few miles east of Philly
Agree. Not sure the current direction will get us to the desired end state. Solar and wind are too variable. Hydro....oh god, don't go there. Nuclear is likely the way to go for a solid dependable grid base. I just don't see this government allowing the necessary number of nuke plants to be built to ensure stable power production.
We'll be lucky if we get to build nuclear plants fast enough to only replace the aging plants that will be coming out of service.

Original nuclear power plant licensing was for 40 years, and at least some of those had their licenses extended for another 20 (IIRC). The "youngest" nuclear power plant in terms of commercial operation is already 30 years old . . .

I spent a total of about 30 years doing stress analysis for power plant piping, mostly nuclear.


Norm
 
The switch to electric cars will be very interesting to say the least. Lots of ICE fans will probably buy up the last of the gas powered cars offered, while others will welcome the transition to EVs......By then EVs are sure to be much more advanced than they are now. If I'm still around to see that day, I'll still have my Boss to tool around in and have an EV as a daily driver.....Que sera sera......................
 

TMSBOSS

Spending my pension on car parts and track fees.
7,529
5,242
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
10-20 Years
Illinois
I spent a few years looking at construction, security and vulnerabilities of nuke plants. All were impressive.

I have a friend who has overflown the Chernobyl plant. Poor designs operated by less competent people tarnish the industry.

The irony of the self appointed conservationists being the reason we have so many fossil fuel plants today.
 

TMSBOSS

Spending my pension on car parts and track fees.
7,529
5,242
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
10-20 Years
Illinois
The plant survived the earthquake and was cooling on backup generators. The Tsunami, basically two extreme catastrophic events at the same site caused the problems. The Japanese government did nothing with the two studies on the possible effects of a tsunami event with an earthquake. Again, stupid people tricks ruined the day. The tech is sound if you pay attention to Proper Engineering. ;)
 

JDee

Ancient Racer
1,797
2,001
Exp. Type
W2W Racing
Exp. Level
20+ Years
5 miles from Mosport
I dunno about nukes, I am kind of mixed mind on it. My province has been in this game since the 1950s with at first a small test unit and then 3 big nuke installations all started in the 60s. We are balls deep in nukes here. I grew up as a kid near the oldest one, actually went there on a tour when I was in grade school and they were just building the first reactor. I'll be 70 this year, so that tells you how old those are. I saw the concrete work as it was being done and it was bloody impressive, absolutely massive. They've all been through multiple refurbishment cycles, I think all were eventually successful but some were a fairly big shiznit show, it once took 14 years to refurbish a single reactor. Extremely costly and certainly there's risk, but they still do produce lots of power 24/7, unlike solar and wind. And to the best of my knowledge there has never been a really serious incident at a plant.

The nukes are pretty much the base of the generation load in this province, they are are 60% of the total, hydro is 26%, wind is 7% and solar is 2%. So we are very heavy into nukes for sure. They replaced numerous coal and hydrocarbon fueled generating stations, so that has to be good from an emissions point of view. They still have gas fired plants, but those are typically only fired up for peak hours as I understand it.

The big issue now is the radioactive waste, everything they propose to do with it long term get opposed by the NIMBY's and who can blame them? Who wants radioactive junk in their part of the world that is going to be hot for thousands of years? Big problem, and no solution in sight at the moment. I'm 40 miles downwind from two of the big installations east of Toronto on Lake Ontario. I just don't think about it much, their safety record has been good, but the potential is always there and the government gives out iodine pills to people who live close so you know this could get very real some day.
 

Grant 302

basic and well known psychic
The plant survived the earthquake and was cooling on backup generators. The Tsunami, basically two extreme catastrophic events at the same site caused the problems. The Japanese government did nothing with the two studies on the possible effects of a tsunami event with an earthquake. Again, stupid people tricks ruined the day. The tech is sound if you pay attention to Proper Engineering. ;)
That’s a circular argument, for which I’m not taking the bait.
 

xr7

TMO Addict?
706
821
Exp. Type
Autocross
Exp. Level
10-20 Years
Minnesota
"They are putting us in a round room and directing us to piss in the corner" I ready for this test, Piss where the wall meets the floor, you can't miss it, its all a round you.
 

Norm Peterson

Corner Barstool Sitter
939
712
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
5-10 Years
a few miles east of Philly
Uh, Fukushima.
The problem there still boils down to human lack of foresight. It doesn't take 20-20 hindsight to realize that putting emergency diesel generators in basements and associated equipment in other places where flooding could take them out of action - this in a part of the world where seismic activity is likely and tsunamis at least possible - was a poor idea.

[URL='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fukushima_Daiichi_nuclear_disaster#Disabling_of_emergency_generators' said:
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster - Wikipedia[/URL] ]However, the earthquake had also generated a tsunami 14 metres (46 ft) high that arrived shortly afterwards and swept over the plant's seawall and then flooded the lower parts of reactors 1–4. This caused the failure of the emergency generators and loss of power to the circulating pumps.[13] The resultant loss of reactor core cooling led to three nuclear meltdowns, three hydrogen explosions, and the release of radioactive contamination in Units 1, 2 and 3 between 12 and 15 March.

The waves flooded the basements of the power plant's turbine buildings and disabled the emergency diesel generators[35][36][37] at approximately 15:41.[38][39] TEPCO then notified authorities of a "first-level emergency".[40] The switching stations that provided power from the three backup generators located higher on the hillside failed when the building that housed them flooded.[41] All AC power was lost to units 1–4. All DC power was lost on Units 1 and 2 due to flooding, while some DC power from batteries remained available on Unit 3.


Norm
 

JDee

Ancient Racer
1,797
2,001
Exp. Type
W2W Racing
Exp. Level
20+ Years
5 miles from Mosport
So, this topic got me looking at what's going on with the reactor I saw as a kid. That was the Douglas Point reactor which was a few miles north of where the current Bruce Nuclear site is. It was a 200Mw demonstration reactor to prove the viability of nuclear energy and it operated for quite a while. Even though 200Mw is pretty small it proved the concept.

They started building it in 1960, I think I saw it in about 1964 still being built, it ran from 1967 until 1984 when they started decommissioning it. It was too small to be viable commercially. We entered the final phase of decommissioning in 2020 and that final phase ends in 2070 with the complete removal of the entire plant. One hundred and three years from start to finish. Gotta wonder about the economics of that since they're paying people to baby sit and maintain and dismantle the thing all the while it's doing nothing. And that's a very small plant compared to what we've got now.

You folks south of the 49th have got 97 of these suckers going, I had no idea. We're peanuts by comparison. Another reason to hate on electric cars, when they take off the power demands are going to be insane and no doubt more nukes will be needed.

I'm a big fan of hydro power, as in rivers with waterfalls and we've got lots of them. But in this country these days we can't build anything for all the red tape and protests and a government that is little more than just a good head of hair.
 

TMO Supporting Vendors

Top