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mackdaddy

(1,520 posts)
1. Machines wear out and have to be replaced. Why is that shocking?
Sun May 1, 2016, 11:09 AM
May 2016

ANY mechanical device will have a finite lifespan. How many 20-30 year old cars are still on the road?

AEP has a 50ft long steam turbine mounted in front of its Columbus Oh office as a wind sculpture, taken out of service from one of its coal fired generator plants.
Coal or Gas burning generator plants are offline a couple of months out of every year for maintenance. Coal has to be mined and transported on a continuous basis as most plants burn a train-car load of coal every hour.
We are installing Solar panels at a good clip right now. In 10 years the inverters will begin to need replacements. In 20 years the panels themselves will either begin to fail or new panels will be so much more efficient it will be economically advantageous to replace them.
The grid electrical components themselves only have a 20 to 30 year lifespan. The electrical poles and wire itself are constantly being replaced. Those transformer you see on the poles or in your back yard only have an expected lifespan of 25 years(30 to 40 years maximum).

Nuclear power plants have high maintenance. New radioactive fuel has to be manufactured and installed in each plant every 2 or 3 years, and the "spent" less radioactive fuel pulled out and stored forever. Nearly every Nuclear plant in Ohio is at the end of its lifespan, and will need to be dismantled soon. Except those leftovers will be dangerously radioactive for thousands of years. Davis-Bessie has had two near containment breaches because of components corroding through.

Maintenance and end of life dismantling and disposal is just a fact with everything mechanical, including our own bodies. It is certainly not an argument to never use them in the first place.

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