Then there is the problem with nuclear waste. Yes, of course now someone will bring up the argument “It’s so little waste” but even if it is, it’s too much if there is no long term storage solution at all. Meanwhile, our existing waste containers are rusting away.
“But cheap electricity is worth it” I hear you say. Nuclear is not cheap. Every western nuclear power plant is propped up by government subsidies and guarantied electricity prices, which makes it a net negative for the taxpayer.
“But China is doing it on time and budget” is next in line. Sure, let’s take the totalitarian state with total control over its industry as role model. But even China is adding magnitudes more renewables than nuclear capacity. Why wait decades for one nuclear power plants worth of energy when over the same time period we can add multiple nuclear plants worth of solar and wind farms together with the battery capacity to balance energy usage?
Next we have the issue of sourcing the fuel. Guess where i.e. France is getting most their fuel from? Yeah, it’s Russia. “We could get our uranium from Australia instead” is the follow-up argument. Theoretically yes, but in reality France is even expanding their ties with Russia.
I really don’t understand why people refuse to acknowledge that civilian nuclear power usage is a thing of the past.
You are so correct - those reactors were old. They were planned in the 70s and build in the 80s. They did reach the lifetime they were build for. We know that some countries are running really, really old reactors and we know that this is a really bad idea. And we know that building new reactors will take so long that we won’t reach our climate goals.
Here we go again …
Every German nuclear power plant has been run with minimal maintenance for the remainder of their operational live because their shutdown had been decided years ago. It would have been more efficient to rebuild them from the ground up. It would have been if any of the major energy companies in Germany had been interested in operating new nuclear power plants at all.
Then there is the problem with nuclear waste. Yes, of course now someone will bring up the argument “It’s so little waste” but even if it is, it’s too much if there is no long term storage solution at all. Meanwhile, our existing waste containers are rusting away.
“But cheap electricity is worth it” I hear you say. Nuclear is not cheap. Every western nuclear power plant is propped up by government subsidies and guarantied electricity prices, which makes it a net negative for the taxpayer.
“But China is doing it on time and budget” is next in line. Sure, let’s take the totalitarian state with total control over its industry as role model. But even China is adding magnitudes more renewables than nuclear capacity. Why wait decades for one nuclear power plants worth of energy when over the same time period we can add multiple nuclear plants worth of solar and wind farms together with the battery capacity to balance energy usage?
Next we have the issue of sourcing the fuel. Guess where i.e. France is getting most their fuel from? Yeah, it’s Russia. “We could get our uranium from Australia instead” is the follow-up argument. Theoretically yes, but in reality France is even expanding their ties with Russia.
I really don’t understand why people refuse to acknowledge that civilian nuclear power usage is a thing of the past.
You are so correct - those reactors were old. They were planned in the 70s and build in the 80s. They did reach the lifetime they were build for. We know that some countries are running really, really old reactors and we know that this is a really bad idea. And we know that building new reactors will take so long that we won’t reach our climate goals.