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Germany is closing half of its reactors before the end of the year

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Re: Germany is closing half of its reactors before the end of the year

#241

Post by [deleted] »

heavenlyblue wrote: post #149
king_phil wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One important thing to notice is that uranium is a finite non-renewable resource. The Red Book says there are about 3.3 million tons that are extractable for a price of 130 USD/ton. In 2017 the total uranium production was 60.000 tons. Thats about 55 years of uranium left at the current production rate. The Red Book assumes there are another 2.1 million tons likely to exist from geological data, but not found yet and…

The author above didn’t read the articles they themselves are quoting. TL;DR: we have 120years of uranium ore that one can mine at $120/kg. You can mine more ore but more expensively.

[deleted]

Re: Germany is closing half of its reactors before the end of the year

#242

Post by jackson1442 »

cmarschner wrote: post #30

The sentiment on HN on this topic has traditionally been negative, and comments that support the move get downvoted. The fear of nuclear energy is deeply rooted in Germany and cannot be simply ignored. The "Anti AKW" (anti nuclear power) movement was huge since the 80s, it predates the fear of global warming, and it was at the core of what became the Green party. And Merkel, who has a doctorate quantum chemistry, cam…

> The sentiment on HN on this topic has traditionally been negative, and comments that support the move get downvoted.

Just because this is a popular move within Germany doesn't mean we need to support it. Research has shown nuclear to be clean and safe when managed properly, _those_ are the facts. I'm glad the government is listening to its citizens, but I also support using nuclear power and personally think this is bad move with the information I have at hand.

Re: Germany is closing half of its reactors before the end of the year

#243

Post by midjji »

dvt wrote: post #4

This is insane to me. Nuclear is the best long-term option for ecologically-friendly energy generation. This is absolutely a bad move, and the coal industry has done a great job of demonizing nuclear power.

Its less the coal industry and just a random quirk of culture.

Re: Germany is closing half of its reactors before the end of the year

#244

Post by quassy »

cmarschner wrote: post #78
fsh wrote: post #36

I am afraid this thread is going to be heavy on strongly held opinions and very light on facts and figures. In a futile attempt to compensate, here is the history of gross electricity production in Germany [1]. And here is the electricity import/export statistics [2]. [1] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3b/Energymi... [2] https://www.bmwi.de/Redaktion/DE/Infografiken/Energie/stroma...

So, to summarize, 1. Germany is a net exporter 2. Germany has reduced the production from fossil fuels from about 70% to about 37% within 30 years. 3. At the same time it cut nuclear power from around 28% to about 10. 4. It looks like without reducing nuclear power it could have replaced the equivalent amount of fossil fuels (achieving less than 20% fossil fuels by 2020). However, energy consumption has also gone up…

2. Yes but ~1990 is not a good baseline as back then lots of highly inefficient industry and power plants of former GDR were still running and on the brink of being demolished due to economic collapse. It makes Germanys efforts look much better than they were.

Re: Germany is closing half of its reactors before the end of the year

#245

Post by JAlexoid »

modriano wrote: post #191
cbmuser wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

> excessive export means more wasted electricity. I'm not an expert so please forgive me if this is a stupid question, but how is exported electricity wasted electricity? My intuition is that (assuming the exported energy is used) it would both prevent the generation of electricity by other (less environmentally friendly) means, and it would generate income. What is wasted here?

You should understand the source of that exported electricity.

Electricity is exported from the capacity that is inflexible, as you cannot scale it up/down. Common low flexibility electricity sources - coal, nuclear, hydro.

Re: Germany is closing half of its reactors before the end of the year

#247

Post by ojagodzinski »

yosito wrote: post #54

The obvious reasons this is bad are that it increases German dependence on Russian oil and burning fossil fuels for energy. What are the arguments in favor of it, from the point of view of the German politicians and/or activists that are pushing for it? It has to be more thought out than "Nuclear bad". I'm just trying to understand.

> What are the arguments in favor of it, from the point of view of the German politicians and/or activists that are pushing for it?

There isnt any, there is only strong coal lobby, russian propaganda against nuclear and lots of stupid people that use Charnobyl as an argument.

Re: Germany is closing half of its reactors before the end of the year

#248

Post by leobg »

pixelpoet wrote: post #162
formerly_proven wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Electric heating is extremely uncommon in Germany (like 1-2 % of households use it).

Paying 41c/kWh for ökostrom / 100% renewable energy here, and doing some mining with two 150W Radeon 6000 GPUs to keep this computer room warm goes a long way to making it cost effective.

Exactly. All electric heating should be replaced by GPUs. If you need to heat up a room with electricity, at least do some proof of work along the way.

Re: Germany is closing half of its reactors before the end of the year

#249

Post by midjji »

lb0 wrote: post #128
dvt wrote: post #4

This is insane to me. Nuclear is the best long-term option for ecologically-friendly energy generation. This is absolutely a bad move, and the coal industry has done a great job of demonizing nuclear power.

And that thinking is insane to me, long-term best is to have renewables and not pollute - nuclear is no alternative but just another bad with too many problems, bad economics, and waste produced.

Nuclear is fantastic economics, its just regulated to death. The real effect of suppressing nuclear has been a slower transition to a sustainable carbon economy, and increased power prices limiting innovation and productivity. Solar and wind have benefitted, but its still a minor player, and without a revolutionary new battery tech, and gargantuan infrastructure investment, it simply cant replace a majority of current power production, much less satisfy the massive suppressed demand.

Re: Germany is closing half of its reactors before the end of the year

#250

Post by formerly_proven »

leobg wrote: post #248
pixelpoet wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Paying 41c/kWh for ökostrom / 100% renewable energy here, and doing some mining with two 150W Radeon 6000 GPUs to keep this computer room warm goes a long way to making it cost effective.

Exactly. All electric heating should be replaced by GPUs. If you need to heat up a room with electricity, at least do some proof of work along the way.

GPUs are just resistive heating with extra steps, COP 1. Heat pumps can do way better most of the time.
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