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Germany shuts down half of its remaining nuclear plants

thehindu.com

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Re: Germany shuts down half of its remaining nuclear plants

#52
post #30

Why was Nord Stream 2's approval delayed by the German government?

Green points... Gas is not green, thus better not to progress it until absolutely mandatory. On other hand eco-terrorist are also against nuclear so better to get rid of that as well. And electricity comes from wall...

It's actually due to EU regulations but spread your FUD.

Re: Germany shuts down half of its remaining nuclear plants

#53
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup, and we will end up paying 50% more for our energy usage, just because of political swings.

Avoiding nuclear will save you money in the long run though

Sad that this is downvoted. The hidden cost of nuclear is one of the biggest issue the tech-affine crowds tend to ignore and not want to hear about. You may not pay it on your utility bill, but society and later generations will pay it.

Re: Germany shuts down half of its remaining nuclear plants

#54
This seems shortsighted at first look, but there's got to be more to it. During an undeniable, ongoing energy crisis every power source, a continuous one at that, should be treasured. While the phase out has been ongoing for more than a decade, could this not have been put into hold temporarily? Any expiring certifications? In any case I find it laughable that Greens themselves have contributed to the decommissioning of NPPs and are supporting of this move. So much for one the actual cleanest and certainly the one safest energy source.

Re: Germany shuts down half of its remaining nuclear plants

#55

I live in Germany and I wonder, what the consequences will be of shutting down both coal and nuclear in very short time. My guess is, we will pay for nuclear energy from France and coal energy from Poland when wind slows down. The new government tries to accelerate the construction of renewable energy but I think their plans will fail because of worker shortage and supply chain problems.

No post body was provided.

Re: Germany shuts down half of its remaining nuclear plants

#56

Nuclear power is an amazing energy source. It doesn’t look like we’ll ever get beyond the politics that would make small scale It’s really a shame.

I doubt that politics is the reason why extremely small installations like that are uneconomical. The capex per kWh would be higher and the same for the opex, maybe you can properly reduce the capex if you produce tons of them but how will you fix the opex? You'll need too many people per kWh to operate the plant and for security.

Current nuclear plants don’t scale down well.

There will have to be a whole new generation of plants designed to be cost effective at that scale.

Re: Germany shuts down half of its remaining nuclear plants

#57

I live in Germany and I wonder, what the consequences will be of shutting down both coal and nuclear in very short time. My guess is, we will pay for nuclear energy from France and coal energy from Poland when wind slows down. The new government tries to accelerate the construction of renewable energy but I think their plans will fail because of worker shortage and supply chain problems.

No post body was provided.

Re: Germany shuts down half of its remaining nuclear plants

#58
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

France will build more nuclear, and in the long run solidify its position as a huge exporter of electricity at high rates when wind is low. Weird arbitrage opportunity for them as the neighbors go all in on wind.

Looks like France will be kind of an insurer for energy market. Trading the risk of energy supply shortage for the risk of radioactive accidents.

Not quite. They're reducing their dependency on nuclear as well. Sure they might build some new reactors but they'll also close some old ones. It's expected that they will close more reactors than they will build.

Re: Germany shuts down half of its remaining nuclear plants

#59

My extremely uninformed understanding is that there is an energy crisis in Europe, and that this will exacerbate the situation.

We should call this the "enable Putin" and "destroy the climate" plan. Honestly, I think we should declare a 50% tax on the gas going through the new Putin Nordstream 2 pipeline and direct the proceeds to NATO. Prices in externalities of gas usage and gets the EU closer to their NATO commitment.

And closer to war. Great solution! It's going to do so much good for the climate!

Re: Germany shuts down half of its remaining nuclear plants

#60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup, and we will end up paying 50% more for our energy usage, just because of political swings.

Which is a good thing. Just converting energy sources is not going to save us. We need to tackle the energy sinks too, i.e., getting smarter about how we use the available energy, i.e., mostly being more energy efficient. ("We" as in "humankind".) Raising prices is the right incentive here. In the long run, +50% is not actually that bad. There is room for a lot more.

paying way more for electricity is not a good thing, sorry.
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