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A first for Canada: New type of nuclear plant opening by 2028

theweathernetwork.com

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Re: A first for Canada: New type of nuclear plant opening by 2028

#131

Post by flgb »

jp0d wrote: post #4

This is really exciting. I wish we had nuclear power here in Australia. I know I might get downvoted for this comment. But with advancement in technology and large amount nuclear fuel (Uranium deposit) available, it's a great choice. 1. Vast swathes of uninhabited land can absorb some of the risks/fears associated with a nuclear accident. With technology like this, the risks are even lower. 2. It's lot cleaner than c…

Reasons why Australia doesn't and won't have nuclear:

1. Nuclear is a more expensive sources of energy than our alternatives (uranium ore is a small proportion of the cost stack, and Australia would still need to import nuclear fuel)

2. Nuclear isn't commercially viable in energy markets with very high levels of variable renewable energy where they have to be economically curtailed on an almost daily basis (our coal plants are all closing for this reason)

Re: A first for Canada: New type of nuclear plant opening by 2028

#133

Post by ben_w »

clarionbell wrote: post #101
jseban wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But solar has the benefit that it doesn't need to be centralised, people can cover their own roofs and have a battery to be self sufficient and now you don't even need a grid.

Until they need replacement components for any of this. Which they will need evry couple of years. Then they will need centralized infrastructure in form of manufacturing plants, roads, rail and finally (because it is imported from China most likely) ports. Every step producing greenhouse gasses or other pollution. Self sufficiency of this sort is largely a sub-urban myth. A comfortable, optimistic one, but a myth no…

Decades, IIRC, not years.

Yes, total independence is unrealistic and will be until we have von Neumann universal constructors, but we are starting to get to the point where big footprint homes could reasonably be energy-independent for normal daily use.

Re: A first for Canada: New type of nuclear plant opening by 2028

#134

Post by arcticbull »

natmaka wrote: post #72
arcticbull wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hydro is tough for a lot of reasons. It's pretty ecologically devastating, flooding large regions and turning fish into mulch. It can also produce as much climate impact as a fossil fuel plant - or more - largely due to methane and CO2 emissions from the newly flooded land. [1] I'm not 100% sure where the Quebec hydro mix actually lands due to the significant variability on a plant-by-plant basis, and I don't know if…

There are rules (releasing water...) and equipment aiming at reducing harm to aquatic life, even worst cases (migratory fishes). https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/habitat-conservation... "the rate of emissions per unit of electric generation from hydropower (excluding tropical reservoirs) is much lower than for fossil fuel technologies." Source: https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML1209/ML12090A850.pdf

This is the study I was referring to re: GHG impact. It depends where and most importantly how long you run the plant. [1]

I'm not really opposed to hydro, I only responded because the impact of the creation of reservoirs is likely not factored into the headline numbers.

[1] https://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/acs.est.9b05083

Re: A first for Canada: New type of nuclear plant opening by 2028

#135

Post by flgb »

clarionbell wrote: post #101
jseban wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But solar has the benefit that it doesn't need to be centralised, people can cover their own roofs and have a battery to be self sufficient and now you don't even need a grid.

Until they need replacement components for any of this. Which they will need evry couple of years. Then they will need centralized infrastructure in form of manufacturing plants, roads, rail and finally (because it is imported from China most likely) ports. Every step producing greenhouse gasses or other pollution. Self sufficiency of this sort is largely a sub-urban myth. A comfortable, optimistic one, but a myth no…

"evry couple of years" .. umm nope. Try every 10-20 years for the inverter and every 20-30 years for the panels. Roof-top solar in Australia is cheap and almost ubiquitous.

Re: A first for Canada: New type of nuclear plant opening by 2028

#136

Post by j16sdiz »

TedDoesntTalk wrote: post #22

Does this reactor split uranium atoms? If not, how does it generate heat?

Yes. It take TRISO fuel in pellets.

https://www.ans.org/news/article-2830/a-first-triso-fuel-mad... https://www.energy.gov/ne/articles/triso-particles-most-robu...

Re: A first for Canada: New type of nuclear plant opening by 2028

#137

Post by DrBazza »

jp0d wrote: post #4

This is really exciting. I wish we had nuclear power here in Australia. I know I might get downvoted for this comment. But with advancement in technology and large amount nuclear fuel (Uranium deposit) available, it's a great choice. 1. Vast swathes of uninhabited land can absorb some of the risks/fears associated with a nuclear accident. With technology like this, the risks are even lower. 2. It's lot cleaner than c…

Nuclear power stations work best by the coast, rather than on rivers due to the water required for cooling, and as France discovered you can't dump hotter water back into a river and kill the wildlife when the country is "hot" - compared to Australia, a French "hot" day is 'only' 38-40C.

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/sep/07/weatherwatch-nu...

So geographically, that likely means that nuclear power stations would still be close to Australian coastal cities.

Re: A first for Canada: New type of nuclear plant opening by 2028

#138

Post by ZeroGravitas »

yodelshady wrote: post #127
ZeroGravitas wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Australia is the ideal place for renewables. Canada is somewhere I'd begrudgingly admit that nuclear may have a role to play in the future energy market, but it would be downright silly for Australia.

"Begrudging" is a pretty telling phrase. I'm happy with whatever actually delivers carbon-free watt hours, which yes, in Australia should be solar. Clearly you want something else as well.

Yeah, I want a global solution to global warming, which nuclear isn't. I don't think it's necessary and would happily ban nuclear to focus on renewables if I was king of the world.

But I'm not, so I have to be realistic and admit that there are niche areas where nuclear is helpful in real politics even if most of the noise around nuclear is clearly climate change denial.

Re: A first for Canada: New type of nuclear plant opening by 2028

#139

Post by ben_w »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #121
yodelshady wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my country, which is a relative success story for wind? apparently circa. $ 40 billion, for, right now... one GW. On average - and be assured I have checked this - five, which puts it in the same cost / GW as nuclear, and a capacity factor, not of sixty percent as advertised, but twenty-five. And we don't dump a megatonne or so of CO2 into the atmosphere a week running gas plants to cover nuclear variability. As a…

What is this "nuclear variability" you speak of? I thought they were pretty constant in their output, unlike wind / solar for which gas plants are needed to compensate.

I keep hearing they need to be switched off at short notice because… I’m not sure, accidents? I’ve never actually seen a link backing this claim, and I’d be interested.

Re: A first for Canada: New type of nuclear plant opening by 2028

#140

Post by omegabravo »

dsomers wrote: post #120
ncmncm wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Signicant storage is cheap and getting cheaper, much faster than wind or solar ever did. By the time we have built out enough renewables to benefit from storage, storage will be cheap enough to hardly notice.

Hi, I’m curious, can you tell me about the most promising storage technology being rolled out now?

pumped hydro, depending on geography
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