Live data from Hacker News

Why is the nuclear power industry stagnant?

austinvernon.site

281–290 of 672 posts

Re: Why is the nuclear power industry stagnant?

#281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> no longer countries Well, no. The entities united in the European Union are still Countries - Sovereign States, "governments over permanent populations in defined territories enabled to relate with peers, entering as part of the international community after recognition from at least one peer". They have embassies and deal with embassies. The distinction you are trying to convey, allegedly changing the scenario in…

EU law arguably has a greater weight than individual constitutions now. There are some countries like Poland which claim to not accept that, but the principle of EU law supremacy has become generally accepted (even without a referendum in that sense...)

> EU law supremacy ... individual constitutions

The EU Council and the EU Commission can issue "Directives", which States must implement, and "Regulations", direct laws, with power to override national ones. (Plus "Decisions", "Recommendations" and "Opinions" - see https://european-union.europa.eu/institutions-law-budget/law... ) The possibility of "Regulations" is clearly and explicitly a delicate matter which has to find the right space for movement in a collection of Sovereign States.

Constitutions and laws are very different entities: a Constitution is the Social Contract to which citizens subscribe, the collection of the guidelines defining the National Project. This already entails, a Constitution indicates a Country - it strengthens the point.

This said, I am still confused about that original idea some proposed, according to which Countries and Not-Sovereign States have critical differences in energy trade.

Re: Why is the nuclear power industry stagnant?

#282
I can answer this in one word: privatisation.

The neo-liberal economy is at total odds with this industry.

For a private enterprise to succede at nuclear power, it would take someone crazy and with very deep pockets like Elon Musk, but even then, his model wouldn't work as failure is not an option. You can't fail and iterate.

So what we have instead is privately run nuclear power plants, that are entirely publicly funded, with 0 risk taken, in typical neo-liberal fashion: socialisation of the costs and risks, privatisation of the profits.

Re: Why is the nuclear power industry stagnant?

#283
post #180

Has anyone built a facility to store the waste for 1 million years yet? I think Finland is the only country in earth who started for real. It is mind boggling to me that people even consider building more waste before having the slightest idea what to do with nuclear waste. And the talking about how clean it is. Lol.

Non-nuclear power kills far more people each year than nuclear has killed during its entire existence. "...before having the slightest idea what to do with nuclear waste." implies that there is some way to do so that will result in a hundred thousand deaths annually. I don't know of a way to botch the job that badly?

Solid whataboutism.

Re: Why is the nuclear power industry stagnant?

#284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gas peaker plants are needed for nuclear just as much. Generally the article is looking at the most favourable conditions for the technology, e.g. only considering OCC and not interest cost for building and decommissioning of nuclear plants.

You're going to have to source this because there's been absolutely no need for gas plants in the two cities I've lived in that were both powdered by nuclear in Europe.

It's right there in the article, but it seems many here commenting did not even read it:

Many US nuclear plants are incapable of cycling power output up or down without changes to procedures or equipment.

Re: Why is the nuclear power industry stagnant?

#286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_in_Germany Actually, Germany did not have a long term increase in coal/gas due to the nuclear shut down but a decrease. Coal has been in a slow but steady decline in Germany (mainly due to cost); which is on track to decline all the way to 0 as Germany is committing to getting rid of coal based production completely by 2035 or so. Gas production did grow but mainly to offset decli…

Germany doesn't have blackouts only thanks to Czech and French nuclear energy ;-)

The other way round, actually. France recently had massive problems because they had to switch off multiple nuclear plants for unexpected maintenance issues, and bought lots of power from Germany

Re: Why is the nuclear power industry stagnant?

#287
post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_in_Germany Actually, Germany did not have a long term increase in coal/gas due to the nuclear shut down but a decrease. Coal has been in a slow but steady decline in Germany (mainly due to cost); which is on track to decline all the way to 0 as Germany is committing to getting rid of coal based production completely by 2035 or so. Gas production did grow but mainly to offset decli…

what is the yield of solarwind in germany though? looking at their energy stats , it is underutilized https://energy-charts.info/charts/power/chart.htm?l=en&c=DE&... https://www.energy-charts.info/charts/installed_power/chart.... https://sminpowergroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Renewa... and what happens to that massive coal+gas infrastructure?Apparently , wind+solar don't work at night and you will always need…

Batteries work at night.

Re: Why is the nuclear power industry stagnant?

#288
post #40
post #31

The fact that nuclear power regulators are routinely anti-nuclear power probably isn't helping things. https://www.powermag.com/blog/former-nuclear-leaders-say-no-... >Dr. Greg Jaczko, former Chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Prof. Wolfgang Renneberg, former Head of the Reactor Safety, Radiation Protection and Nuclear Waste, Federal Environment Ministry, Germany Dr. Bernard Laponche, former Director…

I.e., the more you know about nukes, the less you like them.

Are you a nuclear scientist

Re: Why is the nuclear power industry stagnant?

#289
post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is practically irrelevant in the sense that you can virtually always find an acceptable place to put a wind turbine in in a several hundred kilometer radius. While there are places with very densely populated territories, there are no places with territories that are very densely populated over hundreds of thousands of square kilometers.

"an acceptable place" Look at the situation in Germany. "An" acceptable place, yes, but given how many of the Windräder you need, finding enough such places is a different task, because many less populated places are wildlife refuges. And yes, German wind power is expanding into old growth forests and mountains, which provokes embittered fights with classical nature protectionists who do not want to allow such damage…

Germany has more problems with north-south transmission lines than with places to put wind turbines in. Their windy coast would serve them perfectly well if they managed to push those transmission projects through.

Re: Why is the nuclear power industry stagnant?

#290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you're saying that if we removed the regulation and built cheap reactors each reactor might cost -1 billion dollars to construct? Sign me up!

I would even question why construction costs so much in US vs. say China. It is all entirely full of regulations. Not labor. Material costs are probably minscule % if you scoure the entire supply chain for regulations. The discussion whether certain regulations (OSHA) are needed or not is an entirely different conversation, but having worked on large government/military contracts ($1B+); I have seen the shitshow with…

> I would even question why construction costs so much in US vs. say China.

The difference is in manufacturing and labor costs. If you want to build cheap, you can do so in Mexico at half the manufacturing and labor costs of China, which is about 1/7th that of good ol' fashioned USofA manufacturing and labor.

You should have already known this. Nothing to see here.

Post reply on HN