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Nuclear energy is clean

collectifission.nl

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Re: Nuclear energy is clean

#551
post #436

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't have to be batteries, it can be pump storage plant or similar installations. Problem that those don't work aren't technical. There are often legislative in nature or the infrastructure for energy transportation is inadequate. We don't know how feasibly we can get Uranium. The market is unstable right now because of political problems. The topic is very complex, there are disadvantages with every form of en…

There isn't a single existing pump storage plant in the world that charge with renewables energy and resells it when demand is high. There exist a few proof of concepts, but the only commercial one that I know off do so by charging it from fossil fuel power plants. It act as a large subsidized grid stabilizer for when different fossil fuel power power down. When there are articles about pumped storage plants the usua…

Would this satisfy your criteria? Or are you looking for someone explicitly pairing pumped hydro with other renewables?

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/may/18/portugal...

This was probably made possible by the half-dozen pumped storage hydro plants in Portugal. Now they’re putting floating solar on some as well.

Re: Nuclear energy is clean

#552
post #547
post #535

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is this "financial model" you imagine? Utilities will need storage, and will build whatever is cheapest. In some places that will be pumped hydro. End of story.

If you are wondering why a company need a financial viable model to operate on then I can't help you.

So, you imagine a company for each water pump? That is not how things are run where I live.

Re: Nuclear energy is clean

#553
post #550
post #538

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. Yes, you are. In none of those cases have economic considerations been dispositive, or even of much interest.

That's moving goalposts; of course small-scale production is going to cost an arm and a leg. The original post said it was impossible, not expensive.

In an open, uncoerced market, anything too expensive does not happen. People opt for cheaper alternatives, or for more value for the same money. Or, somewhere in between.

Re: Nuclear energy is clean

#554
post #500

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You need hydrogen to synthesize ammonia.

Strangely, not. Water + air + electric in, NH3 + O2 out.

Thanks, I didn't know that.

From "Electrochemical synthesis of ammonia as a potential alternative to the Haber–Bosch process" (2019) :

Water electrolysis, combined with an improved smallerscale Haber–Bosch process, seems to be a short-term solution for the generation of ammonia from renewables at a matching scale. There is a major research focus on reducing the NH3 synthesis reaction pressure and temperature, while keeping the catalyst cost and means to follow the intermittent electrical power input. These technologies are anticipated to be developed within next few years. Electrochemical ammonia production is much more distant from commercialization, however, potential benefits of electrochemical ammonia production, such as reduced energy consumption and associated footprint, scalability, lower process pressures and temperatures, the ability to follow the intermittent electrical power input and use nitrogen with reduced purity justify further research.

From "Electrochemical Synthesis of Ammonia: Progress and Challenges" (2021) :

On the whole, a lot of attempts and significant progress have been made, but the electrochemical synthesis of ammonia is still in the infancy stage with great challenges remained to be addressed.

Re: Nuclear energy is clean

#555

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You just considered one axis of the waste properties. It must also be in the equation that the waste will remain radioactive and toxic for thousands of years, far beyond the time horizon of what a normal human brain is capable of processing. Also, the effects (spatial, biological) if the waste is released for whatever reason (which we may not even know now). So the debt we transfer to future generations goes far, too…

Spent fuel will remain toxic forever. Uranium and plutonium are heavy metals. They will have to be treated as dangerous substances from now until the end of time, much like lead or mercury.

What percentage of the earth’s crust is lead? How does that compare to spent fuel?

Re: Nuclear energy is clean

#556
post #528
post #504

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well again, countries can choose between the non-fossil fuel options. I strongly doubt that nuclear powers will effect the choice in any major way. The biggest factor will be price. Either renewable + storage will be cheaper, renewables + nuclear power, or renewables and dependency on trade, or renewable + nuclear + storage + trade. Yes, governments are keen for this not to happen. Gas, oil and coal is still much che…

>Well again, countries can choose between the non-fossil fuel options. I strongly doubt that nuclear powers will effect the choice in any major way. The media is, in general, oblivious about the connection between civilian nuclear power and military nuclear requirements in the west. They dont explicitly deny it but it would tend to be mentioned in passing in, like, congressional hearings not propaganda targeted at th…

They don't need to be pro-nuclear in order to be green. They just can't be sitting in political debates being on the side of the table that is arguing to keeping gas, oil and coal power plants.

They just need to say: "Lets close this fossil fuel power plant".

If people then ask them about nuclear they can be just as anti-nuclear they want. They will get follow up question about what to do when energy demand exceed that of supply, but that is a separate debate between them and those arguing in favor of nuclear.

To take a example out of Swedish politics this last winter. The right movement wanted to replace an oil power plant by reopening a closed nuclear generator. The oil power plant is operating in the south of Sweden, and the plant is also the single largest contributor of green house gases in that area. To quote from memory, the green representative said "Oil power plants is a natural part of the reserve energy plan in Sweden, and there is nothing strange that it need to burn oil when demand exceed supply".

There is something broken when the highest representatives of the green movement is standing in public debates saying that oil power plants are a natural part of the grid. If that is caused by propaganda then the people who is listening need to stop doing it.

They could have said "No, lets replace that oil power plant with a green hydrogen plant". Or they could have said "No, lets replace that oil power plant with a pumped hydro storage". It would make following discussion about costs a bit more difficult, but they would still be the green movement arguing in favor of the environment. Instead they argued in favor of keeping the oil power plant running.

It really is as simple as that. No propaganda, no plot by a pro nuclear-weapons organization trying to turn the world MAD. Just politics where everything the other side say must be countered. If pro-nuclear want to close fossil fuel plants and replace them with nuclear then the anti-nuclear people want to keep the fossil fuel plants.

Keep the gas, oil and coal in the ground. It used to be slogan of the green movement. It should be again. It is a statement that both pro and anti-nuclear people could agree on if they wanted to.

Re: Nuclear energy is clean

#557
post #553
post #550

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's moving goalposts; of course small-scale production is going to cost an arm and a leg. The original post said it was impossible, not expensive.

In an open, uncoerced market, anything too expensive does not happen. People opt for cheaper alternatives, or for more value for the same money. Or, somewhere in between.

Of course, and naturally, first-of-a-kind are bloody expensive. Maybe there's a way to make small nuke plants economical, maybe there's not, I dont' know. But it's definitely not ‶impossible″ to humankind.

Re: Nuclear energy is clean

#558
post #502

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Large scale involves more than two countries focusing on a single region, typically. Otherwise words have absolutely no meaning anymore.

No, that isn't correct. Still it's a moot point. Feel free to either change my example from Ukraine to a hypothetical larger area if you care, or change large to regional scale — regardless 'if there is military action that could affect nuclear plants it will involve nuclear weapons and kill us anyway' is a poor argument.

> No, that isn't correct.

What isn't correct? What's the definition of a large scale conflict then? Anything above 2 neighbors fighting over their fence?

> egardless 'if there is military action that could affect nuclear plants it will involve nuclear weapons and kill us anyway' is a poor argument.

How is that a poor argument. In war you care about what is the most likely to kill you. Nukes are a very real risk when there's 50 000 out there ready to be launched at one moment's notice. Radiations that would kill you in 30 years is the least of anyone's worry. Just like you don't care about a cancer that could kill you 10 years from now if you are run over by a car.

Re: Nuclear energy is clean

#559

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, pretty common, as weather systems are typically continental in scale. Even if you built enough wind turbines to satisfy 10000% of EU demand within the EU (which is what you would need to have a shot at this kind of redundancy) the amount of huge HVDC interconnects you would need criss-crossing the continent make it completely impractical.

Are you just making up numbers? Have you ever done any sailing? I can tell you that weather patterns on with no wind for extended periods of time even over the size of a country are not really happening. People have done studies and the amount of overprovisioning is typically on the order of 5x IIRC without storage. Moreover you need at least 2x overcapacity for nuclear as well.

> I can tell you that weather patterns on with no wind for extended periods of time even over the size of a country are not really happening.

That just isn't true - there's been plenty of times where eg the UK is generating wind power at just a few percent of total capacity because of low wind. And it just is not unusual for periods of calm in the UK to also be calm in neighbouring countries.

Even at a continental level, and averaged out over months long periods, wind is pretty variable and unpredictable: https://theconversation.com/what-europes-exceptionally-low-w... - if you look there we can see that wind power generation at a European level was down 32% on long term average over summer and autumn 2021.

Re: Nuclear energy is clean

#560
post #520

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That baseload myth is dead these days. Batteries are merely one way to store energy but they’re not the only way. How is it a myth? Weather systems are big. it is not unusual for eg. the entirety of North-western Europe to have a calm spell of little to no wind. You need something to keep the lights on when there's no wind, night time etc. That's your base load right there. > And all of this is already working in p…

Your skipping power to gas [0]. At least for the US, how are you going to use nuclear to heat every building in the entire continent 30-100 degrees fahrenheit when a polar vortex hits [1] with nuclear? Nuclear has the opposite problem of wind/solar in that they need to be run at 100% capacity basically all the time because of their absurd building costs and low operating costs. Building enough nuclear to support that…

But i never said nuclear would have to be used for 100% of power generation. I was taking issue with statements that nuclear should be avoided, and that wind can be used for 100% of power generation - it can't.

Nuclear is "base load" through and through. Yes it would be awkward to manage spinning nuclear plants up and down if you were targeting 100%, but France manages pretty well with 70% of energy coming from nuclear so it is an actually existing counterpoint.

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