Sweden’s incoming cabinet says new nuclear reactors will be built

Post by ncmncm » Sat, Oct 15, 2022, 2:37 AM UTC

nathanaldensr wrote: post #105

elihu wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pumped hydro storage, batteries, and/or long-distance grid interconnection. It's not often overcast in the Sahara, as far as I know, and solar power imported from far to the east and west can mitigate the day/night cycle problem. It's reasonable to keep ICE power plants around as an emergency backup; if you have to use them for a week in January or when infrastructure breaks for whatever reason it's not the end of th…

You are assuming geopolitical realities that will... never be reality. The entire issue of Germany's dependence on energy from another country makes this obvious. You also assume that power plants can just be flipped on and off like a light switch. They can't.

Post by NoraCodes » Sat, Oct 15, 2022, 2:38 AM UTC

gadflyinyoureye wrote: post #314

OrangeMonkey wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There exists a group of folks who claim nuclear isn't green and is going to 'kill the planet'. The alternative to nuclear is to either use fuels with a massive carbon footprint, or introduce a level of energy suffering on the population that is beyond the pale. You are exactly right - this is the only way.

Quoted post unavailable.

Post by ncmncm » Sat, Oct 15, 2022, 2:42 AM UTC

OrangeMonkey wrote: post #309

tpmx wrote: post #7

The new coalition government has pledged $40B (approximately the market cap of Twitter, heh) in loan guarantees for nuclear power construction. They have also pledged to create legal guarantees that future politicians will not be able to shut down functioning nuclear power reactors without suitable monetary compensation to the owners/operators of these reactors. In addition to this, they are commissioning an urgent s…

There exists a group of folks who claim nuclear isn't green and is going to 'kill the planet'. The alternative to nuclear is to either use fuels with a massive carbon footprint, or introduce a level of energy suffering on the population that is beyond the pale. You are exactly right - this is the only way.

Post by ncmncm » Sat, Oct 15, 2022, 2:45 AM UTC

roenxi wrote: post #286

belorn wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair to both sides, the electricity prices at the time when the decision was made was very different from today. We had prices in the south of sweden 2020 that was as low as around €0.02 per kw/h, compared to over €0.3 in 2022, and in 2020 the price trend was looking to be going downwards. If prices had continue to go down and let say had landed at €0.01 per kw/h this year than we would not be discussing nuclea…

I bet what is going on isn't that surprising to industry insiders, or the people who make profit-loss decisions about whether to fund power plants or not. This is the issue with politics and the power market, the language gets locked into "what should we do" which is then interpreted as "well, the government should do it!". The problem with nuclear power isn't what the government is funding, it is that the government…

Post by ncmncm » Sat, Oct 15, 2022, 2:51 AM UTC

phire wrote: post #311

traceelement wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

so they get compensated if they have to close it even so the government payed them to build it. this sound like a bad deal. Tax payers pay for the whole thing and the owner gets even more money if they have to close it for whatever reason. I don't think coal is the answer but germany didn't do enough for renewables during the last 10 years when we knew we would shut down the nuclear plants. So now evrybody uses bad m…

The government isn't paying to build it. They are only providing loan guarantees, not actual money. And they only have to pay to shut it down if a future government forces it to shut it down before the plant stops being commercially viable. The main purpose of both guarantees is to make it much easier for nuclear reactors to get commercial funding from private banks.