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Germany extends lifetime of all 3 remaining nuclear plants
31–40 of 392 posts
Re: Germany extends lifetime of all 3 remaining nuclear plants
#32They've only delayed it until its politically easier to shut it down. The German greens' leader has backed running Coal plants as an alternative[1] The whole political position of this party rests on their fanatic opposition to Nuclear power. [1] https://edition.cnn.com/2022/06/19/energy/germany-russia-gas...
>The whole political position of this party rests on their fanatic opposition to Nuclear power. Btw if anyone thinks this is exaggeration, it's not. They are evil fanatics: https://twitter.com/giuliasaudelli/status/158097313099012505... >"Nuclear power and fossil fuels brought us here. They caused this crisis, they are not the solution." >Strong and at times emotional speech by Robert Habeck, after weeks under pressu…
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Re: Germany extends lifetime of all 3 remaining nuclear plants
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
Germany heats with gas, which is plenty in storage and again reasonably priced at markets. Germany isn't heating with electricity and their won't be, realistically, any rolling black-outs. Keeping the reactors online is good so, as it means less coal being burned, being ablebto trafe electricity on the markets, frees up the roughly 12% of electricity generate by gas (at least to an extent) for heating. And signals st…
>Germany heats with gas [...] Germany isn't heating with electricity And whose fault is that? Why can't their much-vaunted Energiewende manage to keep people warm? After half a trillion dollars of public investment in green energy?
> And whose fault is that?
The previous government's. Scientists have been criticizing them for years now that they failed to provide the necessary infrastructure and statutory framework for the "Energiewende" to work.
Re: Germany extends lifetime of all 3 remaining nuclear plants
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
Germany heats with gas, which is plenty in storage and again reasonably priced at markets. Germany isn't heating with electricity and their won't be, realistically, any rolling black-outs. Keeping the reactors online is good so, as it means less coal being burned, being ablebto trafe electricity on the markets, frees up the roughly 12% of electricity generate by gas (at least to an extent) for heating. And signals st…
Many gas furnaces cease working when electricity fails.
They do, but they probably don't consume that much energy. I doubt Germany expects to have electricity blackouts, since they're actually going to sell some to France in exchange for gas.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/13/business/france-sends-gas...
Re: Germany extends lifetime of all 3 remaining nuclear plants
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
>The whole political position of this party rests on their fanatic opposition to Nuclear power. Btw if anyone thinks this is exaggeration, it's not. They are evil fanatics: https://twitter.com/giuliasaudelli/status/158097313099012505... >"Nuclear power and fossil fuels brought us here. They caused this crisis, they are not the solution." >Strong and at times emotional speech by Robert Habeck, after weeks under pressu…
The decision to turn off nuclear plants in Germany was __not__ made by the greens. It was made years ago by the CDU after Fukushima.
Minority parties can make the governing parties do things. UKIP wasn't in government but they made the Conservative party promise a referendum, which the eurosceptic side won -- and that was in a FPTP system! The Greens weren't in government but they had a lot of influence in the Bundestag and in the various Länder. The anti-nuclear cause has been around for decades, they creep in everywhere like a fungus.
Re: Germany extends lifetime of all 3 remaining nuclear plants
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Germany heats with gas [...] Germany isn't heating with electricity And whose fault is that? Why can't their much-vaunted Energiewende manage to keep people warm? After half a trillion dollars of public investment in green energy?
There is no widespread infrastructure for heating with electricity, the dominant sources for heating homes are gas and oil. The reason for that is that until the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it was unforeseeable that there would be a shortage of gas or oil. And let's not forget that the current "shortage" is a result of political decisions, and not because gas and oil have ceased to exist. Germany is in the process o…
> ...it was unforeseeable that there would be a shortage of gas or oil.
If you don't supply it yourself then it isn't unforeseeable. In fact, I'd say it's inevitable. It's only unforeseeable as to when it will occur. Energy independence is a great thing for this reason.
Re: Germany extends lifetime of all 3 remaining nuclear plants
#37Good. Germany was facing a cold winter, without energy for heating, and the potential for rolling blackouts. With this change, it does not eliminate the threat but makes it less likely. Who in their right mind would decom any type of energy that could help stave off pain for their citizenship - especially one that has no carbon footprint.
I agree with your sentiment, but by no means does nuclear power "have no carbon footprint". It's still a very carbon-friendly technology, but it's definitely not carbon free. (See: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life-cycle_greenhouse_gas_em...)
Re: Germany extends lifetime of all 3 remaining nuclear plants
#38Finally. Opposition to nuclear is beyond unreasonable. https://ourworldindata.org/safest-sources-of-energy
How do we make sure we don’t do this again? What are current things that are unpopular today but will be regrettable in 10-20 years? We need to eradicate the root cause, because we will make costly mistakes like this over and over. That means taking an extremely rational approach towards problems regardless of their popularity and allow opposition to emotion-driven zeitgeists that thrive through oppression and curbing speech.
We need to take a stern look at what went wrong with a few things like this 1) Deindustrialization of the west and rampant globalization with not much thought given to national security 2) Manufacturing loss 3) Rise of China through subsidies and unchecked betting by companies like Nike and Apple. 4) No one in Silicon Valley wants to work on defense and military ventures.
The machinery that enables immunity is allowing unpopular but rational opinions in the society. Newspapers wouldn’t print uncomfortable truths.
Re: Germany extends lifetime of all 3 remaining nuclear plants
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
Electricity does not magically create gas for heating. Electricity in europe is primarily threatened by France failing to adequately maintain their nuclear power plants.
Yes it does, Power-to-Gas - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power-to-gas
More importantly: Gas-to-power. This summer, for some time we were using more gas than in previous years, because there was not enough wind blowing for power generation. Blackouts must be prevented, so we will use it for power generation if necessary.
Re: Germany extends lifetime of all 3 remaining nuclear plants
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's also good for France, which currently has a shortfall of electricity and is heating with electricity.
Doesn't France only have a shortfall because rivers were low during summer and Nuclear Reactors couldn't produce regular outputs? The rivers won't be low in the winter.
They're down because of deferred maintenance, pushed back because of corona.