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Nuclear Power Is the Answer to Global and Environmental Energy Woes

nationalinterest.org

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Re: Nuclear Power Is the Answer to Global and Environmental Energy Woes

#31

Post by tarr11 »

eric-burel wrote: post #12

As a French not expert in the matter but living near nuclear plants: - one of the plant regularly leaks radioactive material - rivers are getting too hot to cool down nuclear plants correctly - nuclear plants are very unreliable, we almost got out of power this winter and next winter will be equally tough (only an abnormally hot winter avoid cuts...) - the government wants to simplify control organism and laws around…

I wasn’t aware of the nuclear problems in France. Here is some explanation of the problems.

https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/why-nuclear-powered-...

Re: Nuclear Power Is the Answer to Global and Environmental Energy Woes

#32

Post by stuff4ben »

Krasnol wrote: post #21
stuff4ben wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

renewables are not cheap when you factor in decommissioning which nuclear power does. FTFA: "The International Renewable Energy Agency calculates that old solar panel disposal to meet 2050 Paris Accords 'will more than double the tonnage of all of today’s global plastic waste.'"

Nuclear only factors in decommissioning in the way that it gives the responsibility away to future generations...

what does that even mean? Nuclear factors in decommissioning to the cost of running it. Wind and solar have even more limited lifespans than nuclear plus there's the millions of tonnes of waste generated when you decommission them.

Re: Nuclear Power Is the Answer to Global and Environmental Energy Woes

#33

Post by speed_spread »

speakfreely wrote: post #5
Krasnol wrote: post #4

The authors profile is even more hilarious than the article: https://nationalinterest.org/profile/todd-royal

It looks like he keeps writing the same article over and over again.

It looks like he has someone's agenda and is getting paid to push it.

Re: Nuclear Power Is the Answer to Global and Environmental Energy Woes

#34

Post by schleck8 »

stuff4ben wrote: post #22
Krasnol wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wind alone produces ~20% of the recent years electricity in Germany. Nuclear produced only half of that in recent years. The whole renewable energy production covers ~40% of all the energy produced. Despite 16 years of almost full stop of expansion. https://www.destatis.de/DE/Themen/Branchen-Unternehmen/Energ...

Soon you're going to run out of land for your renewables. Plus renewables are extremely intermittent power sources. Nuclear solves both the land-use and consistency problems. Plus, from the article: "...to build enough wind turbines and solar panels to supply at least half the electricity needed for global consumption 'would require two billions tons of coal to produce the concrete and steel, along with two billion b…

> Soon you're going to run out of land for your renewables.

I'm from Northern Germany where all the wind turbines are and you are wrong

Re: Nuclear Power Is the Answer to Global and Environmental Energy Woes

#35

Post by Krasnol »

stuff4ben wrote: post #22
Krasnol wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wind alone produces ~20% of the recent years electricity in Germany. Nuclear produced only half of that in recent years. The whole renewable energy production covers ~40% of all the energy produced. Despite 16 years of almost full stop of expansion. https://www.destatis.de/DE/Themen/Branchen-Unternehmen/Energ...

Soon you're going to run out of land for your renewables. Plus renewables are extremely intermittent power sources. Nuclear solves both the land-use and consistency problems. Plus, from the article: "...to build enough wind turbines and solar panels to supply at least half the electricity needed for global consumption 'would require two billions tons of coal to produce the concrete and steel, along with two billion b…

No we won't.

There are plenty of studies on the topic. Those areas are there and already identified. Wind alone would just double to manage the Energiewende by 2050: https://www.naturschutz-energiewende.de/aktuelles/flaechenve...

I don't get your other argument.

If you push for renewables instead of wasting money on over due and over budget nuclear reactors, you can create an industry at home. Create massive amounts of jobs and improve on the technology.

It's already happening and those improvements are way faster than everything we've seen with nuclear in the recent decades.

Re: Nuclear Power Is the Answer to Global and Environmental Energy Woes

#36

Post by Lacerda69 »

kvgr wrote: post #24
eric-burel wrote: post #12

As a French not expert in the matter but living near nuclear plants: - one of the plant regularly leaks radioactive material - rivers are getting too hot to cool down nuclear plants correctly - nuclear plants are very unreliable, we almost got out of power this winter and next winter will be equally tough (only an abnormally hot winter avoid cuts...) - the government wants to simplify control organism and laws around…

How can it leaks? Do you have any source? Well you had some of them turned off for maintanance, that happens.

[dead]

Re: Nuclear Power Is the Answer to Global and Environmental Energy Woes

#37

Post by eric-burel »

tarr11 wrote: post #31
eric-burel wrote: post #12

As a French not expert in the matter but living near nuclear plants: - one of the plant regularly leaks radioactive material - rivers are getting too hot to cool down nuclear plants correctly - nuclear plants are very unreliable, we almost got out of power this winter and next winter will be equally tough (only an abnormally hot winter avoid cuts...) - the government wants to simplify control organism and laws around…

I wasn’t aware of the nuclear problems in France. Here is some explanation of the problems. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/why-nuclear-powered-...

Regarding the government response the article omits the plan to simplify legislation around building new plants. This law might not even be debated in parliament, only senate.

Re: Nuclear Power Is the Answer to Global and Environmental Energy Woes

#38

Post by themagician »

My 2¢:

We live in a world where all work goes to the lowest bidder and people will always cut corners if they believe the liability won't fall on them.

The entire world could be safely powered off nuclear energy if it wasn't for pesky humans that will always lie, cheat, and steal from each other. Given that human greed is unavoidable and a nuclear accident can pollute an area for 10,000 years it's probably best to recognize our own flaws as we consider what to do with it.

I mean, here in the US we have a hard time operating trains without catastrophic failure.

Re: Nuclear Power Is the Answer to Global and Environmental Energy Woes

#39

Post by ben_w »

timellis-smith wrote: post #26
rhaway84773 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On a night when wind output was particularly low. Another way to put this is that variable sources of energy are variable.

Of course and that needs to be factored into renewable supplies which massively increases their cost. When you have periods of Dunkelflaute you potentially need to have full grid redundancy either through inter-connects, other energy generation sources or battery backup, none of which are cheap.

Indeed, on all counts; it's just that the easy-obvious-and-suboptimal solution (LiIon batteries which are the worst solution you don't have to explain to anyone) are on-par with the cost of nuclear.

Re: Nuclear Power Is the Answer to Global and Environmental Energy Woes

#40

Post by rullelito »

themagician wrote: post #38

My 2¢: We live in a world where all work goes to the lowest bidder and people will always cut corners if they believe the liability won't fall on them. The entire world could be safely powered off nuclear energy if it wasn't for pesky humans that will always lie, cheat, and steal from each other. Given that human greed is unavoidable and a nuclear accident can pollute an area for 10,000 years it's probably best to re…

An alternative to emotional arguments is to look at the statistics.
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