Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Nuclear Power Is the Answer to Global and Environmental Energy Woes

nationalinterest.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 568 posts

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

#51

Post by timellis-smith »

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.

Oh and while we're about it interconnects just increase the systemic risk of multiple regions experiencing Dunkelflaute at the same time. And it's not enough to say that this almost never happens because in a system that expects many 9s of availability almost never is just not acceptable.

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

#52

Post by ben_w »

illiarian wrote: post #44
Krasnol wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> If you push for renewables instead of wasting money on over due and over budget nuclear reactors --- start quote --- Ernst & Young (EY) has found that an average power and utility megaproject is delivered 35% over budget and two years behind schedule Of the megaprojects surveyed, 64% were delayed and 57% were over budge. Almost three-quarters of hydropower, water, coal and nuclear infrastructure projects were over…

> nuclear infrastructure projects were over budget by 49% on average,

Ahem.

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

#54

Post by runarberg »

Krasnol wrote: post #4

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

Some relevant quotes from the same author:

> The United States under a Biden administration, similar to the British, would move towards an unsustainable, and national security risk by eliminating fossil fuels, and killing people who need electricity and global security the West provides.

> The weather and climate are dynamic and ever-changing. Thus, this hysteria is a giant ploy to deprive people of freedom and liberty instead of providing them with affordable and flexible energy.

Googling the author you can see he works for a lobby group called E4 Carolinas whos biggest funders include Duke Energy and Dominion Energy both massive energy companies with a massive fossil fuel portfolio.

I think we can conclude the author has some obvious biases which benefit his employer.

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

#55

Post by pydry »

Lacerda69 wrote: post #28

Cue the atomic fanatics vs the renewable cult discussion. Has been discussed a thousand times on HN recently and it always seems both are just shouting how the other side can not see the obvious superiority of their fav energy source. why cant we have a bit of both? renewable seems very good long term and nuclear is also nice for transition. but I wouldnt want to live next to one of those crappy leaky french reactors…

Isnt this "argument to moderation"?

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

#56

Post by illiarian »

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…

> nuclear plants are very unreliable

You mean, they are the most reliable base load and load-following power sources we know.

> References are easy to find if you want confirmation

It's just as easy to find confirmation that all the problems you listed are the result of neglect and politics of the past 20-30 years.

> it has to be done properly and safely, which is certainly not the case around here.

As in: France has 56 operable reactors that provide 75% of France's electricity... And you call that neither safe, nor reliable, nor...

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

#57

Post by ben_w »

illiarian wrote: post #41
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...

> Wind alone produces ~20% of the recent years electricity in Germany. Yearly production means nothing on the night when it produces single-digit percentages of its installed capacity, does it?

Other way around, the installed capacity is the meaningless number, the actual production is the only thing that matters.

By way of example: install PV upside down, "capacity" is the same, but now it's useless.

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

#58

Post by lispm »

rullelito wrote: post #46

To every windpower fanatic in the comments. What is the plan for days when there is little wind? I guess coal?

Import electricity, for example. We have here a 1.4 GW line to Norway for hydro power. Generally Germany is surrounded by many countries which share electricity. There are many wind farms in and around the North Sea.

Yes, Germany is a large net exporter of electricity.

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

#59

Post by philipkglass »

CodeCompost wrote: post #43
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…

Somebody I know who works for an emergy company talked to me about Thorium reactors that sounded very promising. I'm too dumb to explain it but it seemed cleaner and more efficient.

Thorium based reactors have largely the same benefits and risks as uranium fueled reactors. See this page written by reactor physicist and HN poster acidburnNSA:

https://whatisnuclear.com/thorium-myths.html

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

#60

Post by switchbak »

Krasnol wrote: post #4

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

He also doesn't seem to have much of an educational nor career grounding to be making such proclamations. Not saying he's wrong, but he doesn't seem to be an authority on the subject per-se.
Post reply on HN