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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

#111

Post by realusername »

KennyBlanken wrote: post #97
illiarian wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

Nuclear proponents when trying to sell nuclear love to shout about how successful France is. Someone from France is telling you that actually, it's really not that great...and now France's nuclear program is terrible and the result of 20-30 years of neglect and politics? Also, which part of "nuclear plants are sensitive to environmental changes" didn't you get? If there's no cooling water, or the water is too hot, th…

Sure, France has it's own issues but they are not really related to the tech itself.

Point me any other energy company which could have survived basically 20 years without proper investments and forced to sell back electricity to their competitors.

I would even say that the tech is what made the grid still standing against all odds.

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

#112

Post by haweemwho »

wyager wrote: post #96
mistersquid wrote: post #85

Nuclear reactors are desirable targets for hostile forces, like Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant which was targeted by Russia. [0] [0] https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-says-ukraine-she...

Any electrical infrastructure is a strategic target. If it's not a power plant, it's a substation.

If you have solar on every domestic rooftop, you can't bomb all of them.

I mean, you can try, but then energy shortage is not on top of the list of problems that the population has.

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

#113

Post by lispm »

the_third_wave wrote: post #101
lispm wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We can import electricity from the European grids we are connected to. For example my region has recently brought up a 1.4 GW HVDC underwater cable, which can be used in both directions. It connects North Germany to Hydro power in Norway.

We - in Sweden - noticed this when we saw our electricity prices go through the roof due to those interconnects enabling German prices to trickle back up the lines. Thanks to the boneheaded "green" politicos in Germany shutting down nuclear power plants we'll be paying more for our electricity in the coming years. Please, German neighbours, vote out those watermelons and put some sense back in to the Bundestag.

If nuclear is so great in Sweden, why were so many plants closed there?

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

#114

Post by fsh »

blibble wrote: post #70
kvgr wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

all nuclear power stations emit small amounts of liquid and gas radwaste as part of normal operation mostly tritium and tritiated water that has been activated in the coolant circuits (practically impossible to separate) but some other isotopes (carbon-14, caesium-137) here's the environmental permit for the UK's most modern power station: https://consult.environment-agency.gov.uk/nuclear/consultati... solid radwaste…

No, coal is barely radioactive at all. The small traces of Thorium and Uranium are completely negligible. An old study from 1978 has estimated that nuclear reactors emit somewhat more radiation than coal power plants, but the levels are overall insignificant [1].

This is only about emissions though. The radioactive waste produced by nuclear power plants has many many orders of magnitude more activity than the emissions.

[1] https://www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1126/science.202.4372.104...

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

#115

Post by bottlepalm »

wyager wrote: post #96
mistersquid wrote: post #85

Nuclear reactors are desirable targets for hostile forces, like Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant which was targeted by Russia. [0] [0] https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-says-ukraine-she...

Any electrical infrastructure is a strategic target. If it's not a power plant, it's a substation.

The difference is its not easy to turn a nuclear plant 'off', quickly, and even then it still needs power to keep the spent fuel cool. If the plant loses backup power (which is finite) then you'll get a disaster with the spent fuel pool boiling off and the fuel itself igniting spreading radioactive ash for miles.

The point is it's very dangerous to have a nuclear power plant in the middle of a warzone.

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

#116

Post by mike_d »

KennyBlanken wrote: post #97
illiarian wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

Nuclear proponents when trying to sell nuclear love to shout about how successful France is. Someone from France is telling you that actually, it's really not that great...and now France's nuclear program is terrible and the result of 20-30 years of neglect and politics? Also, which part of "nuclear plants are sensitive to environmental changes" didn't you get? If there's no cooling water, or the water is too hot, th…

> Someone from France is telling you that actually, it's really not that great

Yet is amazing that even with the poor management of the French government, it is still a beacon of hope the rest of the world looks to for our energy future.

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

#117

Post by MikeCapone »

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…

France has been mismanaging its fleet and signally for years that they want to move away from it, under-investing in it, etc. It's not the technology's fault.

Germany had some of the best managed plants in the world -- until they decided to shut them down, leading to more coal being burned and more dependence on other countries like Russia...

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

#118

Post by bottlepalm »

jhp123 wrote: post #30

the article mentions that 2 billion tons of coal would be needed to manufacture solar panels to meet half of today's global energy needs with renewables. That is about 3 months of global coal consumption at current rates. If we decide to go all in on nuclear instead, we can turn off the coal plants in a mere 15 years or so.

Think of all the new disasters we'll get to experience with thousands of new nuclear power plants.

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

#119

Post by wyager »

haweemwho wrote: post #112
wyager wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any electrical infrastructure is a strategic target. If it's not a power plant, it's a substation.

If you have solar on every domestic rooftop, you can't bomb all of them. I mean, you can try, but then energy shortage is not on top of the list of problems that the population has.

If you have solar on every domestic rooftop, that also doesn't actually let you address realistic power consumption patterns.

If we're talking about not-yet-extant technology that would allow solar to meet 24/7 demand at grid scale (like power storage that costs 1% as much as it does now), we might as well be talking about small-scale-fusion power, which is also resistant to being bombed and is generally better than solar+batteries for other reasons.

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

#120

Post by NineStarPoint »

krunck wrote: post #53

The article doesn't even mention words fusion or fission. Like all nuclear power is the same. Be assured the author is a shill for the trad fission industry. We don't need that.

Fission plants are the only plants we have that are actually useable at this point in time, so of course there’s no reason to clarify. While we should definitely be putting more money into fusion research, if you’re worried about an environmental catastrophe you don’t have time to hope fusion actually works sometime in the next 50 years. You have to make plans based on what technology you know functions, not a moonshot.
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