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Belgium stops decommissioning nuclear power plants

dpa-international.com

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Re: Belgium stops decommissioning nuclear power plants

#61

Post by ben_w »

bombcar wrote: post #44
formerly_proven wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And the West is also largely not keen on producing new humans (time and costs as much as anything else). In my state the immediate costs to parents for raising a kid up to the age of 18 are around eight median gross incomes with the opportunity costs usually estimated about as high. This means having a kid loses parents around one quarter to one third of their total lifetime income . That's before even considering…

Then I can be a millionaire just by having five, six kids! Because that is 48 median gross incomes, which is $4m. Better growth curve than most YC startups!

Losing money on each unit and making up for it in scale may win VC money, but doesn't work elsewhere.

Re: Belgium stops decommissioning nuclear power plants

#62

Post by thrownthatway »

cogman10 wrote: post #54
pjc50 wrote: post #2

Strictly: France will no longer decommission Belgium's nuclear power plants, as Belgium will buy them. The current owner Engie are majority-owned by the French government. Apparently there also used to be a phaseout policy which is being rescinded: https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/other/belgium-and-czechia-ram... I'm not keen on new nuclear (time and cost as much as anything else), but it's a terrible idea to phase out…

> I'm not keen on new nuclear (time and cost as much as anything else), but it's a terrible idea to phase out operating nuclear plants which are still safe and within their planned lifetime. Funnily, I have almost the opposite view. I'm terrified of old nuclear because those first gen power plants are all missing a lot of safety lessons. Nuclear disasters happen at old plants. I want old nuclear plants to be either u…

What nuclear disasters? Exactly? Name one nuclear disaster at an old nuclear plant whose lessons weren’t applied to the whole fleet.

Re: Belgium stops decommissioning nuclear power plants

#63

Post by bavell »

formerly_proven wrote: post #34
nandomrumber wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> And the West is also largely not keen on producing new humans (time and costs as much as anything else). In my state the immediate costs to parents for raising a kid up to the age of 18 are around eight median gross incomes with the opportunity costs usually estimated about as high. This means having a kid loses parents around one quarter to one third of their total lifetime income . That's before even considering…

HN bio checks out.

Kids are an investment, not a sunk cost.

Re: Belgium stops decommissioning nuclear power plants

#64

Post by nickserv »

derektank wrote: post #41
notachatbot123 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Humankind should depopulate, we cannot sustain infinite growth and are already destroying our planet. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_overpopulation

There’s more forested land in Europe today than there has been since the middle ages

Citation needed.

Also, even if true, a lot is likely due to people leaving the countryside and migrating to the cities during the latter half of the 20th century. To feed these urban populations, an enormous amount of food needs to be imported from other countries. So really the deforestation has been exported, same as pollution from manufacturing.

Re: Belgium stops decommissioning nuclear power plants

#65

Post by chrisweekly »

formerly_proven wrote: post #34
nandomrumber wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> And the West is also largely not keen on producing new humans (time and costs as much as anything else). In my state the immediate costs to parents for raising a kid up to the age of 18 are around eight median gross incomes with the opportunity costs usually estimated about as high. This means having a kid loses parents around one quarter to one third of their total lifetime income . That's before even considering…

Add in college and support through early-twenties (pretty baseline scenario for upper-middle class parents in the US) and the financial calculation is even tougher.

That said, if the most thoughtful potential parents don't have and raise civic-minded children, the percentage of new humans raised by less "enlightened" parents will increase, leading to a downward spiral.

For my part, I'm confident that the world is a better place because my two daughters are in it, and I'm definitely a better person for having been their father.

Re: Belgium stops decommissioning nuclear power plants

#66

Post by lifty »

There's a very dark scenario where for some reason or another (all out nuclear war or asteroid hit) sunlight is blocked, in which case having stable base load energy production from nuclear would be very useful. I know this is an unlikely scenario and hopefully it never happens, but it's always good to think about tail risks like these.

Re: Belgium stops decommissioning nuclear power plants

#67

Post by mcmcmc »

formerly_proven wrote: post #34
nandomrumber wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> And the West is also largely not keen on producing new humans (time and costs as much as anything else). In my state the immediate costs to parents for raising a kid up to the age of 18 are around eight median gross incomes with the opportunity costs usually estimated about as high. This means having a kid loses parents around one quarter to one third of their total lifetime income . That's before even considering…

Anti-natalism is such a weird concept to me. Taken to the logical extreme aren’t you just arguing we should all kill ourselves?

Re: Belgium stops decommissioning nuclear power plants

#68

Post by triceratops »

nandomrumber wrote: post #26
pjc50 wrote: post #2

Strictly: France will no longer decommission Belgium's nuclear power plants, as Belgium will buy them. The current owner Engie are majority-owned by the French government. Apparently there also used to be a phaseout policy which is being rescinded: https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/other/belgium-and-czechia-ram... I'm not keen on new nuclear (time and cost as much as anything else), but it's a terrible idea to phase out…

[flagged]

> And the West is also largely not keen on producing new humans... And seems to think it can just import people from other, far, away places.

Shoving immigration diatribes randomly into unrelated discussions is really tiresome. Sir, this is a comment thread about nuclear power.

Re: Belgium stops decommissioning nuclear power plants

#70

Post by artursapek »

triceratops wrote: post #68
nandomrumber wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> And the West is also largely not keen on producing new humans... And seems to think it can just import people from other, far, away places. Shoving immigration diatribes randomly into unrelated discussions is really tiresome. Sir, this is a comment thread about nuclear power .

It’s absolutely related. It's constantly being excused by politicians as a solution to labor shortages.
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