Swiss parliament lifts ban on new nuclear power plants • Hacker News Board

Re: Swiss parliament lifts ban on new nuclear power plants

#631

Post by duskwuff » Fri, Jun 19, 2026, 4:58 AM UTC

awesome_dude wrote: post #596

noosphr wrote: post #439

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And yet we had a natural nuclear reactor that's been self contained for 2 billion years: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_nuclear_fission_reacto...

Yeah, i know about that one and it kind of proves my point, it's been active as a nuclear reactor for roughly a billion years if i recall correctly - every time water seeped into the rock it slowed the neutrons down and the reactor started up, created steam, which then evaporated and stopped the reaction Dangerous the whole time.

If only there had been some kind of geological steam turbine to go with it... :)

Re: Swiss parliament lifts ban on new nuclear power plants

#632

Post by rogerrogerr » Fri, Jun 19, 2026, 4:58 AM UTC

matheusmoreira wrote: post #572

thelastgallon wrote: post #567

Two things to keep in mind when thinking about nuclear 1) Has the lowest deaths/TWH: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/death-rates-from-energy-p... 2) Any country that is not US absolutely needs to invest in nuclear technology. This is for your own security. In addition to providing energy security, it also provides physical security (with a bit more work). Without nuclear, your country will remain vulnerable to: 1)…

This. Any country without nuclear weapons is at the mercy of those that do. It's just strategic. Might as well get some clean energy out of it.

This seems clearly not very true; Iran didn’t seem very at the mercy of the US this year. There is a ton of resistance to actually using nuclear weapons, seemingly making them practically irrelevant.

Re: Swiss parliament lifts ban on new nuclear power plants

#633

Post by awesome_dude » Fri, Jun 19, 2026, 5:02 AM UTC

duskwuff wrote: post #631

awesome_dude wrote: post #596

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, i know about that one and it kind of proves my point, it's been active as a nuclear reactor for roughly a billion years if i recall correctly - every time water seeped into the rock it slowed the neutrons down and the reactor started up, created steam, which then evaporated and stopped the reaction Dangerous the whole time.

If only there had been some kind of geological steam turbine to go with it... :)

Would have made a nice steamed ham

Re: Swiss parliament lifts ban on new nuclear power plants

#634

Post by pbgcp2026 » Fri, Jun 19, 2026, 5:04 AM UTC

bilekas wrote: post #146

jokteur wrote: post #32

This still has to pass with the people in a referendum. The discourse on nuclear is still quite chaotic in politics in Switzerland. All left leaning parties and greens parties are strongly against nuclear. I am not expecting informed and civil discussions about this topic. Switzerland has a summer/winter energy problem. We have lots of potential of producing energy in the spring and summer (when our dams are full fro…

Switzerland has an amazing opportunity to be the standard setter in the EU with nuclear though. The technology is so unbelievably safe and efficient these days. It a real shame to leave it all on the table because of poorly designed and managed disasters.

"The technology is so unbelievably safe". Absolutely! Chernobyl and Fukushima are post card holiday resort destinations ...

Re: Swiss parliament lifts ban on new nuclear power plants

#635

Post by pbgcp2026 » Fri, Jun 19, 2026, 5:06 AM UTC

LtdJorge wrote: post #590

crote wrote: post #582

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Imagine a Thorium reactor that can be put into the bowels of a Hospital or an office building basement and supply electrical power. Imagine the terrorism we'll see when highly radioactive material is within reach of any disgruntled office worker.

You cannot make regular nuclear weapons out of thorium

And I already can imagine that prompt "Mythos, create a design for ..."

Re: Swiss parliament lifts ban on new nuclear power plants

#636

Post by fakedang » Fri, Jun 19, 2026, 5:07 AM UTC

crote wrote: post #582

Danox wrote: post #455

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Chinese have built a small thorium reactor for research and development, and they went on to build a much larger Thorium reactor which they have refueled on the fly without taking it out of service. I am still surprised that America hasn’t it treated it like a Sputnik moment, but we live in different times than the mid late 1950s. I think we’re waiting for the Chinese to ship it around the world like EV cars. Ima…

> Imagine a Thorium reactor that can be put into the bowels of a Hospital or an office building basement and supply electrical power. Imagine the terrorism we'll see when highly radioactive material is within reach of any disgruntled office worker.

Hahaha, uninformed comment right here.

Thorium-based nuclear research was practically shut down during the Cold War precisely because they realized that you can't make nuclear weaponry out of it. It would have been a very different world otherwise.

Re: Swiss parliament lifts ban on new nuclear power plants

#637

Post by fakedang » Fri, Jun 19, 2026, 5:11 AM UTC

SoftTalker wrote: post #607

onraglanroad wrote: post #350

Earlier quoted context omitted.

European car manufacturers have been given every opportunity and encouragement to build EVs and the phrase "dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century" springs to mind. People are buying BYD because they're better cars, not because they're forced to.

They are cheaper cars. Not at all sure they're better.

BYDs are certainly better than VWs, Fiats, Citroens and Renaults. The only problem is getting parts - you'll have to wait at least a month or so for the part to arrive from China if it isn't locally available (which often is the case).

Re: Swiss parliament lifts ban on new nuclear power plants

#638

Post by somedude895 » Fri, Jun 19, 2026, 5:13 AM UTC

WhyNotHugo wrote: post #562

jokteur wrote: post #32

This still has to pass with the people in a referendum. The discourse on nuclear is still quite chaotic in politics in Switzerland. All left leaning parties and greens parties are strongly against nuclear. I am not expecting informed and civil discussions about this topic. Switzerland has a summer/winter energy problem. We have lots of potential of producing energy in the spring and summer (when our dams are full fro…

> All left leaning parties and greens parties are strongly against nuclear. It's crazy that the left and green parties are against cheap, sustainable and clean energy for the masses.

If it wasn‘t for the European Greens’ (partially oil lobby funded) anti-nuclear propaganda starting in the 60s, carbon emissions today would be much lower than they are.

Re: Swiss parliament lifts ban on new nuclear power plants

#639

Post by fc417fc802 » Fri, Jun 19, 2026, 5:16 AM UTC

awesome_dude wrote: post #619

fc417fc802 wrote: post #613

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So just to be clear the concern here is that something buried 2+ miles underground, in a secure container, encased along with other secure containers in a concrete vault, all homed in nonporous rock, in a geologically stable area, is suddenly going to be subjected to an earthquake, against all odds a fault is going to open right through the waste storage area, again against all odds groundwater will appear, the reinf…

So, just to be clear, you're demanding that I re-answer every concern that I've already addressed otherwise you're going to label me a troll Sounds like abuse to me.

No? I don't see where you addressed these points in context? I am saying that I don't find what you're saying to be at all convincing but am of course open to reasoned debate if you think I've got something wrong. Being concerned about the scenario I outlined above truly seems absurd to me.

Do you see an obvious issue with the sequence of events I posed?

Re: Swiss parliament lifts ban on new nuclear power plants

#640

Post by mpweiher » Fri, Jun 19, 2026, 5:20 AM UTC

pydry wrote: post #373

Tuna-Fish wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> solar and wind anticorrelate more than you think They anticorrelate in some locations. In others, they don't. Here in Finland in the winter you get effectively zero sun. We also get persistent stationary anticyclones. That means potentially over a month of temps in the -30°C region, and zero wind. Australia is extremely sunny. California is even better, they are modeling that assuming they keep their current hydro…

>They anticorrelate in some locations. In others, they don't. Here in Finland in the winter you get effectively zero sun. Virtually nowhere gets zero sun. Finland is also unusually blessed with tons and tons of hydropower potential which functions both as a battery as well as power generation. As well as a very low population density. It is also possibly the best advert for not using nuclear power ever given the disa…

Everywhere gets zero sun at night.

And at high latitudes, the night can be very long. And even when the sun does appear for a bit, it doesn't provide a lot of energy.

And you might want to ask the Fins how they feel about nuclear power: around two thirds of the population are for it as well as pretty much the entire political establishment, including the Green Party.