Nuclear seems like the best hope for humanity, really a shame people are so afraid of it. Although, I guess the fear is justified given how many disasters there have been.
Japan Turns to Coal After Closing Nuclear Power Plants
11–20 of 142 posts
Re: Japan Turns to Coal After Closing Nuclear Power Plants
#12Same thing happened in Germany. This is a really hard problem. I consider myself pretty pro-nuclear but it can never be 100% safe. I can't blame Japan for wanting out after Fukushima, but at the same time there has to be some kind of approach that balances short-term safety against the long-term consequences of carbonization.
Safety is not necessarily the concern, though clearly important. It's also the huge task of decommissioning afterwards. Even "safe" nuclear power stations require the disposal of all sorts of irradiated mundane things like PPE. Contrary to popular belief its not all spent fuel rods. When you dismantle it's even more difficult because you have to use specialised equipment to take buildings apart room by room. We're still not good at decommissioning, it's an active research area (lots of funding though) and it's going to be like this for decades.
Re: Japan Turns to Coal After Closing Nuclear Power Plants
#13Fukushima reactor design was terrible. Like legit bad. I wonder if open source nuclear power plants plans are the future.
Looking forward to the GitHub issue about the color of the plant's bike shed.
Re: Japan Turns to Coal After Closing Nuclear Power Plants
#14Fukushima reactor design was terrible. Like legit bad. I wonder if open source nuclear power plants plans are the future.
I'm a big advocate of open source but if a nuclear reactor based on an open-source project would be opened close to me, I'd pack up and move as far as I could.
Re: Japan Turns to Coal After Closing Nuclear Power Plants
#15Same thing happened in Germany. This is a really hard problem. I consider myself pretty pro-nuclear but it can never be 100% safe. I can't blame Japan for wanting out after Fukushima, but at the same time there has to be some kind of approach that balances short-term safety against the long-term consequences of carbonization.
Safety is not necessarily the concern, though clearly important. It's also the huge task of decommissioning afterwards. Even "safe" nuclear power stations require the disposal of all sorts of irradiated mundane things like PPE. Contrary to popular belief its not all spent fuel rods. When you dismantle it's even more difficult because you have to use specialised equipment to take buildings apart room by room. We're st…
There is also the fact that no country on Earth can truly guarantee they can properly store the waste for the timelines required.
Re: Japan Turns to Coal After Closing Nuclear Power Plants
#16Same thing happened in Germany. This is a really hard problem. I consider myself pretty pro-nuclear but it can never be 100% safe. I can't blame Japan for wanting out after Fukushima, but at the same time there has to be some kind of approach that balances short-term safety against the long-term consequences of carbonization.
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Re: Japan Turns to Coal After Closing Nuclear Power Plants
#17Same thing happened in Germany. This is a really hard problem. I consider myself pretty pro-nuclear but it can never be 100% safe. I can't blame Japan for wanting out after Fukushima, but at the same time there has to be some kind of approach that balances short-term safety against the long-term consequences of carbonization.
No energy source is 100% safe. People die when working on windmills and hydroelectric disasters are way more deadly than nuclear disasters. I think 100% safe is an unreasonable requirement.
Re: Japan Turns to Coal After Closing Nuclear Power Plants
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
Safety is not necessarily the concern, though clearly important. It's also the huge task of decommissioning afterwards. Even "safe" nuclear power stations require the disposal of all sorts of irradiated mundane things like PPE. Contrary to popular belief its not all spent fuel rods. When you dismantle it's even more difficult because you have to use specialised equipment to take buildings apart room by room. We're st…
There is also the fact that no country on Earth can truly guarantee they can properly store the waste for the timelines required.
Unlike coal power plants, where every country guarantees the radioactive, planet harming, human health harming, output is safely stored for as long as necessary, in a single place we can all easily avoid... right?
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/coal-ash-is-more-...
Re: Japan Turns to Coal After Closing Nuclear Power Plants
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
Safety is not necessarily the concern, though clearly important. It's also the huge task of decommissioning afterwards. Even "safe" nuclear power stations require the disposal of all sorts of irradiated mundane things like PPE. Contrary to popular belief its not all spent fuel rods. When you dismantle it's even more difficult because you have to use specialised equipment to take buildings apart room by room. We're st…
There is also the fact that no country on Earth can truly guarantee they can properly store the waste for the timelines required.
A common argument used to be that at least the amount of uranium is finite, so we can simply plan where to put it. Another interesting aspect is that we only have a few centuries of nuclear power left at current reserve and consumption rates. Uranium is absolutely a non renewable fuel.
This could change with breeder reactors or the various fancy things being researched, but I think there is a public perception that uranium is unlimited.
Re: Japan Turns to Coal After Closing Nuclear Power Plants
#20Same thing happened in Germany. This is a really hard problem. I consider myself pretty pro-nuclear but it can never be 100% safe. I can't blame Japan for wanting out after Fukushima, but at the same time there has to be some kind of approach that balances short-term safety against the long-term consequences of carbonization.
> Same thing happened in Germany.
Germany turned to coal? It didn't happen. Germany actually turned to renewables.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity_sector_in_Germany#...
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