Good.
Italy moves to reverse anti-nuclear stance
31–40 of 396 posts
Re: Italy moves to reverse anti-nuclear stance
#32The problem with nuclear in Italy is just one: how many time have you read about a public bridge fallen because of bad construction? Same for roads, houses and so on. Most of the time the reason is the company building those, trying to spend less in materials and avoiding regulations - something unfortunately not so unusual in Italy. So imagine what could happen with a nuclear plant... (nuclear is safe, building in I…
National stereotypes...
Italy's the 3rd largest economy in the EU, and 8th in the world, with an advanced technology sector to boot.
And if they somehow cannot figure it out, their French neighbors most assuredly can.
Re: Italy moves to reverse anti-nuclear stance
#33Isn't the price of a KW of solar panels similar to the price of a KW of nuclear power these days? I wonder what hinders us to replace the roofs of all houses with solar panels and put batteries in all cellars? It might still be useful to build out nuclear power plants. But the solar+battery approach seems like an easier first step to increase the available power, doesn't it?
Apples to oranges. But in italy, solar with batteries may already be cheaper. Or geothermal energy. But, hey, they want to do a study and the study will find that out too.
Italy is one of the best countries in the EU to do solar in.
https://solargis.com/resources/free-maps-and-gis-data?locali...
Re: Italy moves to reverse anti-nuclear stance
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
Solar is much cheaper than nuclear. Italian new builds need to add solar panels. Nuclear isn’t a bad option too. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket
The major point here is that nuclear is controllable energy type while solar is not. So comparing only the price is apples to oranges comparison. Most human energy consumers need energy with a fixed rate and all physical metrics withing a tight margin. To prouduce that with only solar energy is impossible. This means you have to build other energy sources into the grid like gas turbines to be able to control the grid…
Solar + batteries is still cheaper than nuclear
Re: Italy moves to reverse anti-nuclear stance
#35I think realistically this is the only way in the turbulent times we live in. Even in the small and interconnected Europe, you have to be completely self sustainable when the need arises. We've seen more than enough broken pipes, power lines and the like in the last year alone to underline this need.
Italy neither has the engineers to build a nuclear power plant, they would have to ask another nation, like Russia, Canada or France, to build it for them. And where does the nuclear fuel come from? Russia.
The fuel comes primarily from Kazachstan, Canada and Australia.
Edit: Parent meant enriched uranium, not ore so this comment is not relevant.
Re: Italy moves to reverse anti-nuclear stance
#36Isn't the price of a KW of solar panels similar to the price of a KW of nuclear power these days? I wonder what hinders us to replace the roofs of all houses with solar panels and put batteries in all cellars? It might still be useful to build out nuclear power plants. But the solar+battery approach seems like an easier first step to increase the available power, doesn't it?
> Isn't the price of a KW of solar panels similar to the price of a KW of nuclear power these days?
Solar with battery backup is about that, globally, on average.
But: the averages have sufficiently broad variance that there's places where one wins, and places where the other wins.
PV+battery is between 75-140 USD/MWh; whereas new nuclear is, depending on who I ask, any of 81-82, 65, or 141–221 USD/MWh.
Re: Italy moves to reverse anti-nuclear stance
#37I think realistically this is the only way in the turbulent times we live in. Even in the small and interconnected Europe, you have to be completely self sustainable when the need arises. We've seen more than enough broken pipes, power lines and the like in the last year alone to underline this need.
Italy neither has the engineers to build a nuclear power plant, they would have to ask another nation, like Russia, Canada or France, to build it for them. And where does the nuclear fuel come from? Russia.
Aren't there other ore sources ? I think nuclear powered countries diversified inputs.
Re: Italy moves to reverse anti-nuclear stance
#38I think realistically this is the only way in the turbulent times we live in. Even in the small and interconnected Europe, you have to be completely self sustainable when the need arises. We've seen more than enough broken pipes, power lines and the like in the last year alone to underline this need.
Italy neither has the engineers to build a nuclear power plant, they would have to ask another nation, like Russia, Canada or France, to build it for them. And where does the nuclear fuel come from? Russia.
>And where does the nuclear fuel come from?
Canada, Khazakhstan, Namibi, and so on. Russia is pretty far down the list. Australia has the largest known reserves of uranium they just haven pushed to extensively extract it.
Re: Italy moves to reverse anti-nuclear stance
#39Isn't the price of a KW of solar panels similar to the price of a KW of nuclear power these days? I wonder what hinders us to replace the roofs of all houses with solar panels and put batteries in all cellars? It might still be useful to build out nuclear power plants. But the solar+battery approach seems like an easier first step to increase the available power, doesn't it?
It doesn't matter. As far as I am concerned, self sufficiency comes before price concerns. Nuclear is very safe and reliable. By all means, EU countries should keep investing in Solar, Wind, Geotermal, etc. but that should be done alongside Nuclear.
> Nuclear is very safe and reliable.
How do we stop fukushima-like disasters?
Re: Italy moves to reverse anti-nuclear stance
#40The problem with nuclear in Italy is just one: how many time have you read about a public bridge fallen because of bad construction? Same for roads, houses and so on. Most of the time the reason is the company building those, trying to spend less in materials and avoiding regulations - something unfortunately not so unusual in Italy. So imagine what could happen with a nuclear plant... (nuclear is safe, building in I…
France has never had a major nuclear accident. The biggest issue is of course, earthquakes in Italy.