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France to Build Six New Nuclear Reactors

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Re: France to Build Six New Nuclear Reactors

#341

Post by mhroth »

immmmmm wrote: post #303
gobip wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

France is not serious about climate? If you're in a neighbor country of France: congrats, your electricity is much more polluted than France's is. Énergie Nucléaire was a thing of De Gaulle, but not for these reasons. France needed independence and needed to provide electricity, and the only way was nuclear (at the time). Given the current situation, I think France didn't do too bad. Only one candidate in France on p…

I live in Switzerland, 60% of my electricity comes from hydro. Ok ok, De Gaulle was maybe more concerned about energy independence. France doesn't do too bad? Any link? As far a i remember only a few African countries do "not too bad", but perhaps you were referring to former colonies as well. > I live in France, never heard of this "Net Zero" you're talking about. I then suggest some good climate information channel…

I live in Switzerland too. That hydro comes from water pumped uphill at night by cheap French nuclear power. (/s. Mostly.)

Re: France to Build Six New Nuclear Reactors

#342

Post by immmmmm »

lm28469 wrote: post #334
immmmmm wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in Switzerland, 60% of my electricity comes from hydro. Ok ok, De Gaulle was maybe more concerned about energy independence. France doesn't do too bad? Any link? As far a i remember only a few African countries do "not too bad", but perhaps you were referring to former colonies as well. > I live in France, never heard of this "Net Zero" you're talking about. I then suggest some good climate information channel…

> I live in Switzerland, 60% of my electricity comes from hydro. Switzerland in an anomaly on virtually every metrics you can come by.

yes! and we are the worst on many other metrics!! for instance one of the biggest marketplace for worldwide oil. take any of the worst polluting company, most have their headquarters here.

Re: France to Build Six New Nuclear Reactors

#343

Post by chess_buster »

enqk wrote: post #324
phicoh wrote: post #314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ignoring storage, wind and solar are now very cheap. For example, companies now pay to rent pieces of North Sea to place wind parks there.

Wind and solar need a lot of resources from mining, which itself uses fossil fuel (for extraction, treatment and transport) and creates a lot of local pollution. Wind and solar take a lot of space that could be used for agriculture, so they compete with important uses of the soil. (I don't know if it's clear how much offshore is a thing, but I suppose this increases also energy expenditure)

You can put solar on the roof and you can farm between the wind turbines, so that's not correct.

Re: France to Build Six New Nuclear Reactors

#344

Post by immmmmm »

yamrzou wrote: post #309
immmmmm wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For living in a neighboring country, speaking their language and following their policy quite a bit, i can tell you that, no, they are nowhere near serious. Just as an example, the best performing company this year is Total with 15B and which is happily feeding the government with petrodollars and the other people with lies about "Net Zero " etc. "Énergie Nucléaire" as they call it is a thing there because De Gaulle…

Jancovici is a legend. Listenening to him and reading his latest comic book ( Le monde sans fin ) made me very aware of climate issues and directly influenced my behavior. He deserves to be better known by international audiences. Here are some of his talks in english: - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGt4XwBbCvA - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s254IPHXgVA

oh thank you! didn't know he had talks in english!

i love how rude, physics based and down to earth he is, a legend indeed!

Re: France to Build Six New Nuclear Reactors

#345

Post by [deleted] »

epistasis wrote: post #252
visarga wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Once a few years, we get a few weeks without much wind and solar. What do we do then? Solar and wind can't store enough energy to last for weeks.

However we do it, it looks like nuclear won't be it, because we can't build nuclear. Some of the more likely routes, with clearer cheaper cost curves than advanced nuclear or SMRs: 1) advanced geothermal (using drilling tech developed within the last decade, not the older ones) 2) flow batteries 3) chemical storage of electricity, whether as ammonia, hydrogen, methanol, or whatever tech path becomes cheapest. 4) for…

[deleted]

Re: France to Build Six New Nuclear Reactors

#346

Post by Reason077 »

loup-vaillant wrote: post #308
gobip wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

France is not serious about climate? If you're in a neighbor country of France: congrats, your electricity is much more polluted than France's is. Énergie Nucléaire was a thing of De Gaulle, but not for these reasons. France needed independence and needed to provide electricity, and the only way was nuclear (at the time). Given the current situation, I think France didn't do too bad. Only one candidate in France on p…

Well, now France is not being serious about climate, and has not been since at least 10 years, when we had Hollande on the throne. We've had talks about closing down nuke plants that are still in working order, the next one is taking forever, and we still have many people who want to shut it all down in the very name of the environment (overall, the French people are woefully misinformed about the pros and cons of nu…

> "windmills & solar panels, which requires many more times the ground surface and/or concrete"

There is no scenario where a comparable wind or solar farm requires more concrete than a nuclear plant. Not even close. A modern nuclear plant requires hundreds of thousands of cubic meters of concrete (ie: over a million tonnes), as well as hundreds of thousands of tonnes of steel.

Yes, a solar farm may require more land surface area, but it can be very quickly and easily deconstructed and removed when no longer required. Where as decommissioning a nuclear plant can cost tens of billions of Euros, and can take 60 years or more to complete.

Re: France to Build Six New Nuclear Reactors

#347

Post by tsimionescu »

chess_buster wrote: post #343
enqk wrote: post #324

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wind and solar need a lot of resources from mining, which itself uses fossil fuel (for extraction, treatment and transport) and creates a lot of local pollution. Wind and solar take a lot of space that could be used for agriculture, so they compete with important uses of the soil. (I don't know if it's clear how much offshore is a thing, but I suppose this increases also energy expenditure)

You can put solar on the roof and you can farm between the wind turbines, so that's not correct.

Solar on the roof only matters for single family homes, of which you won't find too many in European cities. Solar on the roof of a 12 story apartment building is not going to do much to help the residents.

Re: France to Build Six New Nuclear Reactors

#348

Post by jokoon »

socialdemocrat wrote: post #7

I am skeptical to current nuclear power, would have liked Molten Salt Reactors instead. However I see leaders having to do something. Environmentalists are blocking construction of more wind power, and crisis with Russia makes gas less accessible. France has a relatively good track record on nuclear power. They may pull this off. 2035 is a really long time to wait for new power to the grid though.

A 17min explanation on molten salts by a nuclear physics professor:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F92L6F0INYk

Re: France to Build Six New Nuclear Reactors

#349

Post by immmmmm »

mhroth wrote: post #341
immmmmm wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in Switzerland, 60% of my electricity comes from hydro. Ok ok, De Gaulle was maybe more concerned about energy independence. France doesn't do too bad? Any link? As far a i remember only a few African countries do "not too bad", but perhaps you were referring to former colonies as well. > I live in France, never heard of this "Net Zero" you're talking about. I then suggest some good climate information channel…

I live in Switzerland too. That hydro comes from water pumped uphill at night by cheap French nuclear power. (/s. Mostly.)

what the **** ** are you saying. not even 10% of hydro can pump in CH.

Re: France to Build Six New Nuclear Reactors

#350

Post by deepsun »

stewbrew wrote: post #240
Nbox9 wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's particularly smart in this moment It may be particularly smart for this moment in internal French politics, but energy independence is a smart move for any sovereign.

Speaking about independence: where does the uran come from? And how is this clever since the EDF cannot sell their nuclear power without making losses?

> where does the uran come from

All over the place. Uranite is pretty common. E.g. Canada has 200+ locations: https://www.mindat.org/min-4102.html (scroll to the very bottom).

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