Tim Hollo

Since we’re talking about #NuclearPower again, here’s something I wrote 8 years ago on why it’s the right’s favourite talking point:
- it’s about domination & dominion over the world
- it’s centralised & helps keep corporations in charge, privatising profits & socialising risk
- it allows them to pretend we can address the #ClimateCrisis without changing anything else about how we live, how we govern, how we structure our economy.

“Opposition to nuclear power is, I would emphasise, a rational position. The evidence is stacked against it. A suite of #RenewableEnergy options can be rolled out faster and cheaper and more safely, and they can supply our energy needs - so long as we also change our profligate lifestyles.

But it is also an ethical position, based on a world-view; a view that we humans need to stop living as if there is no tomorrow, or there will be no tomorrow; a view that we can and should live as though all of us on this planet, human and non-human, now and in the future, matter.

Support for nuclear power is based on a world-view, but it doesn’t have the benefit of also being backed by rational arguments. It is simply a fantasy of the right, a convenient prop they occasionally produce to pretend we can address climate change while changing nothing, a weapon in their culture war.”

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/dec/01/nuclear-power-keeps-the-corporates-in-charge-no-wonder-its-conservatives-preferred-solution-to-climate-change

Nuclear power keeps the corporates in charge. No wonder it's conservatives' preferred solution to climate change

Tony Abbott says he has ‘no theological objection’ to nuclear power. That’s fair – only blind faith could justify his belief in a power source that’s so costly and risky

The Guardian
Dec 5, 2022 at 9:31pmWeb
Show threadI love this, so IDec 5, 2022
@timhollo it’s all distraction that can safely be ignored until someone starts talking about changing the law that prevents nuclear reactors from being built in Australia
Show threadBryceDec 5, 2022
@timhollo Hi, I'm quite left leaning and an #engineer and very #pronuclear . It's quite polarizing to assume. My beliefs are rationalized by engineering discipline. desire to save the environment for future generations, and the desire to increase quality of life for the most people possible.
Show threadTim HolloDec 5, 2022
@coffeemayonnaise yes, I know a handful of exceptions that, as they say, prove the rule. Not sure where in the world you are, but here in Australia, where we have huge resources of sun and wind and wave, nuclear is a ridiculous distraction that can never be implemented as fast or cheaply as renewables.
Show threadLee 🌏Dec 5, 2022
@timhollo
Nuclear power is like #Twitter
Renewables are like #Mastodon (Fediverse)
?
Show threadTim HolloDec 5, 2022
@MrLee love it
Show threadEndemicEarthlingDec 5, 2022

@timhollo New investments in #nuclearpower assume the ongoing stability and solvency of the state, and its maintenance of a large security apparatus, for the next century or so.

Is there any nation on Earth where you'd be willing to bet, with a very high degree of certainty, that they will not experience significant economic/political upheaval for the next 100 years? If not, then you're backing a #nuclear sized gamble.

Show threadTim HolloDec 5, 2022
@EndemicEarthling indeed
Show threadRafa Font 🌻 🇪🇺 🏀Dec 6, 2022

@timhollo @EndemicEarthling I would like to add figures to the gamble.

- Many new plants are estimated to be built in 5 years. They never make it.
- Budget is routinely underestimated.
- In many places, the #nuclearpower gamble involves partnering with Putin
- Decommissioning is even worse, time frame can be a hundred years (UK Calder Hall decom to end in 2120).

I wrote a bit on the project management side of European new nuclear

https://europeanperspective.substack.com/p/schedules-costs-and-risks-of-new

Schedules, costs and risks of new nuclear megaprojects

Building a new nuclear plant is a megaproject. And, surprise, removing it too.

The European Perspective