German Chancellor Scholz speaks out against new nuclear power
Growth in german wind capacity is slowing. Soo… then the plan is to keep on with lignite and gas? Am I missing something? Installed Wind Capacty - Germany German Wind Capacity [https://lemmy.ml/pictrs/image/08ff4e67-7e8c-414e-80e1-08d3fb9bffb4.png]
Don’t import Reddit’s extremely ignorant takes on nuclear power here, please. Nuclear power is a huge waste of money.
If you’re about to angrily downvote me (or you already did), or write an angry reply, please read the rest of my comment before you do. This is not my individual opinion, this is the scientific consensus on the issue.
When it comes to generating electricity, nuclear is hugely more expensive than renewables. Every 1000Wh of nuclear power could be 2000-3000 Wh solar or wind.
If you’re about to lecture about “it’s not possible to have all power from renewable sources”, save your keystrokes - the majority of studies show that a global transition to 100% renewable energy across all sectors – power, heat, transport and industry – is feasible and economically viable. Again, this isn’t my opinion, you can look it up and find a dozen sources to back up what I am writing here.
This is all with current, modern day technology, not with some far-off dream of thorium fusion breeding or whatever other potential future tech someone will probably comment about without reading this paragraph.
Nuclear power has promise as a future technology. It is 100% worth researching for future breakthroughs. But at present it is a massive waste of money, resources, effort and political capital.
Nuclear energy should be funded only to conduct new research into potential future improvements and to construct experimental power stations. Any money that would be spent on nuclear power should be spent on renewables instead.
…which is hugely worse for nuclear? What is your point?
Nuclear power plants require eye watering amounts of concrete.
They require continuous (and ever-increasing) extraction of fissile matter such as uranium ore (a limited resource, by the way - if we used nuclear power instead of fossil fuels we would run out pretty quickly, too, all things considered).
Nuclear power also consumes (and irradiates) vast quantities of water.
They are huge nightmares for biodiversity as they are massive projects usually flattening large swathes of land.
They produce waste which is not only irradiated and hazardous but also a major security risk, so it has to be safeguarded… and/or sealed into a hole in the ground where it will remain a risk for years to come.
The building projects themselves are astronomical in scale and require huge quantities of materials to be shipped by fleets and fleets of trucks followed by a lot of industrial work. Then in a couple of decades the site has to be decommissioned which is even more work.
Estimates for the lifetime emissions (extraction, commission, operation, etc.) CO2EQ of nuclear power are commonly thought to be between 60-100g per kWh. Solar power is somewhere in the region of 20-40g per kWh, and wind is somewhere around 10-20g per kWh.
So again, no, nuclear energy is not what we want. Support ONLY renewables. Nuclear power is wasteful.
Because the fossil fuel industry and their lobbyists are absolutely, ridiculously, hideously wealthy, and it benefits them for it to be that way?
France lost their place as largest energy producer in the EU in 2022, because France has been having issues with their nuclear power stations.
“France usually exports more power than it imports, but structural problems with its nuclear fleet, which show no signs of improving, saw exports from the country halve compared to the previous year, while Sweden exported 16 terawatt hours”
Sweden has over 60% of their energy generation from renewables, by the way.
Take a look at this graph:
See that blue line that starts out at the top, then it drops off a cliff? That’s coal. Look at it dropping.
The yellow line that’s just below it, that’s been slowly decreasing until it sharply started dropping? That’s nuclear.
Look at my boy wind power, that little gray line, going into orbit, flying like the wind.
Solar PV is that purple line that’s trending upwards.
Oil is also slowly decreasing.
So no, you’re wrong. Stop digging your heels in and admit when you are wrong.
Lol, what am I wrong about? Nuclear is a a carbon free techonolgy that we have that can prodce the energy we need? Germany dumped nuclear to go full renewable and it flopped? France exports a ton energy to Europe? What did I say that was wrong?
I think your brain is full of ideas that came from somewhere else.
Watch this, I can make you ragequit this entire argument with this one comment with like a 90% confidence rate:
Prove either of these two statements as false:
The total cost per kWh of nuclear electricity is more expensive than common renewable sources of electricity.
The total amount of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions for nuclear is greater than the carbon dioxide equivalent emissions of common renewable sources of electricity.
Either that or you can loftily declare yourself above this argument, state that I am somehow moving the goalposts, say that “there’s no point, I’ll never change your mind” or just somehow express some amount of increduiity at my absolutely abhorrent behaviour by asking you such a straightforward question? You may also choose “that’s not the question I want to talk about, we should answer MY questions instead!”
But go ahead and prove me wrong, I’ll be waiting!
Nice. Topic change.
For real though, you’ve got a lot of energy on this. That’s great. Use it to go after fossil fuels, they’re the ones damaging the climate. Costs are indeed a concern with expanding nuclear but money’s not a problem. Emissions are. If we need more we’ll just print more like we always do.
Ah yeah, that’s the stuff, right there. It’s like fucking heroin right into my veins. I ask you directly to contradict the entire underlying basis for my entire original argument and you declare that it’s a “topic change”. I don’t know why you love defending the nuclear industry so much, but man, the entertainment value alone, it’s great stuff.
Use it to go after fossil fuels, they’re the ones damaging the climate
How about you take that little hit to your ego, admit that you were wrong, and start being right? We’ve all been there man, I used to be a big supporter of nuclear energy too, you can join me in recovery and we can fight against investments in both fossil fuels AND nuclear AT THE SAME TIME. It’s almost unbelievable I know but we’re actually capable of more advanced thought than “the mineral fuel enemy of my fossil fuel enemy is my friend”. Every million dollars spent on nuclear would have been better spent as half a million on renewables and then burying the other half a million in a hole in the ground. Obviously spending the whole million on renewables would be good as well but I know that it’s just not the same generating power without having some big hole in the ground being dug as part of that process so I’m willing to come to a compromise.
I won’t fight against anything that helps the climate, even if it’s expensive. It’s unfortunate that anyone would. Do you really think when our grandchildren inherit the land, they’ll be proud that their ancestors saved money when caring for the atmosphere?
This isn’t about being right or wrong, or arguing about stupid things with a loon from the internet. It’s about the atmosphere, don’t forget that.
Again, compared to nuclear, renewables are:
Name a single good fucking thing nuclear does better than renewables.
“I can’t argue with your logic so I’ll just call you crazy instead” is a classic yeah
BTW, full disclosure, the context button is broken on Lemmy for me, so I can’t tell 100% what chain of comments I’m replying to and I’m running a few classes at the same time, so apologies if I got something mixed up. Don’t let that distract you from the facts that nuclear power is a total waste of money, energy and time, though.
The total cost per kWh of nuclear electricity is more expensive than common renewable sources of electricity.
Subsidize nuclear as much as renewables and the price equalizes.
The total amount of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions for nuclear is greater than the carbon dioxide equivalent emissions of common renewable sources of electricity.
This is incorrect, objectively.
lntl