The narrative that we can't rely on nuclear because France had a single (1) bad year in 2022 feels so forced and tired.

Look at the numbers from below site of the Fraunhofer Institute: France has had another excellent year exporting electricity to needy Germany and other places (out of the 92 TWh of net exports, 11.25 TWh was net exported to Germany, 19,94 to Switzerland, 12.03 TWh to Belgium, 22.53 to the UK, and 26 TWh to Italy, the latter being a pioneer in nuclear exits).

Nuclear France is truly a pillar of the European grid.

https://www.energy-charts.info/charts/import_export_map/chart.htm?l=en&c=DE&interval=year&year=2025

Humans make mistakes all the time, yet nuclear power is extremely safe. A wide range of precautions and protocols are in place to ensure nuclear safety, starting from the work culture. This interesting video by Smarter Every Day shows the refueling process of a nuclear reactor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0afQ6w3Bjw

While seeing insides of a nuclear reactors and how they're refueled is interesting, I find the safety&security processes and practices around the process even more interesting.

This video gives you some idea why nuclear power-related accidents are so rare. People do make mistakes, but the overlapping and multilayered safety&security processes catch the mistakes before they can lead to bigger problems.

There are things to learn here for even the world outside of the nuclear industry:

- Having a work culture that encourages reporting mistakes without reprisal and reprimand helps catch issues early, as they are more likely to be reported.

- Identifying the critical systems and having layered safety&security is important. Not everything needs to be super tight. Applying the super tight rules everywhere would likely just make people ignore the rules, at least in part.

- Training is important. Understanding the reason why tight safety/security is in place in a system is crucial. With this understanding, it is more likely that the rules are obeyed.

#security #safety #nuclearsafety #nuclearpower

"Illinois plans to be the first campus using a micro-modular nuclear reactor to power the campus, as well as using it for research and education. Construction could start as early as 2026 and be put in service by the end of the decade. This video contains all the details."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuUDWb3shzk