this post was submitted on 30 Aug 2023
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[–] Sanctus@lemmy.world 17 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Nuclear is the future. Stop trying to deny it. We should all be running it by now this shit was made like 60 years ago. But no, we'll just eat smog I guess. Damn my feeds are kind of depressing today.

[–] GiddyGap@lemm.ee 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Fission is today. Fusion is the future.

[–] Sanctus@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago (3 children)

It blows my mind we are avoiding this? You want jobs? Clean stable energy? Its fucken here dude. Just build some plants. They only need to be properly maintained to avoid disaster. If we truly are an intelligent species that should be easy as hell.

[–] mdd@lemm.ee 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They only need to be properly maintained

And there is the issue.

[–] Sanctus@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

I hate that its true, but yeah. Our city management accross the nation has long been pocketing maintenance budgets. Cause shit is run down everywhere in "the greatest nation".

[–] bouh@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago

"disaster" is a big word for what happens with a nuclear accident.

The fire in Hawaï or the climate change are disasters. A hurricane is a disaster. Chernobyl or fukushima were disasters in the media much more than in the reality of things.

Cars kill more people every year than nuclear energy did since we use it. In fact, this is still true even if you account for atomic bombs...

[–] GiddyGap@lemm.ee 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] Sanctus@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Energy should be nationalised. Energy does not need to be run for profit. It should be at a cost.

[–] OnionQuest@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Even if it's nationalized we still want energy generation as low cost as possible so we can use the national budget for other things.

[–] prole@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 year ago

Sure, but cost isn't the sole (or main) consideration when you remove profit-motive.

Also, you only need to break even, so it will always be more affordable than private sector.

[–] Sanctus@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago

That just goes for everything, though. Thats not specific to any one industry. Clean and abundant energy will come at a cost and that should just be acceptable.

[–] gmtom@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

No its not, anyone thats actually gone over the basic numbers knows this. Nuclear power is expensive to build, takes decades to start and takes a lot of highly skilled workers. Wind is cheaper per MW, more profitable, buildable in 6 months, can be put in even remote areas, does not require highly skilled workers for normal operation and is more carbon efficient.

[–] Sanctus@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

We should probably use both. How much mw/hr does wind produce compared to nuclear? Once nuclear is up and running what are the continual costs and what are the benefits? Theres a lot more to ask here than just "what is more profitable". Your points on winds' adaptability is good as well as your points on timeframe. But I don't think a single energy source is the actual answer. I'm thinking we supplement these energy sources with each other and that would bring us completely off fossil fuels.

[–] gmtom@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

How much mw/hr does wind produce compared to nuclear?

That depends entirely on how much of each you build, but wind is less expensive to build per MW than nuclear. Once nuclear is up and running what are the continual costs and what are the benefits? Nuclear costs more to run as the systems are far more complicated in order to make them safe and you need a relatively large workforce of highly trained mechanical, electrical and nuclear engineers which cost a lot to employ. Whereas for the most part wind farms are completely autonomous, in exchange for very few benefits. The profitibaility takes into account quite a lot really and so its better to build the more profitable one as you can then use that profit to build more, which gets us off of fossil fuels faster./

[–] Sanctus@lemmy.world -1 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] gmtom@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What is this supposed to prove wrong exactly?

[–] Sanctus@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

That nuclear produces more MW/HR than wind at an exponential rate.

https://www.ans.org/news/article-1462/wind-power-and-nuclear-power/

"Capacity factor is the feature highlight of this info-graphic poster. To make a graphic representation of how this compares to one nuclear power plant rated at 1154 megawatts (MW), this shows the full count of all 2077 2-MW wind turbines in a 24"x36" poster. This is what would be required to match the nuclear power plant output even if this array of turbines could hypothetically run continuously at only 25 percent of its rated capacity."

I'm giving you sources. You can downvote but I don't see your numbers reflected in any study.

[–] gmtom@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Okay? I never said anything contrary to that though? So what's your point?

[–] ephemeral_gibbon@aussie.zone 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The cost per MWh produced over a year, with grid + storage costs, is the number that matters. Wind and solar combined are much cheaper than nuclear there. For a source look that the most recent csiro gencost report. It's produced by the Australian national science body and basically says that in the best case if smrs reach large scale adoption and operate at a very high capacity factor... They're still way too expensive for the power they produce when compared to wind and solar with transmission and storage.

To get off fossil fuels faster it needs to be economic, and nuclear isn't economic. Renewables are

[–] Sanctus@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

But why would you not use them in tandem when nuclear produces energy 24/7 and the others dont? What do we do if there isn't sufficient wind for days? What happens when the sun is no longer focused on our hemisphere? I'll look up the study but I don't see a reason to axe one over the other.

[–] ephemeral_gibbon@aussie.zone 1 points 1 year ago

Because we could use the money spent on nuclear to build more renewables and supporting infra (storage and transmission) than if we also built nuclear. The renewables will snap be finished and replacing the fossil fuels a lot sooner than the 10-15 years for a nuclear reactor.

If you look up studies into it you need a lot less storage than you'd expect to run a fully renewable grid, as the scale of the grid stabilises it to weather fluctuations. Winter also is a problem that can be overcome. That gencost report is a decent starting point, there are plenty of other studies into it though. The low cost of storage is also especially true if you're looking at the first 99% of the grid.

Maybe those studies are wrong and nuclear would be economic for that last 1%. However, if we can get to 99% years earlier by just building renewables then discover that it's harder than expected to get to 100 (somewhat unlikely, especially as more storage tech is developed), we can build nuclear then. The net carbon from getting off the majority of fossil fuels years earlier will probably make it the better decision anyway.

Also just noting that my views are based on what I've read about Australia so you should also find peoperly researched cost analysis for your country. Also for renewables to work well in smaller countries they'll need to develop more interconnects their neighbours etc.