this post was submitted on 15 Sep 2023
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Slovakia’s likely future coalition wants to build a new nuclear reactor (www.euractiv.com)
submitted 1 year ago by tal@kbin.social to c/europe@feddit.de
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[–] eltimablo@kbin.social 5 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Those byproducts are still viable as fuel and can be sent to second- and third-stage reactors rather than being locked away in a cement vault somewhere. Also, Australia has an absolute shitload of uranium out in the outback, which is kind of a win-win since it's far from civilization and largely uninhabitable anyway. If the fuel actually gets used until it's spent, nuclear is extremely clean and very safe.

[–] bob_lemon@feddit.de 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Even if these reactors are built and used and we get the uranium from better sources, there's still the teeny tiny problem of nuclear being insanely expensive per kWh.

[–] eltimablo@kbin.social -1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

That's not been my experience. I live near one of the largest nuclear plants in the world and I pay a pittance for electricity compared to other areas I've lived.

Edit: Just checked my bill. I pay 8 cents per kWh, which is magnificent compared to the 12-14 I paid at my old place.

[–] legofreak@feddit.de 3 points 1 year ago

You cannot take your very localised and anecdotal experience and draw conclusions about energy cost as a whole. There are many reasons why your electricity now is cheaper than at a different place at a different time.

Besides, nuclear is very expensive compared to other energy sources, it is however often heavily subsidised. Wikipedia has a nice summary on the cost of various electricity sources.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levelized_cost_of_electricity

[–] tormeh@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The issue is that uranium is so cheap nobody wants to use non-virgin fuel. You could recycle the uranium, or use breeder reactors, but both of those have political issues. The current usage of uranium is extremely wasteful and produces lots of unnecessary waste, but I’m not totally convinced that this will change anytime soon.

[–] eltimablo@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago

I agree that it won't change anytime soon. Even if the laws changed overnight it would be decades before we had a full pipeline. That said, I don't consider that a reason not to pursue the research and development of one, or to stop the construction of nuclear plants that's already in progress.

[–] CookieJarObserver@sh.itjust.works -5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

No.