• RealFknNito@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    Every time I see news about renewable energy expanding, I don’t feel uplifted because I know how much ewaste photovolatic cells create. We should be investing more heavily in nuclear fission and retrofitting those plants for fusion later.

      • RealFknNito@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        Why create exceptional amounts of trash when you don’t need to? It’s not a binary choice but it should be. It makes absolutely zero sense to waste so many resources when it can be focused into a solution that doesn’t do that.

        Yeah we can keep burning gas in cars or we could transition to EVs. Transitioning to solar and wind respectively is creating more electronic waste. That’s the reason not to use it in the meantime. It’s a different kind of pollutant but still a potent one. We’re literally shipping garbage to third world countries.

        Focus on the best solution, now, not a better solution and then figure it out later. Nuclear. Now.

        • YungOnions@sh.itjust.works
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          7 months ago

          OK, so whilst we wait the 7 years for the reactor to be built we should, what? hope that coal and gas stops polluting in the interim? Or should we continue to use the tech that, whilst not perfect, is better than the currently most widely used alternatives?

          Nuclear is expensive, slow to deploy and has a inherent risk that renewables do not:

          https://www.nature.com/articles/s41560-020-00696-3

          https://eu.boell.org/en/2021/04/26/7-reasons-why-nuclear-energy-not-answer-solve-climate-change

          Plus the ewaste renewables produce can be recycled easily, cheaply and with far less risk than the waste for nuclear. Is the process perfect? No, so lets concentrate on improving the circular economy around recycling panels, turbines etc. Spend the money and effort on improving the tech that is already proven to be cheaper, more effective and ready now.

          • JacobCoffinWrites@slrpnk.net
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            7 months ago

            And seven years seems quite optimistic considering how effectively local governments and committees of concerned NIMBYS have been blocking any new nuclear construction for like, my entire lifetime, at least in the US. Apparently nobody wants a nuclear power plant going up near them and they find a lot of creative ways to jam up the works. I’m not sure we have the time to try to ram dozens of nuclear power plants through those folks while the world is burning.

            • YungOnions@sh.itjust.works
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              7 months ago

              Definitely. That 7 years was just the construction phase. All in the average nuclear plant takes about 14 years to build from planning to switch on.

              • RealFknNito@lemmy.world
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                7 months ago

                Lmao no the fuck it doesn’t. From start to finish the time to build has been set by Japan at 3 years. Stop fucking commenting on shit you don’t even try to learn about.

                • YungOnions@sh.itjust.works
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                  7 months ago

                  Great, but unless you can get Japan to build every Nuclear reactor in the world, that’s a meaningless statistic, isn’t it? The average construction time for a PWR remains 7 years globally:

                  https://inis.iaea.org/collection/NCLCollectionStore/_Public/42/105/42105221.pdf?r=1&r=1

                  This doesn’t account for planning etc etc so the actual time from pre project to switch on is closer to 11 years, which is admittedly 3 years less than my original figure:

                  https://www.iaea.org/publications/8759/project-management-in-nuclear-power-plant-construction-guidelines-and-experience

                  Also the fastest Nuclear power plant construction in the world is currently held by Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Unit 6 NPP at 5.41 years, construction start to commercial operation:

                  https://inis.iaea.org/collection/NCLCollectionStore/_Public/30/020/30020307.pdf

                  That often quoted 3 years doesn’t include inspections, testing etc.

                  • RealFknNito@lemmy.world
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                    7 months ago

                    “a meaningless statistic” goalposts? Gone.

                    The time to create nuclear plants is far lower than what you quoted, should have been started a decade ago, and we’re still sitting here fucking debating whether we should start.

                    In the most respectful way I can manage, stop bitching about time to build and start now. Encourage the people in charge to do it, now. Stop kicking the can down the road so we can go “damn I guess renewables weren’t enough, we should have made those plants a long time ago.”

                    I’m hostile because I’m sick of the same attitude every year. “top expensive, too long, too unsafe” when it makes more power per dollar spent than any other method, is only a few years away even with inspections, and causes less deaths per GW/H including renewables and including the deaths/affected peoples from nuclear disasters.

                    There is no more room for debate. Nuclear is and has been the option for decades and anyone saying it isn’t is just helping coal and oil. Full stop.