Good news, everyone! The Three Mile Island power plant, site of the worst nuclear disaster in US history, is being restarted to power AI for Microsoft! [Press release; Washington Post, archive; Blo…
Nuclear at least doesn’t pump out CO2, so a lotta people who aren’t like you describe consider it worth considering. 850MW of nuclear is better than 850MW of gas on this scale.
But the economics just completely fuck it. TMI unit 1 shut down cos it couldn’t compete economically and only an IRA tax break makes it even plausible.
There’s a big thing in Australia at the moment where the LNP, beholden to some donor or other, is pushing economically nonviable nuclear hard. And even a lotta the green side is saying “nice idea, now make the numbers work in this universe.”
But the economics just completely fuck it. TMI unit 1 shut down cos it couldn’t compete economically and only an IRA tax break makes it even plausible.
This is really a problem with deregulated energy markets. Since deregulation we’ve had huge boom/bust cycles in energy that has caused any major long-term capital investment to be a waste. Instead we get more and more fracking and more and more “simple/cheap” methane plants.
This also affects other major capital-intensive green energy projects like offshore wind.
The fact that methane can be fracked out of the ground by wildcatters and pumped through small generating facilities makes it the best fuel for a speculation-driven market.
Nuclear at least doesn’t pump out CO2, so a lotta people who aren’t like you describe consider it worth considering. 850MW of nuclear is better than 850MW of gas on this scale.
But the economics just completely fuck it. TMI unit 1 shut down cos it couldn’t compete economically and only an IRA tax break makes it even plausible.
There’s a big thing in Australia at the moment where the LNP, beholden to some donor or other, is pushing economically nonviable nuclear hard. And even a lotta the green side is saying “nice idea, now make the numbers work in this universe.”
This is really a problem with deregulated energy markets. Since deregulation we’ve had huge boom/bust cycles in energy that has caused any major long-term capital investment to be a waste. Instead we get more and more fracking and more and more “simple/cheap” methane plants.
This also affects other major capital-intensive green energy projects like offshore wind.
The fact that methane can be fracked out of the ground by wildcatters and pumped through small generating facilities makes it the best fuel for a speculation-driven market.