• RobotToaster@mander.xyz
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    19 days ago

    a dying and dangerous 20th century technology

    I stopped reading there, nuclear is statistically the safest form of energy generation.

    • jungle@lemmy.world
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      19 days ago

      And it tries to paint it as bad for the environment in this paragraph:

      But the mining, milling, and production of nuclear fuel, as well as the construction and decommissioning of nuclear plants, emit greenhouse gases at levels ranging from 10 to 130 grams of carbon dioxide per kilowatt hour of power — lower than fossil fuels but higher than wind and hydroelectricity (and roughly on par with solar).

      So… It’s good then?

      • scarabic@lemmy.world
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        19 days ago

        The author of this article personally breathed out 800 pounds of CO2 last year. Less than a horse but more than a badger and roughly on par with a kangaroo.

    • nef@slrpnk.net
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      19 days ago

      To be fair, it does have the most potential to cause harm if you exclude every kind of fossil fuel. And hydroelectric. That said, there isn’t a chance in hell I’m going to protest fission if the only alternative is more coal/gas.

    • BestBouclettes@jlai.lu
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      19 days ago

      And energy dense too!
      It also requires a literal village to run and maintain.
      And that’s the problem, I don’t want to see a nuclear power plant managed by fucking Amazon or Google.

    • funtrek@discuss.tchncs.de
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      19 days ago

      Sure, and the next several thousands generations will also have a lot of fun with the waste we produced for just 2-3 generations.

        • funtrek@discuss.tchncs.de
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          19 days ago

          No, there’s no method that eliminates all of the nuclear waste. I know that this myth is very much liked in the nuclear community.

          • InverseParallax@lemmy.world
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            19 days ago

            Great, is there a method that eliminates all byproducts of fossil fuels?

            It reduces them dramatically, to something we can easily deal with, that’s huge.

            • funtrek@discuss.tchncs.de
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              19 days ago

              No need for. Solar panels and batteries are at an historically low price and will even become more affordable. There’s simply no economical justification for nuclear energy.

              • Arkouda@lemmy.ca
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                19 days ago

                No need for. Solar panels and batteries are at an historically low price and will even become more affordable. There’s simply no economical justification for nuclear energy.

                How many solar panels and batteries are needed to power every electrical grid on the planet?

                Where do we locate all of the panels and batteries?

                Where do we get all of the materials for all of the panels and batteries?

                What is the total cost to operate and maintain that global power grid?

                What is the lifespan of the grid?

                What happens to all of the panels and batteries at end of life, and how much does it cost?

                • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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                  18 days ago

                  Exactly. Solar panels and batteries can theoretically be recycled, but we generally don’t bother today, and there’s a lot more bulk in dealing with old panels and batteries than spent nuclear fuel rods.

                  So dealing with the waste of nuclear is a more constant thing, but also much lower volume than something like solar panels or batteries.

                  I think we need both, but ideally we use something other than batteries for base load supply, and only use it to store excess peak generation (or ideally, use something other than batteries for short-term storage, like hydrogen or hydro pumps).

              • InverseParallax@lemmy.world
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                19 days ago

                Firstly, we’ll get there in time.

                Secondly, having baseload vastly reduces the amount of batteries needed, and overall is helpful, and nuclear is one of the best baseloads there is.

                By any logic we should work on fusion research because it’s the actual solution, but the enemy isn’t nuclear or renewables, it’s fossil fuels, they must be killed as brutally as possible, not just for their ecological impact, but also for their political impact, which may be the most toxic of all.

                Imagine the politics of this country if Texas wasn’t “Saudi Oil Money” rich and didn’t try to screw over our politics on a constant basis. They’re the reason we don’t have nuclear already, they’d much rather keep everyone on the dinosaur habit than let us move forward an inch.