Yes, but those new designs are more expensive, and since each reactor costs a loooot of money, governments take shortcuts, save money and then accidents happen.
So since we’re people and not angels, maybe we should stick with solar, wind, and batteries. There’s just less of a chance of us colossally breaking something with these.
They’re actually not that expensive, overall. The problem is inefficient bureaucracy around it. As a fun fact you can cut the cost in half by repurposing old coal, oil, and natural gas power plants.
No, we need that money to build out wind and solar now (there’s a climate collapse happening todey), we can’t wait 20+ years for a nuclear reactor to go online.
Fun fact, you still need base load reactors, and fun fact, it takes 5 years to build a nuclear power plant, to be specific, 68 months. From bare ground to fully online and synced with a grid.
But beyond that, solar is nice and can be useful, wind has some uses in some locations, but you have to be okay with being dependent on China since practically zero other countries make solar panels. There are a few, but 80% of all solar panels sold globally are made in China, and if we include local manufacturing, over 99% of all solar panels made are made in China.
I mean I’m okay with that, but EU people specifically get super weirded out by that. Most developed countries have all things necessary for a nuclear power grid and can ensure they can always repair, fuel, and maintain their power plants.
Fun fact, the very concept of base load has been obsolete for a decade. There are times on modern grids where the net power demand goes to zero due to all the solar deployed on rooftops and such. Base load of many grids is zero at this point.
Yes, but those new designs are more expensive, and since each reactor costs a loooot of money, governments take shortcuts, save money and then accidents happen.
So really, the problem is people all the way down
So since we’re people and not angels, maybe we should stick with solar, wind, and batteries. There’s just less of a chance of us colossally breaking something with these.
“people are the problem” is foundation of any social and lot of hard sciences 😂
They’re actually not that expensive, overall. The problem is inefficient bureaucracy around it. As a fun fact you can cut the cost in half by repurposing old coal, oil, and natural gas power plants.
They’re insanely expensive up front, it’s just that they’re relatively cheap to run and last a long time so the costs have a low average over time.
Modern nuclear reactors are ~$2k per kWh which is roughly the same as solar.
Again, that’s over their entire, very long lifetime. The costs are high up front for construction and commissioning.
No, it’s actually upfront costs for modern nuclear reactors in China.
$2/kWh doesn’t even make sense as a measurement for upfront costs.
No, we need that money to build out wind and solar now (there’s a climate collapse happening todey), we can’t wait 20+ years for a nuclear reactor to go online.
Fun fact, you still need base load reactors, and fun fact, it takes 5 years to build a nuclear power plant, to be specific, 68 months. From bare ground to fully online and synced with a grid.
But beyond that, solar is nice and can be useful, wind has some uses in some locations, but you have to be okay with being dependent on China since practically zero other countries make solar panels. There are a few, but 80% of all solar panels sold globally are made in China, and if we include local manufacturing, over 99% of all solar panels made are made in China.
I mean I’m okay with that, but EU people specifically get super weirded out by that. Most developed countries have all things necessary for a nuclear power grid and can ensure they can always repair, fuel, and maintain their power plants.
Fun fact, the very concept of base load has been obsolete for a decade. There are times on modern grids where the net power demand goes to zero due to all the solar deployed on rooftops and such. Base load of many grids is zero at this point.
If only we could do multiple things.