• drake@lemmy.sdf.org
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    2 months ago

    There is a huge lobby of pro-nuclear think tanks who try to astroturf pro-nuclear shit onto social media. We, scientifically literate, rational people, need to counteract these harmful narratives with some facts.

    FACT: Renewable sources of energy are as cheap or cheaper per kwh than nuclear.

    FACT: Renewables are faster to provision than nuclear.

    FACT: Renewables are as clean, or cleaner, than nuclear.

    FACT: Renewables are much more flexible and responsive to energy fluctuations than nuclear.

    FACT: Renewables will only get cheaper. Nuclear will only get more expensive, because uranium mining will get harder and harder as we deplete easily accessible sources.

    • areyouevenreal@lemm.ee
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      2 months ago

      You don’t actually need to mine more uranium though. You can run certain nuclear designs on Thorium, Plutonium from weapon stocks, or even waste from other reactors. Current generation nuclear designs are laughably inefficient at using the nuclear fuels we have available, and I fully understand why people don’t support them.

      Realistically though I don’t ever expect nuclear fission to be as cheap as renewables in most areas. In some places nuclear or another power source is always going to be needed though just because renewables are not practical in certain conditions.

      In the long term the answer is almost certainly going to be nuclear fusion or another future power source like neutrino voltaic. Solar and wind power are ultimately just offshoots of fusion, and so is fission if you think about where uranium, thorium and so on come from. In fact all power we know of seems to come from either gravity or some kind of nuclear reaction (inc. geothermal and fossil fuels).

      • drake@lemmy.sdf.org
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        2 months ago

        Notice how pro-nuclear people always point towards a bunch of fictional technology as the solution? Oh, we just need fusion, or breeder reactors, or a bunch of other shit that doesn’t exist. No, bro, we just need to build renewables and proper energy grids. It’s really not that complicated. If it’s not sunny where you live, then you just get electricity from where it is sunny. It’s really really simple

        Nuclear energy is a solution looking for a problem. Total tech bro bullshit. Like crypto.

        • NιƙƙιDιɱҽʂ@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          If it’s not sunny where you live, then you just get electricity from where it is sunny. It’s really really simple

          Yeah, really, really simple. Wait, what are transmission losses?