3 ms·
Shutting down nuclear reactors as they age out and replacing them with renewables (even expensive renewables) is fine, but shutting down perfectly functioning n
by aianus 10y ago
Shutting down nuclear reactors as they age out and replacing them with renewables (even expensive renewables) is fine, but shutting down perfectly functioning nuclear reactors with years or decades of lifespan left to build new coal seems indefensible to me.
- tehabe 10y agoReplacing them with coal plants is indeed stupid and indefensible. But shutting them down was the right choice. Some of them were in a bad shape. In one plant, Krümmel I think, they even had trouble getting replacement parts. Another one, it turned out had a flaw in the emergency power system and didn't even have an emergency control centre. Of course, you could refit them but also that will costs money and it might be better invested in newer technologies than in those old reactors. And we have enough issues with nuclear power already, no final repository, Asse II is still a problem. At one nuclear power plant it turned out, they store radio active waste in the basement and those barrel are complete eroded over the decades. AFAIK nobody knows what to do. The company didn't put CCTV in place because they wouldn't work well with the radiation.
- kuschku 10y ago> with years or decades of lifespan left But that’s not what happened. Merkel arbitrarily increased the lifespan of reactors, without any technical viability tests, then, after fukushima, turned it down to exactly what the experts had suggested originally.