4 ms·

> Its clear that its not at an acceptable level of safety. I am no nuclear safety inspector, but I would argue that there's large variance in terms of safety

> Its clear that its not at an acceptable level of safety. I am no nuclear safety inspector, but I would argue that there's large variance in terms of safety in different nuclear installations. Not putting a nuclear plant next to a Tsunami-coast would be a major factor here. > Large scale disasters like Fukushima can't be hand waived away. Neither can the Bhopal disaster, yet we continue to engage in large-scale chemical production. It needs to be put into perspective. > What am I supposed to see from Germany? They're the largest electricity exporter in Europe. In terms of kilowatts, perhaps, but not economically. Energy prices in Germany are almost double those in France. Germany exports a lot of surplus wind energy, sometimes for negative prices just to keep the powerlines from overloading. Lack of wind needs to be compensated by dirty coal (50% of their energy mix) or import of (likely nuclear) energy from neighboring countries. Without coal (or nuclear from the neighbors) the system would collapse. There are no means of storing the wind energy in a remotely economical fashion on the horizon and there are no obvious alternatives to wind (at least for Germany). > Is this not true of nuclear power? Yes, but nuclear power isn't considered "clean".

petre 7y ago
Germany is lucky they're neighbours with France, which has >70% nuclear in its power generation mix. They are planning to reduce this to 50% by 2035 and cap nuclear power in the mix, however it's not very clear what they will replace it with (renewables but no details given). https://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/country-profiles/countries-a-f/france.aspx https://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/country-pr...
- Krasnol 7y ago
  Yeah they are so lucky...the happiness regarding old and breaking nuclear reactors (Fessenheim & Cattenom) just behind the border is overwhelming. Cattenom is especially great for Luxembourg as it's the only country on this planet which is threatened in it's entirety by a nuclear disaster from a single nuclear reactor.
  - petre 7y ago
    Fessenheim is going to be closed down after Flamanville 3 comes online. Germany's alternatives to French nuclear power are either coal and power outage. Germany still imports more electricity from France than it exports: https://www.energy-charts.de/exchange.htm https://www.energy-charts.de/exchange.htm
    - Krasnol 7y ago
      There is so much wrong here, I'm not even sure if I should start answering to that. Why do you write this? You must be aware that it's easy to fact check. Are you desperate or really so heavy misinformed? You should have seen through you charts that the small difference can't be related to the actual amount required in Germany. Germany sells more energy elsewhere...Much more: https://www.agora-energiewende.de/service/agorameter/chart/power_import_export/13.04.2018/13.05.2019/ https://www.agora-energiewende.de/service/agorameter/chart/p... The main problem right now in Germany is that you don't have the transfer infrastructure to deliver the amounts of energy generated by renewables everywhere. https://www.energy-charts.de/energy_pie.htm?year=2019&month=4&day=22 https://www.energy-charts.de/energy_pie.htm?year=2019&month=... You also HAVE to let coal in even if you don't need it and turn renewables off because of standing contracts with the providers. Germany is still paying for coal plants that have been turned off because of this. This is the main reason why energy is so expensive in Germany. There are newly build coal power plants which will never run because nobody needs them. And the amount of renewables is rising: https://www.energy-charts.de/ren_share.htm?source=ren-share&period=annual&year=all https://www.energy-charts.de/ren_share.htm?source=ren-share&... PS. there is also Gas but you don't seem to care about all that I guess because I can't imagine how one could overlook that. There is not a single reason for Germany to turn to nuclear again. Its time has passed and no, Germany doesn't need Frances nuclear power...
      - petre 7y ago
        Yes, I forgot about Russian gas. The US basically had to threaten the EU with tarrifs (hint: on vehicles, I wonder who's EU's biggest vehicle producer) if we don't import LPG from the US to reduce dependency on Russian gas. Norway, your other suppiler, isn't building any new capacity either. Wait, your country is building coal plants in 2019? At least reconvert them to gas or oil. Otherwise I agree that the difference is small. Your country is probably exporting for cents at a dollar during wind peaks and importing at night when France sells surplus nuclear energy at a discount. The issue with many variable renewables in the mix is that you have to build excess transport capacity which only gets used during peaks. Not to mention that solar has 0.2 max capacity factor and wind around 0.45 - the difference between that and 1 is idling.
Tepix 7y ago
Germany has 48.6% renewables so far this year and 19.5% coal (source https://www.n-tv.de/wirtschaft/Windraeder-liefern-so-viel-Strom-wie-noch-nie-article21020391.html https://www.n-tv.de/wirtschaft/Windraeder-liefern-so-viel-St... )
- gridlockd 7y ago
  I must've mixed up coal with "fossil fuel including natural gas", which had a share of close to 50% in 2018, of which coal made up 35%: https://www.cleanenergywire.org/sites/default/files/styles/gallery_image/public/paragraphs/images/fig3-share-energy-sources-gross-german-power-production-2018.png?itok=lABkj99H https://www.cleanenergywire.org/sites/default/files/styles/g... Your figure of 19,5% only accounts for lignite, not hard coal.

petre 7y ago

Germany is lucky they're neighbours with France, which has >70% nuclear in its power generation mix. They are planning to reduce this to 50% by 2035 and cap nuclear power in the mix, however it's not very clear what they will replace it with (renewables but no details given). https://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/country-profiles/countries-a-f/france.aspx https://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/country-pr...

Krasnol 7y ago
Yeah they are so lucky...the happiness regarding old and breaking nuclear reactors (Fessenheim & Cattenom) just behind the border is overwhelming. Cattenom is especially great for Luxembourg as it's the only country on this planet which is threatened in it's entirety by a nuclear disaster from a single nuclear reactor.
- petre 7y ago
  Fessenheim is going to be closed down after Flamanville 3 comes online. Germany's alternatives to French nuclear power are either coal and power outage. Germany still imports more electricity from France than it exports: https://www.energy-charts.de/exchange.htm https://www.energy-charts.de/exchange.htm
  - Krasnol 7y ago
    There is so much wrong here, I'm not even sure if I should start answering to that. Why do you write this? You must be aware that it's easy to fact check. Are you desperate or really so heavy misinformed? You should have seen through you charts that the small difference can't be related to the actual amount required in Germany. Germany sells more energy elsewhere...Much more: https://www.agora-energiewende.de/service/agorameter/chart/power_import_export/13.04.2018/13.05.2019/ https://www.agora-energiewende.de/service/agorameter/chart/p... The main problem right now in Germany is that you don't have the transfer infrastructure to deliver the amounts of energy generated by renewables everywhere. https://www.energy-charts.de/energy_pie.htm?year=2019&month=4&day=22 https://www.energy-charts.de/energy_pie.htm?year=2019&month=... You also HAVE to let coal in even if you don't need it and turn renewables off because of standing contracts with the providers. Germany is still paying for coal plants that have been turned off because of this. This is the main reason why energy is so expensive in Germany. There are newly build coal power plants which will never run because nobody needs them. And the amount of renewables is rising: https://www.energy-charts.de/ren_share.htm?source=ren-share&period=annual&year=all https://www.energy-charts.de/ren_share.htm?source=ren-share&... PS. there is also Gas but you don't seem to care about all that I guess because I can't imagine how one could overlook that. There is not a single reason for Germany to turn to nuclear again. Its time has passed and no, Germany doesn't need Frances nuclear power...
    - petre 7y ago
      Yes, I forgot about Russian gas. The US basically had to threaten the EU with tarrifs (hint: on vehicles, I wonder who's EU's biggest vehicle producer) if we don't import LPG from the US to reduce dependency on Russian gas. Norway, your other suppiler, isn't building any new capacity either. Wait, your country is building coal plants in 2019? At least reconvert them to gas or oil. Otherwise I agree that the difference is small. Your country is probably exporting for cents at a dollar during wind peaks and importing at night when France sells surplus nuclear energy at a discount. The issue with many variable renewables in the mix is that you have to build excess transport capacity which only gets used during peaks. Not to mention that solar has 0.2 max capacity factor and wind around 0.45 - the difference between that and 1 is idling.

Tepix 7y ago

Germany has 48.6% renewables so far this year and 19.5% coal (source https://www.n-tv.de/wirtschaft/Windraeder-liefern-so-viel-Strom-wie-noch-nie-article21020391.html https://www.n-tv.de/wirtschaft/Windraeder-liefern-so-viel-St... )

gridlockd 7y ago
I must've mixed up coal with "fossil fuel including natural gas", which had a share of close to 50% in 2018, of which coal made up 35%: https://www.cleanenergywire.org/sites/default/files/styles/gallery_image/public/paragraphs/images/fig3-share-energy-sources-gross-german-power-production-2018.png?itok=lABkj99H https://www.cleanenergywire.org/sites/default/files/styles/g... Your figure of 19,5% only accounts for lignite, not hard coal.