4 ms·
> We've sunk untold billions into nuclear, a very small fraction of what has gone into renewables. Out of curiosity, is there a good estimate for how much mone
by solveit 7y ago
> We've sunk untold billions into nuclear, a very small fraction of what has gone into renewables.
Out of curiosity, is there a good estimate for how much money the world has spent on nuclear/renewable energy research? You'd think this information should be easy to find given the importance of the nuclear vs renewables debate, but it's not obvious to me how to find it.
- jacquesm 7y agoMost of the money spent on nuclear research is spent on fusion projects and things like pebble bed reactors, most of this is in the proof-of-concept or early production stage and funded by governments. Most of the money spent on renewables (solar, wind) is spent on scaling up and (boring, but necessary) production. Some (tidal, geothermal) has gone into proof of concept level projects. The amounts specified vary greatly based on the source. ITER alone (originally projected to cost $5B) already clocks in at $20B and doesn't seem to be much closer to something resembling a working prototype than it was several years ago.