5 ms·

There will be a lot of smart people in this thread saying nuclear doesn't make economic sense, and honestly I don't know how accurately quantify the price mysel

There will be a lot of smart people in this thread saying nuclear doesn't make economic sense, and honestly I don't know how accurately quantify the price myself, but if you look at a map of all nuclear energy projects under construction, they are not happening in "rich" countries, but nations with huge populations that are on the verse of emerging from mass poverty. I assume they have done the math.

ncmncm 6y ago
In other words, they are in nations with high levels of corruption, minimal regulation, but just enough money. The US has the most institutionalized corruption in the world, but the US just did it all earlier.
- nipponese 6y ago
  If you're implying nuclear power is just a pork barrel scam to milk the tax base money and jobs, then I am really starting to understand why we, as Americans, may never meaningfully tackle climate change. Even Joe Biden is pitching conversion to solar as a jobs-creation initiative.
  - ncmncm 6y ago
    No, it's not just a pork barrel scam. It's the pork barrel scam all other pork barrel scams wish they could be, the ur-scam. It has a superficially plausible premise that continues to fool a lot of people, a tie-in to the military-industrial complex, it always involves insane amounts of capital expenditure, takes years and years of construction before anything comes out, and costs way more than everything else. Orbital solar power might rival it someday. Fusion is trying; watch out, once they hit break-even. If the money spent on fusion projects had been put into solar, we would have had solar cheaper than coal 20 years ago.
pfdietz 6y ago
In countries of the kind that would want to practice covert proliferation, in other words.
- nipponese 6y ago
  Why would India and China need to covertly enrichment weapon material? Their nuclear weapon programs are well-known.
  - pfdietz 6y ago
    India is doing very little with nuclear. They get less than 2% of their power from it.

ncmncm 6y ago

In other words, they are in nations with high levels of corruption, minimal regulation, but just enough money. The US has the most institutionalized corruption in the world, but the US just did it all earlier.

nipponese 6y ago
If you're implying nuclear power is just a pork barrel scam to milk the tax base money and jobs, then I am really starting to understand why we, as Americans, may never meaningfully tackle climate change. Even Joe Biden is pitching conversion to solar as a jobs-creation initiative.
- ncmncm 6y ago
  No, it's not just a pork barrel scam. It's the pork barrel scam all other pork barrel scams wish they could be, the ur-scam. It has a superficially plausible premise that continues to fool a lot of people, a tie-in to the military-industrial complex, it always involves insane amounts of capital expenditure, takes years and years of construction before anything comes out, and costs way more than everything else. Orbital solar power might rival it someday. Fusion is trying; watch out, once they hit break-even. If the money spent on fusion projects had been put into solar, we would have had solar cheaper than coal 20 years ago.

pfdietz 6y ago

In countries of the kind that would want to practice covert proliferation, in other words.

nipponese 6y ago
Why would India and China need to covertly enrichment weapon material? Their nuclear weapon programs are well-known.
- pfdietz 6y ago
  India is doing very little with nuclear. They get less than 2% of their power from it.