3 ms·

We would need to build thousands of nuclear plants, adapting each plant for its location (so you can’t mass-produce a single design), and we don’t have the skil

by Joeri 5y ago

We would need to build thousands of nuclear plants, adapting each plant for its location (so you can’t mass-produce a single design), and we don’t have the skilled people to do that. In addition, they will take decades to build, we lack enough fuel for those plants, and we still haven’t solved the disposal problem. Solar panels, batteries, and wind mills are comparatively easy to produce at ridiculous volumes. They’re a cheaper, faster and cleaner solution.

ghufran_syed 5y ago
Why do you have to adapt each plant for its location? or just find a suitable location and build a bunch of such plants and transmit the power to where it’s used. Buildings are also “adapted for each location”, but there is still an entire corpus of standardized techniques to do that that massively reduces costs compared to literally solving the problem from scratch at each site. And why is it the case that “we don’t have the skilled people to do that”? If people value it, they’ll pay for it- and people can learn new skills in response to market need / pay - there is no predetermined number of “ad-tech software engineers” for example, they were “created” by the people themselves responding to market forces (pay)
- Joeri 5y ago
  From what I’ve read it has to do with the way the plant has to cope with water. Water needs to flow through the plant, which means you cannot put it just anywhere. At the same time the plant cannot be prone to flooding and its design must be such that even with a meltdown the radioactive material will not reach the water table. Both of those are not straightforward near abundant supplies of water. Maybe you could have a universally implantable design, and maybe you could train people with the relevant skillset. The point is: we haven’t, and we aren’t, so other ways of generating green power are easier and cheaper. Nuclear will play a role for sure (the climate crisis is such that we need to do all the things) but it won’t cover more than 10% of our energy needs. I would be glad to get a rosier outlook on nuclear though.
- PeterisP 5y ago
  One aspect of customization is regarding cooling - large nuclear plants can't be self-sufficient, they need to integrate some large natural supply of water. Rivers are different than lakes which are different than seaside; each river is different, etc.
99_00 5y ago
I'm having problems squaring this with the real world examples of France and Germany >Nuclear power is the largest source of electricity in France, with a generation of 379.5 TWh, or 70.6% https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power_in_France https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power_in_France >France is Europe’s biggest net electricity exporter in 2019, says report >French electricity costs are just 59% of German electricity prices. https://www.nsenergybusiness.com/features/electricity-export-france/ https://www.nsenergybusiness.com/features/electricity-export... >Nuclear power in Germany accounted for 11.63% of electricity supply in 2017 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power_in_France https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power_in_France >German power export surplus shrank 46.2% in 2020 https://www.reuters.com/article/germany-electricity-statistics-idUSL8N2JF16X https://www.reuters.com/article/germany-electricity-statisti...

by Joeri 5y ago

ghufran_syed 5y ago

Why do you have to adapt each plant for its location? or just find a suitable location and build a bunch of such plants and transmit the power to where it’s used. Buildings are also “adapted for each location”, but there is still an entire corpus of standardized techniques to do that that massively reduces costs compared to literally solving the problem from scratch at each site. And why is it the case that “we don’t have the skilled people to do that”? If people value it, they’ll pay for it- and people can learn new skills in response to market need / pay - there is no predetermined number of “ad-tech software engineers” for example, they were “created” by the people themselves responding to market forces (pay)

Joeri 5y ago
From what I’ve read it has to do with the way the plant has to cope with water. Water needs to flow through the plant, which means you cannot put it just anywhere. At the same time the plant cannot be prone to flooding and its design must be such that even with a meltdown the radioactive material will not reach the water table. Both of those are not straightforward near abundant supplies of water. Maybe you could have a universally implantable design, and maybe you could train people with the relevant skillset. The point is: we haven’t, and we aren’t, so other ways of generating green power are easier and cheaper. Nuclear will play a role for sure (the climate crisis is such that we need to do all the things) but it won’t cover more than 10% of our energy needs. I would be glad to get a rosier outlook on nuclear though.
PeterisP 5y ago
One aspect of customization is regarding cooling - large nuclear plants can't be self-sufficient, they need to integrate some large natural supply of water. Rivers are different than lakes which are different than seaside; each river is different, etc.

99_00 5y ago

I'm having problems squaring this with the real world examples of France and Germany >Nuclear power is the largest source of electricity in France, with a generation of 379.5 TWh, or 70.6% https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power_in_France https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power_in_France >France is Europe’s biggest net electricity exporter in 2019, says report >French electricity costs are just 59% of German electricity prices. https://www.nsenergybusiness.com/features/electricity-export-france/ https://www.nsenergybusiness.com/features/electricity-export... >Nuclear power in Germany accounted for 11.63% of electricity supply in 2017 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power_in_France https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power_in_France >German power export surplus shrank 46.2% in 2020 https://www.reuters.com/article/germany-electricity-statistics-idUSL8N2JF16X https://www.reuters.com/article/germany-electricity-statisti...