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China’s Climate Goals Hinge on a $440B Nuclear Buildout

10 points by hncurious 5y ago

HenryKissinger 5y ago
I've been conducting a little mental exercise over the past few years. Each time I see a news headline about something China is doing to grow its economy or its geopolitical strength, I try to think of anything similar the US is doing. If I can't, I tell myself: "China wins." So, China is spending hundreds of billions of dollars to build new nuclear reactors, and the US is not. The last nuclear reactor built in the us was decades ago. Old reactors, for all their time tested trustworthiness, use obsolete technology. China wins. China is also building thorium reactors. The US is not. China wins.
- wolverine876 5y ago
  What is the point of this? And maybe the US wins for not investing in dangerous or poor-ROI technology. Governments spending lots of money isn't always a good thing. BTW, your namesake has a very different way of looking at the world.
- FjolsvithAase 5y ago
  The US is not sitting in the cold and dark right now. https://edition.cnn.com/2021/06/30/economy/china-power-shortage-intl-hnk/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2021/06/30/economy/china-power-short...
wolverine876 5y ago
> It would be the kind of wholesale energy transformation that Western democracies — with budget constraints, political will and public opinion to consider — can only dream of. It's interesting to me how points which for a long time were the propaganda of dictators (Mussolini made the trains run on time, it was said; I expect the British Monarchy had similar responses to American democracy), have now seeped into assumptions of in the dialog in free societies. The most cursory glance at the evidence shows that democratic governments accomplish far more - just look at the states of their countries. The CCP / Chinese government also has budget constraints; not recognizing them isn't an advantage. Public opinion is a good thing; it's the foundation of democracy; it ensures the government doesn't build glorious monuments to itself which practically have very low ROI; it's government by the people and for the people. Having to find solutions that meet the approval of a wide segment of the public is a system that delivers to that public, rather than to some self-important elite. (Yes, democracy is imperfect.)

10 points by hncurious 5y ago

I've been conducting a little mental exercise over the past few years. Each time I see a news headline about something China is doing to grow its economy or its geopolitical strength, I try to think of anything similar the US is doing. If I can't, I tell myself: "China wins." So, China is spending hundreds of billions of dollars to build new nuclear reactors, and the US is not. The last nuclear reactor built in the us was decades ago. Old reactors, for all their time tested trustworthiness, use obsolete technology. China wins. China is also building thorium reactors. The US is not. China wins.

wolverine876 5y ago
What is the point of this? And maybe the US wins for not investing in dangerous or poor-ROI technology. Governments spending lots of money isn't always a good thing. BTW, your namesake has a very different way of looking at the world.
FjolsvithAase 5y ago
The US is not sitting in the cold and dark right now. https://edition.cnn.com/2021/06/30/economy/china-power-shortage-intl-hnk/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2021/06/30/economy/china-power-short...

wolverine876 5y ago

> It would be the kind of wholesale energy transformation that Western democracies — with budget constraints, political will and public opinion to consider — can only dream of. It's interesting to me how points which for a long time were the propaganda of dictators (Mussolini made the trains run on time, it was said; I expect the British Monarchy had similar responses to American democracy), have now seeped into assumptions of in the dialog in free societies. The most cursory glance at the evidence shows that democratic governments accomplish far more - just look at the states of their countries. The CCP / Chinese government also has budget constraints; not recognizing them isn't an advantage. Public opinion is a good thing; it's the foundation of democracy; it ensures the government doesn't build glorious monuments to itself which practically have very low ROI; it's government by the people and for the people. Having to find solutions that meet the approval of a wide segment of the public is a system that delivers to that public, rather than to some self-important elite. (Yes, democracy is imperfect.)