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In my opinion Europe's decommissioning of nuclear plants, particularly in Germany, is the greatest geopolitical blunder in recent history. The EU is now comple

In my opinion Europe's decommissioning of nuclear plants, particularly in Germany, is the greatest geopolitical blunder in recent history. The EU is now completely dependent on Russian goodwill to power their infrastructure for the next few decades, and have given up all leverage they had to push back on Russian power plays. At the very least they should've kept the plants operational and operating at minimum capacity for redundancy to mitigate this factor. We have no idea what the political landscape will look like thirty years from now, and Russia hasn't exactly been a stable or kind neighbour in modern history. https://www.euronews.com/2021/11/01/europe-must-reduce-its-dependence-on-russian-gas-view https://www.euronews.com/2021/11/01/europe-must-reduce-its-d...

fock 5y ago
Could you tell me, where we get our oil from? And how we heat our homes with nuclear? We never had any leverage except for the mighty dollar (and nukes and the fact that socialism doesn't need to kill before) and the US is working steady on removing that lever.
- BlueTemplar 5y ago
  > And how we heat our homes with nuclear? Resistors and/or heat pumps.
- Mystlix 5y ago
  Why do you need oil if you have electicity for dirt cheap? Expand the power lines and push for electic motors everywhere. Also I'm pretty sure running current through a big transistor dissipates plenty of heat, I mean, you know about electric stoves right?
  - fock 5y ago
    nuclear is far from dirt-cheap. And we don't currently do it in Germany (France does and its grid nearly goes down every other winter). So, where will we get all this fresh uranium from (and the reactors to stick it into)?
    - alkonaut 5y ago
      > where will we get all this fresh uranium from (and the reactors to stick it into)? Uranium isn't currently that scarce, and the topic of the day is "why are germany shutting down functioning reactors prematurely".
- samastur 5y ago
  Heating water with electricity and with it homes is a solved problem.
- selfhoster11 5y ago
  Why would you need (that much) oil when you can run passenger cars, trains, industrial processes, and house heating using electricity? The remaining fuel will be required for only a handful of things, with main consumers being aviation and other transportation where Li-ion is insufficiently energy dense.
- alkonaut 5y ago
  > And how we heat our homes with nuclear? The time to start converting ALL of these homes that are heated with hydrocarbons was twenty years ago. It's hard to believe it's still a thing, but I'm in another 20 years we'll be having this discussion. "How on earth can we heat homes without oil and gas? that sounds impossible".
speedgoose 5y ago
Keeping the plants operational at minimum capacity mean having to pay for them but not being able to use them for real. I don't think it makes economical sense. Though the German energy mix already doesn't make much sense.
- eckesicle 5y ago
  My understanding of nuclear power economics is that the bulk of the cost is incurred at construction, and that you can maintain minimal capability at a comparatively affordable rate. Closing operational reactors makes no economic sense either, and the argument in Germany has mostly been environmental and safety related (since the accident in Fukushima). https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economics_of_nuclear_power_plants https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economics_of_nuclear_power_p...
jwr 5y ago
> The EU is now completely dependent on Russian goodwill to power their infrastructure for the next few decades, and have given up all leverage they had to push back on Russian power plays An important datapoint here is that ex-chancellor Gerhard Schroeder moved on to the board of Nord Stream AG and of Rosneft, after pushing for building the Nord Stream pipelines. How this didn't get Germans out into the streets, I have no idea.
- DocTomoe 5y ago
  Oh, that's easy: Many Germans do/did not see Russia as the big bogey the Americans are - especially in times when the US is a less than reliable partner. Those Germans do think that a mutually beneficial partnership can be formed with Russia. Not using the chance of a German-friendly Russian president (Putin served in East Germany) to deepen that relationship is often considered a blunder of the Merkel years.
  - drran 5y ago
    There are some rumors (on HN) that Pukin and frau Ribentrop are brother and sister by mother, and that their mother was soviet agent.
- caskstrength 5y ago
  Not only that, but it was also his government that took the decision to phaseout all nuclear power.

fock 5y ago

Could you tell me, where we get our oil from? And how we heat our homes with nuclear? We never had any leverage except for the mighty dollar (and nukes and the fact that socialism doesn't need to kill before) and the US is working steady on removing that lever.

BlueTemplar 5y ago
> And how we heat our homes with nuclear? Resistors and/or heat pumps.
Mystlix 5y ago
Why do you need oil if you have electicity for dirt cheap? Expand the power lines and push for electic motors everywhere. Also I'm pretty sure running current through a big transistor dissipates plenty of heat, I mean, you know about electric stoves right?
- fock 5y ago
  nuclear is far from dirt-cheap. And we don't currently do it in Germany (France does and its grid nearly goes down every other winter). So, where will we get all this fresh uranium from (and the reactors to stick it into)?
  - alkonaut 5y ago
    > where will we get all this fresh uranium from (and the reactors to stick it into)? Uranium isn't currently that scarce, and the topic of the day is "why are germany shutting down functioning reactors prematurely".
samastur 5y ago
Heating water with electricity and with it homes is a solved problem.
selfhoster11 5y ago
Why would you need (that much) oil when you can run passenger cars, trains, industrial processes, and house heating using electricity? The remaining fuel will be required for only a handful of things, with main consumers being aviation and other transportation where Li-ion is insufficiently energy dense.
alkonaut 5y ago
> And how we heat our homes with nuclear? The time to start converting ALL of these homes that are heated with hydrocarbons was twenty years ago. It's hard to believe it's still a thing, but I'm in another 20 years we'll be having this discussion. "How on earth can we heat homes without oil and gas? that sounds impossible".

speedgoose 5y ago

Keeping the plants operational at minimum capacity mean having to pay for them but not being able to use them for real. I don't think it makes economical sense. Though the German energy mix already doesn't make much sense.

eckesicle 5y ago
My understanding of nuclear power economics is that the bulk of the cost is incurred at construction, and that you can maintain minimal capability at a comparatively affordable rate. Closing operational reactors makes no economic sense either, and the argument in Germany has mostly been environmental and safety related (since the accident in Fukushima). https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economics_of_nuclear_power_plants https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economics_of_nuclear_power_p...

jwr 5y ago

> The EU is now completely dependent on Russian goodwill to power their infrastructure for the next few decades, and have given up all leverage they had to push back on Russian power plays An important datapoint here is that ex-chancellor Gerhard Schroeder moved on to the board of Nord Stream AG and of Rosneft, after pushing for building the Nord Stream pipelines. How this didn't get Germans out into the streets, I have no idea.

DocTomoe 5y ago
Oh, that's easy: Many Germans do/did not see Russia as the big bogey the Americans are - especially in times when the US is a less than reliable partner. Those Germans do think that a mutually beneficial partnership can be formed with Russia. Not using the chance of a German-friendly Russian president (Putin served in East Germany) to deepen that relationship is often considered a blunder of the Merkel years.
- drran 5y ago
  There are some rumors (on HN) that Pukin and frau Ribentrop are brother and sister by mother, and that their mother was soviet agent.
caskstrength 5y ago
Not only that, but it was also his government that took the decision to phaseout all nuclear power.