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The big problem for nuclear in Sweden at least is that no new staff has been trained for a long time. We couldn’t really run our shutdown reactors if we tried.
by toxik 4y ago
The big problem for nuclear in Sweden at least is that no new staff has been trained for a long time. We couldn’t really run our shutdown reactors if we tried.
- hericium 4y agoLast time I visited Sweden, the mentality there seemed a bit like changing the mind on something like approach to energy is unthinkable. "We said in the 70s that nuclear is bad, so we can't just revisit this mindset now, just like that, 50 years later". It may be hard for them to get off nuclear though, as most Swedes (that I met) seem not to care about costs of electricity at all. Lightbulbs on, when leaving a house. Not ever getting into an elevator with a stranger - better for it to ride twice. Petroleum cars are expensive and EVs free to use...
- hans1729 4y agoThe same applies for Germany; our plants that have been shut down can, de facto, not be reactivated. The effort would be too big, and the industry lacks the experts as priorities shifted for obvious reasons. In other news, Germany just started a partnership with Quatar to import Gas, because, you know, we don't want to support abusive regimes :-) Everything just gets more messy and distorted by the day.
- hericium 4y agoThere's also coal electricity from Poland and France seems to be nuking up to serve as Europe's reserve battery for when greens aren't producing or a large exporter misbehaves in politics next time.
- _ph_ 4y agoOften enough, France cannot even power itself, less so export electricity 24/7. And the number of operational reactors is going down, not up. France is only a strong exporter in the times where there is low demand - exporting surplus nuclear energy is of course far better than regulating the reactors down - both from an economic standpoint as well as an ecologic one.
- hericium 4y agoMacron announced[1][2][3] plans to build 14 new reactors. [1] https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/11/business/nuclear-power-france/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/11/business/nuclear-power-france... [2] https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/10/world/europe/france-macron-nuclear-power.html https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/10/world/europe/france-macro... [3] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/10/france-to-build-up-to-14-new-nuclear-reactors-by-2050-says-macron https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/10/france-to-buil...
- _ph_ 4y agoYes, he did. Is there any chance he will build them, if you look at the unfinished Flammaville reactor, which is like 10 years overdue and equally over the price estimate? France currently has like 58 reactors, all of them very old. It is doubtful that France can even keep up the current production levels.
- ncmncm 4y agoNone of the money spent on cancelled reactors is ever given back. And, they will all be cancelled, so all that is unknown is how much money will turn out to have been diverted from renewables, first.
- orwin 4y agoWill giving this money to built up solar and extract the needed neodyme/copper increase the worldwide deployment of solar and wind, or are the mines already running at close to max capacity anyway and new developments are stalled by a lack of workforce, administrative decisions, or environmentalists? If the response is 2, what's the real issue?
- ncmncm 4y agoMoney is diverted from build-out for political and military pressures. Is that "administrative"?
- bayesian_horse 4y agoThis even applies to France. France is running into a shortage of trained labor in that field. Nuclear power binds a huge, highly specialized workforce, which is a big problem on its own.