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This is like saying that the solution to climate change is largely political and you don't see that changing, so you don't think you need to be part of solving
by q1w2 4y ago
This is like saying that the solution to climate change is largely political and you don't see that changing, so you don't think you need to be part of solving that.
In fact, it's quite exactly like saying that, because nuclear is the fastest path to solving climate change.
- ncmncm 4y agoNo, nukes are the slowest, and worst performing. Starting a nuke, we get no power out for a decade or more, and get much less power at the end than building renewables with the same money, which furthermore start displacing carbon immediately.
- Andrew_nenakhov 4y agoYou are missing the point. With continued investment and improvements to technology nuclear will be much cheaper and faster to deploy. Compare wind/solar prices from the year 2000, and imagine we've spent the last 22 years giving nuclear the same level of attention and promotion as them.
- ncmncm 4y agoInvestment and improvement in nukes are falling, not rising. For reasons. There is no reasonable expectation for substantially better costs for nukes. Anywhere they have to compete with $0 opex renewables, they will run at well under 50% capacity, thus more than doubling their per-kWh cost, making them even less competitive.
- Andrew_nenakhov 4y agoRenewables are far from $0 opex, and your statement about 'no reasonable expectation' are somewhat unbased.
- ncmncm 4y agoNukes are concrete, steel, pumps, steam turbines, liability subsidy, decommissioning subsidy. None of those get cheaper.
- Andrew_nenakhov 4y agoConcrete and steel costs are negligible in the full costs of the nuclear plant. Complex machinery like turbines, reactors, etc have huge costs that fall of rapidly when you start mass producing them. If you make 2 plants/year the cost per item is X, if you make 100 plants/year the cost per item is X/10 or X/20. Huge part of costs goes into machinery that allows to build the thing. Once you have it, producing more parts becomes way easier.
- ncmncm 4y agoSteam turbines are mature tech whose capex and opex are large and will not change. Likewise, high-pressure plumbing. Thus, costs are not falling, and new starts are negligible. Even China, which asserts they will build 220 of them, has only started 10. The rest will be cancelled as their price is undercut, unless politics forces the matter. China is not cost- or value- driven. (Cf. "Ghost cities".)