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FWIW, South Korea is quite corrupt as a system (all its presidents have gone to jail following their term minus one who was jailed already by a previous adminis
by devonkim 4y ago
FWIW, South Korea is quite corrupt as a system (all its presidents have gone to jail following their term minus one who was jailed already by a previous administration) yet is able to operate its nuclear reactors fine at high safety levels. It doesn’t have the kind of earthquake risks that Japan does but it does have plenty of typhoons / hurricanes hit that could impact structural integrity of its infrastructure quite regularly. This is a country where one of its largest malls collapsed killing many people while its executives hid the problems and tried to flee the country.
There are not many data points in terms of number of countries using nuclear nor do I think it’s a panacea or anything for our problems, but from a realistic standpoint we need as many solutions other than fossil fuels on the table right now as a species if we’re to tackle the climate crisis with the gravity it deserves, and nuclear can buy some more options especially if we start deploying small modular reactors that can quickly shutdown fossil fuel power plants. As it stands, aging nuclear power plants tend to be replaced not with another, modern plant but with fossil fuel based plants to meet similar performance and logistical characteristics.