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Ironically, no faction has done more to stop the expansion of nuclear power than environmemtal groups and green parties.
by ETH_start 4y ago
Ironically, no faction has done more to stop the expansion of nuclear power than environmemtal groups and green parties.
- ZeroGravitas 4y agoBasically every regulation or idea that benefits renewables benefits nuclear, and every regulation that fights climate change benefits nuclear. So environmental groups have done more than most, possibly tied with the military, for nuclear power.
- ETH_start 4y agoIn Germany, the national Green party is the primary instigator behind the planned closure of the country's nuclear power plants. Greenpeace for its part has lobbied hard against nuclear power for decades. As for regulation, nuclear is governed by a totally separate regulatory structure, that can have its stringency throttled up by anti-nuclear types to prevent new plant approvals.
- ZeroGravitas 4y agoOne party in one country that's not been in power for a while is hardly decisive. Especially when they fast tracked coal phase out as soon as they had some power. I can easily name environmentalists who called for more nuclear power. I can even name nuclear PR reps who pretended to be environmentalists (who probably count for this purpose). Meanwhile, the key benefits of nuclear over coal are various reductions in pollution. If you dont care about pollution, then there's no reason to not use coal. So Environmentalists win again.
- ciphol 4y agoEven more ironically, environmemtal groups and green parties have essentially created the problem of climate change. If the whole world had switched to nuclear power starting in the 1970s, a large fraction of carbon emissions so far and a larger fraction of future emissions would never have happened.