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Soon someone will enter here and tell why nuclear anyhow is the answer to all problems and worries. Great to see this in Texas! Didn’t know they were big in th

Soon someone will enter here and tell why nuclear anyhow is the answer to all problems and worries. Great to see this in Texas! Didn’t know they were big in this

melling 4y ago
Texas grid still isn’t reliable. https://cbsaustin.com/news/local/fed-report-says-texas-grid-still-not-reliable-experts-discuss-current-proposals-ercot-winter-storm-uri https://cbsaustin.com/news/local/fed-report-says-texas-grid-... Remember when they had the power outage and people died? Wind turbines in Texas aren’t winterized so usage drops to around 10% in the winter. The natural gas also stopped working because it wasn’t winterized either. Remember when the governor of Texas blamed frozen wind turbines for the disaster? https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/02/17/texas-abbott-wind-turbines-outages/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/02/17/texas-abbot... Remember 45 years ago we were warned not to burn all that coal or we would cause climate change? We’re still at 40% coal for electricity globally and it’s now too late to prevent a significant amount of warming. But hey, the batteries are almost ready? We can’t be more than 10-20 years from widespread adoption?
- hsnewman 4y ago
  I agree, the savings from not maintaining the system could also add up to real $.
- PM_me_your_math 4y ago
  - melling 4y ago
    Yes, I’ve heard the Obama ocean front mansion story a thousands times. How high above sea level has been debated. Could be totally under water by 2100? https://wattsupwiththat.com/2019/08/28/sea-level-rise-dooms-obamas-new-martha-vineyard-mansion/ https://wattsupwiththat.com/2019/08/28/sea-level-rise-dooms-... I’d say maybe he was assuming we’d address climate change or he’d simply move by 2061 when he turns 100. Miami is only 6 feet above sea level so it will be gone before his house. Once Miami floods climate change deniers will have a more difficult time convincing people they are right. But I’m betting the limits of denial are boundless. In the meantime, sounds like a great house.
    - VBprogrammer 4y ago
      I doubt Miami would slip gracefully into the sea. In reality it would, like other cities in the world below sea level, become suddenly very dependent on pumps, drainage and seawalls. I suspect that may not be quite enough to trigger the drastic action that you suggest.
      - dwater 4y ago
        They are already dependent on those things. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/projects/cp/climate/2015-paris-climate-talks/what-climate-change-looks-like-miami-pumps https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/projects/cp/climate/2015...
  - travisporter 4y ago
    So is your stand that because they were wrong 40 years ago, and because sometimes warming is not man made, global warming isn’t actionable? Things change and multiple things can cause catastrophe. You wouldn’t say that Columbus was innocent because smallpox killed many native Americans?
    - PM_me_your_math 4y ago
      40 years from now we will be having the same discussion. I'll point back to 80 years of climate bullshit and you'll say its really going to happen this time. The song is tired old music.
      - themitigating 4y ago
        What do you think the motive is here if not to slow down climate change?
      - melling 4y ago
        I have oftened pounded the stupid out of people like yourself but I find that it’s a big circle where we start over again, after you’ve lost on every point. HN should note that many people believe as you do and that’s why it’s unlikely to get better before it gets much worse. A million Americans unnecessarily died from Coronavirus. That should have been a wake up call.
      - mtgentry 4y ago
        What about the ozone layer? Was that bullshit? We banned CFC’s and now the problem is fixed.
    - HWR_14 4y ago
      > So is your stand that because they were wrong 40 years ago Don't concede that point. 50 years ago the decreasing temperature over time was written about in a pop science article (by a journalist) not peer reviewed science (although scientists were quoted). The magazine covers claiming it was a major story were modern photoshops - the article was on page 64.
  - themitigating 4y ago
    Maybe his house won't be effected by climate change?
  - rybosome 4y ago
    The inability for seemingly intelligent people to grasp why this argument is wrong really frustrates me. Yes, the earth has had countless cycles of heating and cooling which preceded and had nothing to do with humans. That does not preclude the possibility that the current changes we are observing are anthropogenic. That’s like saying “the wind has blown my screen door open in the past. Therefore if I hear it open today, it is impossible that it’s because a person entered”. The most grating part is how smugly this ridiculous argument is put forth, as though the debate has just been decisively settled.
  - bryanlarsen 4y ago
    It's not the magnitude of the change that's unique to this change, it's the rate. If change happens slowly The ecosystem can adapt.
- Aloha 4y ago
  While winterization did effect the generation of renewables during the outage, a larger issue was just.. a lack of wind. Thermal generation was and is the leading cause of the outage - namely a lack of gas supply which offlined much of the states thermal generation.
  - pfdietz 4y ago
    And during that big winter storm outage, the sudden loss of a nuclear power plant's output.
    - galangalalgol 4y ago
      I wasn't aware the nuke plant went down, why did that happen? My understanding wasn't that our gas supply wasn't winterized, but that with residential heating usage, the pressure in the lines was too low to safely turn on the auxiliary powerplants. Apparently it is bad if instead of leaking tiny bits of gas out of the pipes, you start leaking tiny bits of air in...
      - pfdietz 4y ago
        https://atomicinsights.com/south-texas-project-unit-1-tripped-at-0537-on-feb-15-2021/ https://atomicinsights.com/south-texas-project-unit-1-trippe... Failure of feedwater supply attributed to cold-related failure of sensors.
      - shagie 4y ago
        https://www.npr.org/podcasts/1004840920/the-disconnect-power-politics-and-the-texas-blackout https://www.npr.org/podcasts/1004840920/the-disconnect-power... - the episode "The Fixes" about 24:00 in gets into the specifics of the natural gas issues. Once the rolling blackouts started, the rolling blackouts shut off the gas wells as the wells weren't on critical circuits... and even if they were winterized with heaters, they wouldn't be able to heat as there was no power.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
geoduck14 4y ago
Texan here. We have a nuclear power plant, too. It's pretty legit.
- pfdietz 4y ago
  We all notice that Texas isn't building more of them. The economics just doesn't work.
  - nawitus 4y ago
    Maybe because fossil fuel based power sources are not taxed enough (compared to Europe, where nuclear makes financial sense).
    - pfdietz 4y ago
      New nuclear plants don't make sense in western Europe either. Ask the French about Flamanville 3, or the British about the subsidies for those new plants they're trying to build. Maybe it's closest to competitive in eastern Europe? Except the cheapest nuclear plants from Russia aren't going to be a thing now.
      - klyrs 4y ago
        With its expansionist policy, would you really want a Russian-made nuclear plant on your grid? People were panicked about Huawei's networking gear snooping their traffic; a backdoored power plant is a nightmare.
        pfdietz 4y ago
        Why are you implying that I would want that? Are you going to next ask if I've stopped beating my spouse?
        pencilguin 4y ago
        Don't think that was implied. Seems to be agreeing with you.
sofixa 4y ago
It's not the answer of course, there's no singular answer to a problem as complex as good, reliable, non-polluting energy at grid scale. But nuclear absolutely is an answer for that in some scenarios.
stjohnswarts 4y ago
It actually would be and I would welcome all the new ones the government wants to allow (following regulations of course). We're out of time on climate change. One advantage of the new Supreme Court lineup is they might actually give the middle finger to some of the NIMBYs and greens blocking nuclear power. The downside of that is they will be doing similar to regulations like the Clean Water Act soon as well :(
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

Soon someone will enter here and tell why nuclear anyhow is the answer to all problems and worries. Great to see this in Texas! Didn’t know they were big in this

melling 4y ago

Texas grid still isn’t reliable. https://cbsaustin.com/news/local/fed-report-says-texas-grid-still-not-reliable-experts-discuss-current-proposals-ercot-winter-storm-uri https://cbsaustin.com/news/local/fed-report-says-texas-grid-... Remember when they had the power outage and people died? Wind turbines in Texas aren’t winterized so usage drops to around 10% in the winter. The natural gas also stopped working because it wasn’t winterized either. Remember when the governor of Texas blamed frozen wind turbines for the disaster? https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/02/17/texas-abbott-wind-turbines-outages/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/02/17/texas-abbot... Remember 45 years ago we were warned not to burn all that coal or we would cause climate change? We’re still at 40% coal for electricity globally and it’s now too late to prevent a significant amount of warming. But hey, the batteries are almost ready? We can’t be more than 10-20 years from widespread adoption?

hsnewman 4y ago
I agree, the savings from not maintaining the system could also add up to real $.
PM_me_your_math 4y ago
- melling 4y ago
  Yes, I’ve heard the Obama ocean front mansion story a thousands times. How high above sea level has been debated. Could be totally under water by 2100? https://wattsupwiththat.com/2019/08/28/sea-level-rise-dooms-obamas-new-martha-vineyard-mansion/ https://wattsupwiththat.com/2019/08/28/sea-level-rise-dooms-... I’d say maybe he was assuming we’d address climate change or he’d simply move by 2061 when he turns 100. Miami is only 6 feet above sea level so it will be gone before his house. Once Miami floods climate change deniers will have a more difficult time convincing people they are right. But I’m betting the limits of denial are boundless. In the meantime, sounds like a great house.
  - VBprogrammer 4y ago
    I doubt Miami would slip gracefully into the sea. In reality it would, like other cities in the world below sea level, become suddenly very dependent on pumps, drainage and seawalls. I suspect that may not be quite enough to trigger the drastic action that you suggest.
    - dwater 4y ago
      They are already dependent on those things. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/projects/cp/climate/2015-paris-climate-talks/what-climate-change-looks-like-miami-pumps https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/projects/cp/climate/2015...
- travisporter 4y ago
  So is your stand that because they were wrong 40 years ago, and because sometimes warming is not man made, global warming isn’t actionable? Things change and multiple things can cause catastrophe. You wouldn’t say that Columbus was innocent because smallpox killed many native Americans?
  - PM_me_your_math 4y ago
    40 years from now we will be having the same discussion. I'll point back to 80 years of climate bullshit and you'll say its really going to happen this time. The song is tired old music.
    - themitigating 4y ago
      What do you think the motive is here if not to slow down climate change?
    - melling 4y ago
      I have oftened pounded the stupid out of people like yourself but I find that it’s a big circle where we start over again, after you’ve lost on every point. HN should note that many people believe as you do and that’s why it’s unlikely to get better before it gets much worse. A million Americans unnecessarily died from Coronavirus. That should have been a wake up call.
    - mtgentry 4y ago
      What about the ozone layer? Was that bullshit? We banned CFC’s and now the problem is fixed.
  - HWR_14 4y ago
    > So is your stand that because they were wrong 40 years ago Don't concede that point. 50 years ago the decreasing temperature over time was written about in a pop science article (by a journalist) not peer reviewed science (although scientists were quoted). The magazine covers claiming it was a major story were modern photoshops - the article was on page 64.
- themitigating 4y ago
  Maybe his house won't be effected by climate change?
- rybosome 4y ago
  The inability for seemingly intelligent people to grasp why this argument is wrong really frustrates me. Yes, the earth has had countless cycles of heating and cooling which preceded and had nothing to do with humans. That does not preclude the possibility that the current changes we are observing are anthropogenic. That’s like saying “the wind has blown my screen door open in the past. Therefore if I hear it open today, it is impossible that it’s because a person entered”. The most grating part is how smugly this ridiculous argument is put forth, as though the debate has just been decisively settled.
- bryanlarsen 4y ago
  It's not the magnitude of the change that's unique to this change, it's the rate. If change happens slowly The ecosystem can adapt.
Aloha 4y ago
While winterization did effect the generation of renewables during the outage, a larger issue was just.. a lack of wind. Thermal generation was and is the leading cause of the outage - namely a lack of gas supply which offlined much of the states thermal generation.
- pfdietz 4y ago
  And during that big winter storm outage, the sudden loss of a nuclear power plant's output.
  - galangalalgol 4y ago
    I wasn't aware the nuke plant went down, why did that happen? My understanding wasn't that our gas supply wasn't winterized, but that with residential heating usage, the pressure in the lines was too low to safely turn on the auxiliary powerplants. Apparently it is bad if instead of leaking tiny bits of gas out of the pipes, you start leaking tiny bits of air in...
    - pfdietz 4y ago
      https://atomicinsights.com/south-texas-project-unit-1-tripped-at-0537-on-feb-15-2021/ https://atomicinsights.com/south-texas-project-unit-1-trippe... Failure of feedwater supply attributed to cold-related failure of sensors.
    - shagie 4y ago
      https://www.npr.org/podcasts/1004840920/the-disconnect-power-politics-and-the-texas-blackout https://www.npr.org/podcasts/1004840920/the-disconnect-power... - the episode "The Fixes" about 24:00 in gets into the specifics of the natural gas issues. Once the rolling blackouts started, the rolling blackouts shut off the gas wells as the wells weren't on critical circuits... and even if they were winterized with heaters, they wouldn't be able to heat as there was no power.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

geoduck14 4y ago

Texan here. We have a nuclear power plant, too. It's pretty legit.

pfdietz 4y ago
We all notice that Texas isn't building more of them. The economics just doesn't work.
- nawitus 4y ago
  Maybe because fossil fuel based power sources are not taxed enough (compared to Europe, where nuclear makes financial sense).
  - pfdietz 4y ago
    New nuclear plants don't make sense in western Europe either. Ask the French about Flamanville 3, or the British about the subsidies for those new plants they're trying to build. Maybe it's closest to competitive in eastern Europe? Except the cheapest nuclear plants from Russia aren't going to be a thing now.
    - klyrs 4y ago
      With its expansionist policy, would you really want a Russian-made nuclear plant on your grid? People were panicked about Huawei's networking gear snooping their traffic; a backdoored power plant is a nightmare.
      - pfdietz 4y ago
        Why are you implying that I would want that? Are you going to next ask if I've stopped beating my spouse?
        pencilguin 4y ago
        Don't think that was implied. Seems to be agreeing with you.

sofixa 4y ago

It's not the answer of course, there's no singular answer to a problem as complex as good, reliable, non-polluting energy at grid scale. But nuclear absolutely is an answer for that in some scenarios.

stjohnswarts 4y ago

It actually would be and I would welcome all the new ones the government wants to allow (following regulations of course). We're out of time on climate change. One advantage of the new Supreme Court lineup is they might actually give the middle finger to some of the NIMBYs and greens blocking nuclear power. The downside of that is they will be doing similar to regulations like the Clean Water Act soon as well :(

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]