4 ms·

>people are scared of nuclear energy Let's not make policy out of unfounded fears. Let's look at some simple facts: 1. Fewer people have died from nuclear rea

>people are scared of nuclear energy Let's not make policy out of unfounded fears. Let's look at some simple facts: 1. Fewer people have died from nuclear reactor meltdowns than from any other form of electricity generation. It is by far the safest form of power. 2. Even with the price of renewables dropping quickly, we will not be able to decarbonize quickly enough to prevent the terrible climate change outcomes. We need an all of the above solution to non-fossil fuel energy sources. 3. Germany decommissioned several nuclear plants out of fear and have both increased their reliance on fossil fuels as a result and increased dependency on Russia. It was a very foolish decision

glogla 4y ago
> 1. Fewer people have died from nuclear reactor meltdowns than from any other form of electricity generation. It is by far the safest form of power. To extend this - this includes renewables. Dam failures usually kill a lot of people (I think the estimate for Three Gorges failing was 10 million dead and 100 million displaced or something?) and a lot of people get hurt due to accidents while installing solar panels and wind turbines. The accidents don't happen that often, but you need a lot of solar panels and wind turbines to replace one nuclear power plants.
- sjducb 4y ago
  Rooftop solar kills the most people per megawatt hour. It's even worse than Chinese coal mining.
theshrike79 4y ago
Nuclear power is the safest and most environmentally friendly way to produce reliable and consistent base power. No renewable can do that yet. In theory they can, but in practice it's still either prohibitively expensive or highly location-dependent. Pumped storage works, but it needs natural formations to be cost-effective, you can't just build a mile high lake in the middle of a desert. Hydrogen electrolysis+on-site storage is a decent option, but still very expensive and not very efficient (energy loss is around 50% give or take depending on the scale). We needed nuclear 5 years ago, maybe when the current gen generators are EOL we have gotten good enough at storing renewable power that we don't need nuclear any more.

glogla 4y ago

> 1. Fewer people have died from nuclear reactor meltdowns than from any other form of electricity generation. It is by far the safest form of power. To extend this - this includes renewables. Dam failures usually kill a lot of people (I think the estimate for Three Gorges failing was 10 million dead and 100 million displaced or something?) and a lot of people get hurt due to accidents while installing solar panels and wind turbines. The accidents don't happen that often, but you need a lot of solar panels and wind turbines to replace one nuclear power plants.

sjducb 4y ago
Rooftop solar kills the most people per megawatt hour. It's even worse than Chinese coal mining.

theshrike79 4y ago

Nuclear power is the safest and most environmentally friendly way to produce reliable and consistent base power. No renewable can do that yet. In theory they can, but in practice it's still either prohibitively expensive or highly location-dependent. Pumped storage works, but it needs natural formations to be cost-effective, you can't just build a mile high lake in the middle of a desert. Hydrogen electrolysis+on-site storage is a decent option, but still very expensive and not very efficient (energy loss is around 50% give or take depending on the scale). We needed nuclear 5 years ago, maybe when the current gen generators are EOL we have gotten good enough at storing renewable power that we don't need nuclear any more.