4 ms·

Perhaps I will go my whole life not understanding why nations didn't switch to nuclear fission. Covering 2% of the UK's land in solar panels seems very silly w

• ngcc_hk 3y ago
  It bite you later as where to put the rock after it was used. Obviously if it is all about economic as well as risk ... but it is not silly.
  • pfdietz 3y ago
    This is not actually the reason nuclear failed. If we had a magic way to make nuclear waste just disappear forever, it would not materially change how much nuclear costs or how things turned out.
• rsynnott 3y ago
  The economics of nuclear are difficult; the cost is _extremely_ front loaded, moreso than virtually any other energy source. It's also awkwardly-sized; in practice, if you want to build a nuclear plant in Europe today, it's going to be in multiples of 1.7GWe and that is that (I think the EPR is literally the only plant currently licensed; there was also a GE one but it's basically vapourware). Not that it's impossible, and small numbers of nuclear plants are under construction (outside China, where the government is throwing money at the problem, and lots are) but it's far from the obvious route these days.
• pfdietz 3y ago
  The reason people didn't switch to nuclear fission was because it was too expensive. This is not hard to understand.