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Meanwhile the Chinese are rapidly building out their fleet of nuclear reactors because they're an actually practical people.

pfdietz 3y ago
They're building out wind and solar much faster.
- acidburnNSA 3y ago
  Great! Building out low carbon things like wind, solar, hydro, nuclear all help reduce air pollution and CO₂ emissions. What's your point?
  - pfdietz 3y ago
    That pointing to China as an argument-from-authority favoring nuclear is a bad argument.
tonyedgecombe 3y ago
I wonder how long it will be before they have an incident that stops everything.
pstuart 3y ago
Practical, perhaps. But it doesn't hurt to have the state in control of things and no concept of NIMBYism. Add to that a growth mindset akin to the post-war US.
ViewTrick1002 3y ago
China is barely building nuclear power plants anymore. China added more wind and solar the past nine months than all of its nuclear reactors under construction will provide. Yes, that includes capacity factor. Which confirms your statement, they are a practical people. They have despite much lower labor costs than in the western world and a dictatorial safety and decision making culture come to the conclusion that renewables will power the vast majority of the grid. https://twitter.com/yo_ean/status/1718633487454904718 https://twitter.com/yo_ean/status/1718633487454904718
otherme123 3y ago
Chinese can make huge investment mistakes also, and due to the nature of their economic system, they can keep on the wrong side for years, if not decades (read about their massive real state bubble). The economy of the US is quicker to discover investment mistakes and adapt. This doesn't mean nuclear is a mistake per se, but if the central government decides nuclear is practical, and it turns out they are wrong, it's very probable they keep building them and then some well after they are costing more money than they produce. In the US the investors would go bankrupt, and the plant development abandoned.

pfdietz 3y ago

They're building out wind and solar much faster.

acidburnNSA 3y ago
Great! Building out low carbon things like wind, solar, hydro, nuclear all help reduce air pollution and CO₂ emissions. What's your point?
- pfdietz 3y ago
  That pointing to China as an argument-from-authority favoring nuclear is a bad argument.

tonyedgecombe 3y ago

I wonder how long it will be before they have an incident that stops everything.

pstuart 3y ago

Practical, perhaps. But it doesn't hurt to have the state in control of things and no concept of NIMBYism. Add to that a growth mindset akin to the post-war US.

ViewTrick1002 3y ago

China is barely building nuclear power plants anymore. China added more wind and solar the past nine months than all of its nuclear reactors under construction will provide. Yes, that includes capacity factor. Which confirms your statement, they are a practical people. They have despite much lower labor costs than in the western world and a dictatorial safety and decision making culture come to the conclusion that renewables will power the vast majority of the grid. https://twitter.com/yo_ean/status/1718633487454904718 https://twitter.com/yo_ean/status/1718633487454904718

otherme123 3y ago

Chinese can make huge investment mistakes also, and due to the nature of their economic system, they can keep on the wrong side for years, if not decades (read about their massive real state bubble). The economy of the US is quicker to discover investment mistakes and adapt. This doesn't mean nuclear is a mistake per se, but if the central government decides nuclear is practical, and it turns out they are wrong, it's very probable they keep building them and then some well after they are costing more money than they produce. In the US the investors would go bankrupt, and the plant development abandoned.