4 ms·

“Land use minimal” seems often to exclude the exclusion zones in Chernobyl and Fukushima. Which isn’t nothing. Chernobyl 4000 km2/1600 sq mile, Fukushima 800 k

• AnthonyMouse 3y ago
  The Chernobyl exclusion zone is large because it was predominantly rural wilderness to begin with and no one cares to demand that more of it be opened up or cleaned up or otherwise have anything done with it. The Fukushima exclusion zone is currently 143 sq miles, and half of the original Fukushima exclusion zone (a radius around a plant situated on the coast) wasn't on land. Based on the difference in capacity factor between nuclear and solar, a solar farm with the generation capacity of the Fukushima nuclear power plant would require approximately the same amount of land as the height of the Fukushima exclusion zone (including the parts over the sea), and about twice as much as the current exclusion zone. Needless to say there are several hundred other nuclear power plants that have operated for decades and have no exclusion zone, even before you consider newer designs that reduce or eliminate the possibility of that failure mode.