5 ms·

Can a Closed Nuclear Power Plant from the '70s Be Brought Back to Life?

19 points by fortran77 2y ago

mjevans 2y ago
https://archive.is/3qcPF https://archive.is/3qcPF Is this a video? This capture doesn't look complete.
- wkat4242 2y ago
  Unfortunately the archive link also lacks the full article. I guess the wsj found a way to detect it. Bypass paywalls clean also failed. Same with archive.org
  - shiroiushi 2y ago
    Yeah, I can't read it either with my paywalls filter. Oh well, I guess it's not that important anyway; there's no shortage of other news articles to read.
  - thrdbndndn 2y ago
    I'm more curious why it would even work to begin with.
    - AnthonyMouse 2y ago
      Sites typically want to give the full article to web crawlers because they want it to show up in search results for anything that might be in the article. It's also a mechanism of price discrimination. Using some third party site is an inconvenience, so anyone who can afford it or wants to support the site is going to subscribe. Having a slightly inconvenient but available path to reading the articles for free is a form of advertising (people who might subscribe can sample articles first), and most of the people who will always use the workaround were never going to subscribe anyway. Also, they may want the story to actually be archived -- who else is going to maintain a copy of it for the historical record when the company goes bust? On net it probably gets them more subscribers to let it happen. But then their traffic declines anyway for other and industry-wide reasons and some shortsighted tightwad concludes that allowing it is costing them rather than making them money.
  - akadruid1 2y ago
    This article from earlier this year covers much of the same ground: https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/04/03/1090603/how-to-reopen-a-nuclear-power-plant/ https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/04/03/1090603/how-to-r...
AtlasBarfed 2y ago
..... But why? If it was up and running it would be 4-8x or so more expensive than solar/wind. I guess if there was proper carbon taxation it would be price competitive with gas turbine, but ... there isn't. On top of that you need to install new control systems and probably do huge amounts of integrity checks. Probably an entire new round of NIMBY approvals and delays and lawsuits.
- chaffroomba 2y ago
  >it would be 4-8x or so more expensive than solar/wind Is that accounting for the renewable's inherent need for very expensive energy storage? Because otherwise you need to build that gas turbine to cover for when sun isn't shining.
  - 35mm 2y ago
    Or the cost of processing nuclear waste for 1,000s of years?
    - sofixa 2y ago
      I don't know about this particular power plant, but on new constructions all costs, including decommissioning and storage of waste, are included.
      - AnthonyMouse 2y ago
        "Storage of waste" is also a farce. All of the components of "nuclear waste" are commercially valuable, especially the exotic and hazardous ones. The issue is that we don't reprocess most of the spent fuel for political reasons.
        Lutzb 2y ago
        That is not true, stop perpetuating that myth. Most of the nuclear waste by volume is of low level waste (90%) or intermediate level (7%) and only 3% is high level waste i.e. spent fuel. We still have to store the 97% of waste that cannot be reused. https://world-nuclear.org/nuclear-essentials/what-is-nuclear-waste-and-what-do-we-do-with-it https://world-nuclear.org/nuclear-essentials/what-is-nuclear...
hcfman 2y ago
Yeah of course. It's not like we are not already running the planet in a self destructive way.
fnord77 2y ago
I had no idea color LCDs existed in the 70s! Seriously, I guess it isn't shut down completely and they added some modern displays?
pjc50 2y ago
Better (or at least readable) article: https://fas.org/publication/palisades-restart-finance/ https://fas.org/publication/palisades-restart-finance/

19 points by fortran77 2y ago

mjevans 2y ago

https://archive.is/3qcPF https://archive.is/3qcPF Is this a video? This capture doesn't look complete.

wkat4242 2y ago
Unfortunately the archive link also lacks the full article. I guess the wsj found a way to detect it. Bypass paywalls clean also failed. Same with archive.org
- shiroiushi 2y ago
  Yeah, I can't read it either with my paywalls filter. Oh well, I guess it's not that important anyway; there's no shortage of other news articles to read.
- thrdbndndn 2y ago
  I'm more curious why it would even work to begin with.
  - AnthonyMouse 2y ago
    Sites typically want to give the full article to web crawlers because they want it to show up in search results for anything that might be in the article. It's also a mechanism of price discrimination. Using some third party site is an inconvenience, so anyone who can afford it or wants to support the site is going to subscribe. Having a slightly inconvenient but available path to reading the articles for free is a form of advertising (people who might subscribe can sample articles first), and most of the people who will always use the workaround were never going to subscribe anyway. Also, they may want the story to actually be archived -- who else is going to maintain a copy of it for the historical record when the company goes bust? On net it probably gets them more subscribers to let it happen. But then their traffic declines anyway for other and industry-wide reasons and some shortsighted tightwad concludes that allowing it is costing them rather than making them money.
- akadruid1 2y ago
  This article from earlier this year covers much of the same ground: https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/04/03/1090603/how-to-reopen-a-nuclear-power-plant/ https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/04/03/1090603/how-to-r...

AtlasBarfed 2y ago

..... But why? If it was up and running it would be 4-8x or so more expensive than solar/wind. I guess if there was proper carbon taxation it would be price competitive with gas turbine, but ... there isn't. On top of that you need to install new control systems and probably do huge amounts of integrity checks. Probably an entire new round of NIMBY approvals and delays and lawsuits.

chaffroomba 2y ago
>it would be 4-8x or so more expensive than solar/wind Is that accounting for the renewable's inherent need for very expensive energy storage? Because otherwise you need to build that gas turbine to cover for when sun isn't shining.
- 35mm 2y ago
  Or the cost of processing nuclear waste for 1,000s of years?
  - sofixa 2y ago
    I don't know about this particular power plant, but on new constructions all costs, including decommissioning and storage of waste, are included.
    - AnthonyMouse 2y ago
      "Storage of waste" is also a farce. All of the components of "nuclear waste" are commercially valuable, especially the exotic and hazardous ones. The issue is that we don't reprocess most of the spent fuel for political reasons.
      - Lutzb 2y ago
        That is not true, stop perpetuating that myth. Most of the nuclear waste by volume is of low level waste (90%) or intermediate level (7%) and only 3% is high level waste i.e. spent fuel. We still have to store the 97% of waste that cannot be reused. https://world-nuclear.org/nuclear-essentials/what-is-nuclear-waste-and-what-do-we-do-with-it https://world-nuclear.org/nuclear-essentials/what-is-nuclear...

hcfman 2y ago

Yeah of course. It's not like we are not already running the planet in a self destructive way.

fnord77 2y ago

I had no idea color LCDs existed in the 70s! Seriously, I guess it isn't shut down completely and they added some modern displays?

pjc50 2y ago

Better (or at least readable) article: https://fas.org/publication/palisades-restart-finance/ https://fas.org/publication/palisades-restart-finance/