smotah

7 ms·

1.
by smotah 5y ago
The main difference is that: - the weight of uranium compared to the weight of coal needed for the same amount of energy produced is absolutely ridiculous: 2.5 metric tons vs. 7 grams of uranium 235. That make it easy to stockpile it for ye
2.
by smotah 5y ago
> 100% nuclear is not economical or practical. Nuclear is poorly suited to regular spikes and short-term load balancing. While using only nuclear power plants for all the domestic electricity generation of a country doesn't make muc
3.
by smotah 5y ago
It's a bit more nuanced than that as there's just a subset of all possible nuclear power plant designs that needs the same enrichment facility than for military (bomb making) usage.
4.
by smotah 5y ago
> nobody wants to live next to radioactive waste. It seems irrational as sealed high profile waste doesn't leak any radiations beyond the natural ambiant radioactive noise. The problem may arise in a very long time due to water mole
5.
by smotah 5y ago
> Much of Europe is following in Germanys steps I am afraid. There's still hope, it is to be expected than the gas price surge and geopolitical implications of dependencies will make people realize than it's not conceivable to
6.
by smotah 5y ago
When looking at live data we should keep in mind that currently 14 reactors are stopped in France for various reasons (maintenance delayed to winter season due to COVID, safety measures of several reactors due to investigation in a deterior
7.
by smotah 5y ago
Fun fact: when electricity prices from Germany are negative (when there's big spike of intermittent electricity from renewable production) French grid operators strategically lower nuclear output and import this profitable energy.
8.
by smotah 5y ago
Indeed, that's a consequence of how the price is artificially calculated within the European electricity market. To avoid providing advantage to electricity resellers having providers with lower production costs the price is calculated
9.
by smotah 5y ago
Unsurprisingly Germany lobbied EU members such as Austria, Denmark, Luxembourg and Spain to block the inclusion of nuclear power in the "green taxonomy" (allowing it to be subsided like new renewables are), while pushing for natur
10.
by smotah 5y ago
Indeed, nuclear power plants requires way less concrete by kWh than wind turbines.
11.
by smotah 5y ago
That's also utility of the "core catcher" component of some gen III reactor designs, that are specifically made to cool down corium in case of a core meltdown. For SMR, the risk is mitigated because the reactor isn't suf