> It makes me mad hearing younger people falling for the propaganda of nuclear power lobbyists who didn't have to live through these accidents.
Actually, no one in the West ever thought that the RBMK was a reliable design which is why it was never licensed outside the USSR.
> We have plenty of space and money to turn our grid into 100% renewables, that are safe and cheap. All it would take is the political will to do so.
Germany will have spent more than 500 billion Euros by 2025 for their shift to renewables, yet they are still among the dirtiest producers of electricity:
Germany emits 400 grams of CO2 per kWh on average, France just 50 grams. At the same time, the kWh in Germany costs 31 cents while it costs only 17 cents in France:
> The times to propose an outdated, dangerous and hard-to-control technology for commercial power generation are over.
No, they are not. See my links above. Any country which is actually serious about reducing their CO2 emissions in the electricity sector is massively ramping up the construction of nuclear power plants:
Russia, Finland, Egypt, India, Bangladesh, Czech Republic, Poland, France, the UK, Turkey, Japan, China, the US, Belarus, United Arab Emirates etc. They are all building or planning nuclear power plants.
Germany is the big outlier in the list of the biggest industrial countries and it's just a matter of time when they're joining back the countries who are building and operating NPPs again.
There is simply no alternative, the shift to renewables causes new fossil plants to be constructed which is something we need to avoid by all means if we want to save the climate.
I fear Germany will never build another nuclear power plant again. The anti-nuclear propaganda has become a religion now, any argument about safety is ignored mumbling the mantra "but they said Chernobyl/Fukushima was safe", any argument about economy is ignored with "but renewables cost nothing". Since no rational argument can be won, and since no nuclear counter-religion is on the horizon, nuclear will not happen here, at least not in this century.
Ok, tell me. What are we going to with all the methane and hydrogen that we generated with our power to gas plants if we don't build more gas plants? How are we going to shut down coal plants if we don't have a flexible grid? For reference, an operating coal plant displaces renewable energy because its output cannot be regulated fast enough. Gas plants allow greater grid flexibility.
> Nuclear power plants rank first in the amount of economic damage done.
No, that's not what science says:
> https://world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/US-study-presents-tr...
> https://haas.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/WP304.pdf
> And you are seriously calling for mass adoption?
Yes, and that's actually happening:
> https://in.reuters.com/article/china-nuclearpower/china-to-b...
> https://www.energy.gov/ne/nuclear-reactor-technologies/small...
> https://pris.iaea.org/PRIS/WorldStatistics/UnderConstruction...
> It makes me mad hearing younger people falling for the propaganda of nuclear power lobbyists who didn't have to live through these accidents.
Actually, no one in the West ever thought that the RBMK was a reliable design which is why it was never licensed outside the USSR.
> We have plenty of space and money to turn our grid into 100% renewables, that are safe and cheap. All it would take is the political will to do so.
Germany will have spent more than 500 billion Euros by 2025 for their shift to renewables, yet they are still among the dirtiest producers of electricity:
> https://www.electricitymap.org/
Germany emits 400 grams of CO2 per kWh on average, France just 50 grams. At the same time, the kWh in Germany costs 31 cents while it costs only 17 cents in France:
> https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php...
And if that isn't already enough, Germany is building and planning more gas and coal power plants:
> https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_geplanter_und_im_Bau_bef...
> https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_geplanter_Kohlekraftwerk...
> The times to propose an outdated, dangerous and hard-to-control technology for commercial power generation are over.
No, they are not. See my links above. Any country which is actually serious about reducing their CO2 emissions in the electricity sector is massively ramping up the construction of nuclear power plants:
Russia, Finland, Egypt, India, Bangladesh, Czech Republic, Poland, France, the UK, Turkey, Japan, China, the US, Belarus, United Arab Emirates etc. They are all building or planning nuclear power plants.
Germany is the big outlier in the list of the biggest industrial countries and it's just a matter of time when they're joining back the countries who are building and operating NPPs again.
There is simply no alternative, the shift to renewables causes new fossil plants to be constructed which is something we need to avoid by all means if we want to save the climate.