I’m pro nuclear energy and think that people who are against are just unknowingly helping the fossil fuel industry.
Necessary, specially in our context of global warming, sadly is has been demonized due to Chernobyl accident.
Before someone point out that there were worse nuclear disasters, i make my point that because it happened on soviet union, the nuclear fear took a ride on the red scare.
Were there worse disasters than Chernobyl? Fukushima was in the same category but I don’t think it was as catastrophic.
Chernobyl was the worst nuclear energy disaster, yet in comparison to even moderate fossil fuel disasters or the everyday of premature deaths due to burning of fossil fuels it wasn’t much of anything.
Fukushima wasn’t as catastrophic in terms of people affected, but now with the dumping of wastewater into the ocean and how it’s been used as an excuse not to do fission elsewhere its been quite catastrophic as well. Ironically enough, other Japanese nuclear plants on the Pacific coast were used as evacuation facilities during that same earthquake and tsunami, as they were the safest places for people to be.
how it’s been used as an excuse not to do fission elsewhere its been quite catastrophic as well.
It’s been devastating for us here in Japan too. With one exception, our nuclear reactors have been decommissioned due to well-meaning but short-sighted public outcry. Exacerbated by our sanctions of Russia, who provided most of the rest of our energy. We are restarting and rebuilding coal en masse.
Energy bills have gone up by 50-60% while the yen has tanked by as much.
The outcry should really be directed at TEPCO and their handling of the situation before, during, and after.
Personally I think it’s a very strong midterm solution, especially for countries that don’t have the space for things like widespread solar solutions.
It’s the same for Germany. Angela Merkel, herself a doctor in quantum chemistry (so she very likely knows the basics of how nuclear power works), had supported maintaining Germany’s remaining nuclear power plants until their planned decommissioning dates. That is, until Fukushima when her government agreed to pull the plug early. “It could happen here,” everyone thought in panic. Such a panic that the reactor operators had to get paid out for legally promised and lost revenue, but Germans didn’t care one bit. Now the country cheers the end of nuclear power, while French reactors help keep the German grid stable.
The excess premature deaths due to increased air pollution are in the tens of thousands here, probably similar in Japan.
As you say, it’s all to blame on companies and their lackeys in liberal governments.
it’s all to blame on companies and their lackeys in liberal governments
This point cannot be stressed enough. A lot of people have the tendency to look down on the general public for falling into this state of panic and fear about nuclear power and excuse the decisions of the government as them responding to public pressure. But it’s the other way around. A government that works for the people would instead seek to educate people about nuclear power, to allay their fears and to explain to them why nuclear is still a much better and safer solution for them than fossil fuel. Public opinion can be shaped very easily if only there was the political will to wage a concerted media campaign to promote nuclear power. Instead liberal governments use the excuse of public opinion to hide behind when they make decisions which harm the people but enrich the politicians’ corporate masters.
my friend excitedly tells me about new energy source
I tell him this better be something new
”haha oh man, yeah it’s new - it’s nuclear power!”
mfw it’s steam turning a turbine for the millionth time
Haven’t seen this mentioned yet, so I will chime in.
I used to be very pro nuclear, and still see it as a positive addition to a healthily diverse energy system that is able to provide baseline levels of power when wind and solar are low producing like at night. It’s unrealistic to think the vast quantities of batteries required for strictly renewables will be easily accessible or not lead to significant waste. This doesn’t discount the harvesting and processing of uranium and other fissile materials, but a diversity of resource inputs makes a system more resilient.
My shift has been witnessing the decade it took to construct the Vogel reactor in Georgia when considered with the amount of pollution, waste, and possible risks of nuclear. If reprocessing became more commonplace and environmental regulations were not toothless, I’d still point out the arguments made by Christian Parenti a decade ago. As the Vogel reactor was just approved, he claimed it would take twice as long as the 5 stated years and be double its budget. He was exactly right.
Nuclear would be great in an already socialist society because all the downsides are more easily addressed, but the vast costs and amount of time to build reactors is in direct conflict with the urgency of the climate catastrophe. Every dollar spent focusing on nuclear projects is a dollar that won’t be spent on solar or wind which have much faster ROI periods in terms of carbon offsets.
Once we stabilize with other renewables, more focus on nuclear certainly makes sense, but given the urgency of the situation, we need to do what will have the most impact as soon as possible so we have the opportunity to develop nuclear further.
The people leading the charge against nuclear aren’t unknowingly helping the fossil fuel industry, they are funded by the fossil fuel industry. Have been since the late sixties / early seventies when oil and gas companies realized that they could very easily commandeer the anti-nuclear-weapon and environmentalist bandwagon. Since then they’ve leveraged fear, of nuclear weapons, radiation and unreliable Soviet reactors, to keep fossil fuels pumping in money.
Currently I think fission energy is the best we have. It’s relatively low pollution, relatively low whole cycle footprint, energy dense, efficient, reliable, and so on. Renewables complement and enhance but cannot replace some form of always on baseload power.
You can also look at the history of civilization based on how energy dense their primary fuel was. Coal and oil unlocked industrial potential for having many times more energy than wood. The nuclear age brought on intriguing thoughts like electricity “too cheap to meter.” Throwing away that very well earned technical expertise in favour of filthy coal and inefficient renewables is completely silly. Until we find/unlock the next fuel source with a higher energy density, it’s the best we’ve got. We should be leveraging it to improve people’s quality of life as we have with every energy related breakthrough in human history.
We don’t need high energy density. It’s anomalous and the cause for climate change that we are using the vast stores of fossil energy now. They are the product of millennia and not sustainable. We will run out of nuclear the same way eventually. To live in harmony with our biosphere we need a reduction in overall energy consumption even with renewables. Please read Half Earth Socialism because they can articulate the argument better than me.
