Comment on Bill Gates-backed nuclear contender Terra Power aims to build dozens of UK reactors
FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 1 year ago
On the one hand, I think that’s great. We need more nuclear power to mitigate the climate disaster.
On the other hand, I don’t trust anything Bill Gates does after he totally fucked up the U.S. education system.
No matter how you think about nuclear power in general, it will not be of any substantial help against climate change.
It’s expensive and takes forever to build. Even the optimistic projections of the vendors are well above what wind and solar deliver right now.
Nuclear power is just a tech bro pipe dream. Nobody needs it. It’s just prestige.
Tell that to France.
Really?
The country that has extremely old reactors, that need to shut down, because the rivers got too hot from the cooling water?
The country that spend billions on building a single new reactor?
Yeah really. 63% of their power is from nuclear.
Sure they cost a lot of money to build but they’re clean and safe.
The goal of several of these new companies is to build small modular plants that are cookie cutter instead of individual boutique designs. That should bring cost down substantially.
It’s the opposite. Nuclear plants were built as large as possible because that was the only way that made any kind of financial sense. SMRs are a waste of money.
The Westinghouse AP1000 was a modular design approved in 2004. The US started building one in 2010 and just finished this year (well, it’s not actually finished yet, but the first reactor is now online).
I think China was the only country to build one in less than a decade - and it’s much easier to perform public works when you’re a authoritarian government who doesn’t have to deal with public or environmental concerns.
Well, then show me any viable concept. Just one. Not an “experimental protoype”. An actual concept, that is even roughly comparable in cost to currently deployed systems.
Here’s a brand new concept developed by scientists that will drastically lower emissions: ban private jets
Prepare for downvotes from the nuclear bros.
Yeah, those idiots just love to wank each other about it.
And I’m sure, 99% of those guys also have very strong opinions on Crypto…
Hi, I’m a physicist who believes that nuclear power is the most realistic option of moving ourselves off fossil fuels, without the astronomical cost and untested technology that would be required in order to create a majority intermittent grid.
I do also have strong feelings about crypto, mostly about how much of a incredible waste of resources it is and how disgusting it is that the obvious scam nature of most of it hasnt been clamped down on by governments
You might have a better discussion if you leave out the insults, your preconceived notions of people, and well not being a dick.
I’m sorry don’t you think Bush, among many others, had something to do with that as well? There are more oligarchs than just Gates. The leaders of Big Tech are so far up their own ass you don’t even realize you’ve followed them in there.
We don’t need more nuclear power to mitigate the climate disaster we need to stop endless consumerism and strip of power these who got us here.
Would you prefer using coal instead? If we are going to transition away from fossil fuels, nuclear will have to be a part of our new generation system.
I would prefer using renewable sources and cutting off the useless shit like private jets
The world would be a bit better if everyone flew coach or stayed home, but it would be a lot better if the developing world had access to lighting, air conditioning, washing machines, and transportation without a corresponding increase in carbon emissions.
Renewables (with storage and long-distance transmission) are part of the solution, but we need to invest in all viable forms of carbon-free energy like there’s no tomorrow, because if we don’t, then for a lot of people there won’t be.
Good luck. Any plan on how to?
We need to do both of those things. Mindless consumerism aside, the best option to solve our base energy needs which are not frivolous (infrastructure, healthcare, education etc etc) is nuclear.
What BG did with US education system?
So travelling wave is out and SMRs are in? Right. What both have in common is that they’re just pipe dreams. Nuclear power never was and never will be economically viable. If we could all just accept that we could get on with real solutions.
The energy density of nuclear fuels is unparalleled.
Modern reactor designs are extremely safe and stable, the only downside is the cost.
The cost is so high because they are basically boutique projects. Having a standardized design with mass produced components would go a long way to making nuclear reactors more affordable.
And just why do you think that never happened? The Soviets tried that. And how did that go? The Japanese tried to use American designs without adapting them to local conditions and that’s how we got Fukushima. A nuclear reactor is simply too complex to be built in an assembly line. And all the promises of “small modular reactors” have been nothing but pipe dreams so far. I’m not saying it’s not doable. I’m saying it won’t happen any time soon. Anyone who touts nuclear power as a solution to climate change is either delusional or not arguing in good faith.
Do you know why Chernobyl even happened? The reactors were designed and built by one ministry, but they were operated by a different ministry. And the first ministry did NOT share proper operational instructions, yet they knew and had internal documentation that such a shut down will result in a melt down. Workers at Chernobyl had no real clue what they were doing. It’s not a problem of nuclear power, it’s a problem of corruption and the power struggle of Soviet politics.
We’ve had 70 years to figure out how to produce cost-competitive nuclear energy. It’s time to move on.
And electric cars have had over 100 years, so should we have given up on them? Your argument is flawed.
We did produce cost competitive nuclear. When France went through it’s oil crisis recovery shift to nuclear, they built them every single year for a decade, going from a couple to 40+ in the span of a decade.
We’ve just stopped. So then of course the institutional knowledge disappears.
FredericChopin_@feddit.uk 1 year ago
What’s he done to the education system in the US of A.
Dasnap@lemmy.world 1 year ago
gelberhut@lemdro.id 1 year ago
This is rather generic and fuzzy statement…
If this this truth, ironically, to some degree this makes some sense - office skills are needed in the real life.
On the other hand, what time frame you are talking about? BG does not drive MS for really long time already.