why we don’t rely on nuclear power plants more, especially these days
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Basically there’s no will. China is building 150 reactors in the next 15 years. Not saying they are going to be the epitome of perfection. But if they can build 150 moderately safe ones, why can’t the US build 20 pristine ones? Basically because there isn’t a willpower to do so.
Americans are obsessed with intermittent power generation such as solar and wind which inherently can’t operate at all times of the day.
So the ELI answer is: there’s no willpower.
Inclusive of all the ‘meltdowns’, nuclear power, worker for worker, mw for mw or hour for hour, is the safest form of largescale generation that we have.
A large factor towards not having more of them is that the people who can control the implementation of a new build are also the people that want the public to vote for them.
Due to fear mongering and one sided ‘facts’ in media, the general public don’t trust nuclear power, so would never vote in a politician that is ‘for’ nuclear. At least not until the current generation of voters ‘move on’.
It is such a shame as it is also the cleanest energy generation we have taking into account the start to finish process of all other types of generation.
I dream to one day work in a nuclear fusion plant, should they exist within my working career.
Inclusive of all the ‘meltdowns’, nuclear power, worker for worker, mw for mw or hour for hour, is the safest form of largescale generation that we have.
A large factor towards not having more of them is that the people who can control the implementation of a new build are also the people that want the public to vote for them.
Due to fear mongering and one sided ‘facts’ in media, the general public don’t trust nuclear power, so would never vote in a politician that is ‘for’ nuclear. At least not until the current generation of voters ‘move on’.
It is such a shame as it is also the cleanest energy generation we have taking into account the start to finish process of all other types of generation.
I dream to one day work in a nuclear fusion plant, should they exist within my working career.
People are stupid and scared.
Nuclear is the cheapest and cleanest source of energy and funds have been funneled away from its advancement since the 70s.
No new plants since the 70s has been the biggest downfall. Nuclear is expensive to set up at first and definitely time consuming, and we’ve kneecapped ourselves based on irrational fear
People are stupid and scared.
Nuclear is the cheapest and cleanest source of energy and funds have been funneled away from its advancement since the 70s.
No new plants since the 70s has been the biggest downfall. Nuclear is expensive to set up at first and definitely time consuming, and we’ve kneecapped ourselves based on irrational fear
Inclusive of all the ‘meltdowns’, nuclear power, worker for worker, mw for mw or hour for hour, is the safest form of largescale generation that we have.
A large factor towards not having more of them is that the people who can control the implementation of a new build are also the people that want the public to vote for them.
Due to fear mongering and one sided ‘facts’ in media, the general public don’t trust nuclear power, so would never vote in a politician that is ‘for’ nuclear. At least not until the current generation of voters ‘move on’.
It is such a shame as it is also the cleanest energy generation we have taking into account the start to finish process of all other types of generation.
I dream to one day work in a nuclear fusion plant, should they exist within my working career.
People are stupid and scared.
Nuclear is the cheapest and cleanest source of energy and funds have been funneled away from its advancement since the 70s.
No new plants since the 70s has been the biggest downfall. Nuclear is expensive to set up at first and definitely time consuming, and we’ve kneecapped ourselves based on irrational fear
Unfortunately when people think of nuclear they don’t think of power so it scares them since they don’t take the time to learn, they just go with whatever mouthpiece is the loudest…
Unfortunately when people think of nuclear they don’t think of power so it scares them since they don’t take the time to learn, they just go with whatever mouthpiece is the loudest…
Fear and lobbying.
Fossil fuels are “easy” to understand: burn rock/gas/oil, make fire, fire boil water, steam turn turbine, electricity! It’s how we’ve been doing it since the industrial revolution, basically (skip the electricity to just get a steam engine).
Nuclear energy sounds SCARY! It doesn’t help that it’s associated with radiation that can cause cancer, and one of the first true shows of force of nuclear power that EVERYONE knows is the atomic bomb. Most people can’t understand that there’s a big difference between THAT and nuclear power generation. (BTW, nuclear power plants, how do they work? Take *fancy* rock, make *fancy* fire, fire boil water, steam turn turbine, electricity!)
There’s also been a few VERY public nuclear power plant emergencies: Chernobyl, Three Miles Island, Fukushima are those that most people can recall. And honestly…. That’s almost all of it. No seriously: [in more than 70 years there have been less than 30 incidents](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_and_radiation_accidents_and_incidents) with either casualties or >100 million dollar in damages, and only 10 of those register as an “accident”, which is a term used in the scale to say that there are at least local consequences. BUT people remember the bad things that were very public more than the good things about nuclear energy.
People: nuclear fuel has caused, and if we continue to use it, will cause, way less death and destruction than fossil fuel plant emissions cause, both directly by ruining our air quality, and indirectly by FUCKING UP THE CLIMATE.
Cost of energy, over the lifetime of a nuclear plant, is also only beat in latest calculations that I know of by wind energy. Wind wins because of how cheap the wind mills are, compared of how “little” energy they produce. Nuclear power plants are massive, but they produce a MAAAASSIIIVE amount of energy over their lifetime.
So why? Because of lobbying by the fossil fuel sector. All these companies earning massive amounts of money suddenly saw this power source come up that, quite frankly, didn’t need them. So they lobbied governments to make ever more difficult rules for nuclear plants to adhere to, they made astroturf public groups to protest the construction of nuclear plants, they pushed the link between nuclear plants and atomic weapons,… all to hang on a bit longer, and squeeze out a little more profit for shareholders.
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