Aaaaand I was 100% WRONG About China

[David Horn]

(09-08-2022, 12:38 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: Do we need nuclear power? In the long run, it's too risky. We can see why now in Ukraine. Wars, floods, storms, fires, earthquakes might cause a meltdown, which takes hundreds of square miles out of human habitation. Proponents minimize the waste, and yet there is talk of something hitting the waste storage at the Ukraine plant. It's more substantial than proponents say, and I don't favor the idea of leaving it underground for generations. It should be recycled as fuel. Nuclear power is more expensive and takes longer to build and license than renewables. Solar panels may last 30-50 years, and nuclear plants about 80, but the plants still must be decommissioned, and that is expensive. Uranium is plentiful but not renewable, and it needs to be mined away from population.

Even Fukishima, as bad as it was, caused less loss of life than coal-fired plants.  In the US, nuclear should be safe as hell, if the PTB would permit long-term storage.  The latest candidate (since Nevada successfully took itself out of the running) is the massive salt pits in southern New Mexico.  the entire structure is salt: miuch lighter than spent fuel.  Insert spent fuel (which should be repurposed but won't be for reason 100% political), and the stuff is subsumed never to be seen again ... ever!

Eric Wrote:Still, nuclear does not emit carbon gases or methane, so that is a foremost need at the present time. It is a powerful source, and takes less land or rooftops or ocean space. It is less flexible than renewables though. It is turned off or comes offline periodically, and adding or subtracting energy from the grid as needed from nuclear power is awkward, since it is a huge amount or chunk of energy to add or subtract at a time. Since we need the emission-less energy and it's a major source, it seems we should keep the plants we have for a certain time, and maybe build more in places where it is safe and the need is great, which probably includes China. PG&E in CA just decided to keep its nuclear plant until 2030.

If we're gong to use nuclear prior to fusion coming on line, we should deactivate the old plants and replace them with modern modular ones.  Would you use a 1955 car as your reliable daily driver?  Same logic.