this post was submitted on 02 Oct 2024
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But nuclear apologists told me nuclear is “safe” and “clean”?
The waste is the problem
Thats the point. Nuclear makes energy in a safe and clean way, but you can't just exclude the waste problem from the discussion or dismiss it as "we'll figure it out" as its so often done in this conversation.
Sure we are reusing some of it nowadays, but we still have tons globally that need to go somewhere
Yes, just to provide some detailed numbers regarding the UK from an article I posted recently in a similar community (article from May 2024):
At this point in time, nuclear "recycling" is a grift. The French nuclear recycling industry in particular is basically just a France-Siberia import/export business.
Oh i didn't even know about that. Do you have a link handy?
Also upon looking it up a bit, even if we recycle some, it seems like a potentially very nasty process aaaand we still end up with a lot of waste.
I had been doubting my scepticism lately but nuclear simply isn't the silver bullet it's getting peddled as.
Sorry for the belated response. I am pretty sure I saw it in a Arte documentary some time ago. I don't think I have a link and I don't know if it's translated in a language you speak (though Arte usually have French/German audio and English subtitles).
I can only lead you to the Wikipedia articles for Orano (the company) and MOX (the recycling material), but they don't quite go into weird details that the documentary went into.
Arte Ultras 🧡
Ill chek their Mediathek thingy
Found it. Unfortunately, it's a German-only reupload on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIq2KxeInxM , the relevant bit is at around 1h 11m.
Alles gut, danke :D
Oh ok. I missed the (at)feddit(dot)org bit in your user name :)
It's really not that much. Considering how much coal ash radiation and waste is created by coal power, nuclear is still one of the best long-term alternatives.
Being better than coal, relatively, does not make nuclear "good".
What large scale power source do you deem "good"?
What is the rubric?
In many parts of the US, solar, wind, and water can't and won't keep up and coal is currently used. What is your "good alternative" for the Midwest (for example)?
Longer answer below, but i gotta point this out:
Not having a perfect solution doesn't mean you're not allowed to critically discuss the current ones.
Maybe a "good" solution for the specific areas you mention doesn't currently exist.
Now as to why:
I don't know the intricacies of the US power grid tbh. Where I am, the main reason why we can't rely fully on wind and solar yet is because politicians were ~~paid off~~ lobbied for by coal, decades ago, when we could've started to shift the whole grid and invest in tech to support solar, wind and water.
Literally cut 120000 jobs in solar alone but "saved important jobs" in coal.... 20000.
I'm kinda assuming this delay and ignore tactic also kneecapped the US grid's development?