this post was submitted on 16 Nov 2024
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In what universe do those other power generation methods even come close to nuclear power?
It would take about 800 wind turbines or 8.5 million solar panels to replace the power output of one nuclear reactor.
And the fissile material can be reprocessed after it’s been spent. Like 90% of the spent fuel can be reprocessed and reused, but the Carter administration banned nuclear waste recycling in the US for fears it would hasten nuclear proliferation.
https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/nuclear-fuel-cycle/fuel-recycling/processing-of-used-nuclear-fuel
Wind, hydro, solar, and geothermal are all great. Anything is better than coal or gas power generation. But to say these green power generation methods come close to nuclear… not a chance.
Those 800 wind turbines can be built in a month. Building a nuclear plant takes decades. And nuclear fuel reprocessing had never been economical by a long shot. Your pipe dreams will always regain just that and that's before we even start talking about proliferation and nuclear waste.
In China they do it in 6 years...
https://www.statista.com/statistics/712841/median-construction-time-for-reactors-since-1981/
And in those 6 years, you could have built over 6x that capacity in renewables, easy.
You can also built more than 1 reactor at the same time
The same can be said of any power source?
Sure, but the other commenter conveniently forgot that that's the case for nuclear as well
You could, but with that colossal amount of resources you could have built 12x in renewables, probably more because of economy of scale.
And if you decide to commit all those resources to renewables, you probably just created a booming local industry of well paying jobs.
But then you still haven't solved any of the issues with renewables (at least solar and wind); The amount of space they take up, their inconsistent power output and power grids which haven't been designed for them.
It saddens me that we're here dealing with a push for obsolete, untenable solutions, and all the while, China keeps solving your "impossible issues" on the daily:
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20241113-will-chinas-ultra-high-voltage-grid-pay-off-for-renewable-power
That's what happens when not everything is privatised and only made for direct profit, I suppose