this post was submitted on 23 Dec 2024
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Summary

France’s Flamanville 3 nuclear reactor, its most powerful at 1,600 MW, was connected to the grid on December 21 after 17 years of construction plagued by delays and budget overruns.

The European Pressurized Reactor (EPR), designed to boost nuclear energy post-Chernobyl, is 12 years behind schedule and cost €13.2 billion, quadruple initial estimates.

President Macron hailed the launch as a key step for low-carbon energy and energy security.

Nuclear power, which supplies 60% of France’s electricity, is central to Macron’s plan for a “nuclear renaissance.”

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Good. Germany made a huge mistake for themselves and for all of Europe in shutting down their nuclear plants.

[–] Ross_audio 25 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Except they were basically beyond design life.

And every new plant comes decades late and 4x the original budget.

[–] teslasaur 14 points 2 days ago (3 children)

But they planned on replacing it with natural gas. Not to mention that it was supposed to be Russian gas. Sweden pays for the shitty decisions in Berlin.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

Sweden pays for having not enough inner country power lines. Look at the differences within their various market zones.

Case in point, base load prices for today:

[–] teslasaur 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Funny you mention market zones. They are an eu invention and we are forced to match prices because Germany can't pull they're own weight in the energy market.

Not to mention that the eu mandated market zones only applies when you aren't Germany, because of reasons.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

EPEX SPOT SE is a company under European law based in Paris (France) with offices in Amsterdam (the Netherlands), Berlin (Germany), Bern (Switzerland), Brussels (Belgium), London (United Kingdom), and Vienna (Austria).[1] It operates the power spot markets for short-term trading in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden and Switzerland.

Not to mention that the eu mandated market zones only applies when you aren't Germany, because of reasons.

I don't see yet how one would arrive at that conclusion regarding EPEX. Please explain.

[–] teslasaur 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Germany doesn't have market zones. Cause it isn't in their interest to have them.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I'm counting nine countries though that don't have market zones:

And I'm not sure yet how high prices (or rather not high prices at the time of the screenshot) in southern Sweden are linked to Germany not being separated into more than one zone. If Sweden could transport their energy from North to South, the South would be able to use the cheaper energy from there, but apparently that isn't possible at the moment.

[–] teslasaur 0 points 2 days ago (1 children)

The main issue isn't transport. Its the fact that we are mandated to sell the excess to EU before we take care of our own.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

Its the fact that we are mandated to sell the excess to EU before we take care of our own.

That doesn't really work that way and there is no forcing involved. Capacity is sold by the power plant operators and bought by the power companies who resell it then. As long as neighbouring zones pay more than Southern Sweden, power plant operators in Southern Sweden will sell their generation capacity at that higher price because they are not a charity but for profit companies.

Now, grid operators in Southern Sweden could show them the middle finger and buy capacity from Central Sweden, but that's apparently not possible because not enough power lines exist to actually transfer the energy from there. So, grid operators in the South are stuck with the higher prices that someone else pays as well.

And even if you just want to blame the Germans for everything, check the distribution of exports from the South Sweden zone before making that claim: https://app.electricitymaps.com

[–] Iceblade02 -1 points 2 days ago

Expanding the transit lines at this point would only lead to German industry purchasing even more Swedish electricity, driving up the prices in the north of Sweden as well and killing the rest of the industrial base. The German effect deficit is larger than the entirety of the dispatchable electricity capacity in Sweden. In some 5-10 years, the northern surplus there will be used up anyway due to the electrification of the Swedish steel industry.

The ugly truth is that this situation will only be resolved when Germany take responsibility for their own grid, or the transmission lines get cut. The Swedish economy is highly electrified (~70% of energy consumed) and low carbon (~80% of energy consumed), especially when compared to Germany (~35% of energy as electricity, 25% low carbon).

One of the main differences is heating. Economically vulnerable Swedes are literally being driven out of their homes because of German electricity imports, which are enforced by the EU.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Yeah, but the decision was made in 2011 after Fukushima, and before the Russian invasion in 2014. At this time it did make sense, gas was much cheaper and Germany still had an has no long term plan to deal with the nuclear waste.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

The entirety of all nuclear fuel waste ever produced and that would be produced after 2000 years of fully nuclear energy produce and consumption at current rates wouldn't fill a mid sized van.

The nuclear waste excuse is oil industry propaganda, and you should feel bad for repeating it without getting a paycheck.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Wow, that's good news! I guess we can just pay residents some rent to store the 4,925 40-foot containers full of ~~nuclear~~ harmless waste in their backyards then. Years of planning from scientists and engineers and millions of spending could have been avoided if the experts would have just read the comments on the internet!

The estimated amount of nuclear waste in Germany after shutting down all nuclear power plants is 29,000 m3 for high-level waste and 300,000 m3 for low- and intermediate-level waste.

http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2017/ph241/dory2/

[–] [email protected] 1 points 13 hours ago

That includes individual storage containers, which wouldn't be needed if you oil loving freaks wouldn't have required the most inefficient storage solutions in order to intentionally drive up costs. The actual waste is several orders of magnitude smaller.

[–] teslasaur 5 points 2 days ago

How does it make sense to compare yourself to a natural disaster that would be impossible on German land? Central Europe doesn't lie on one of the biggest fault lines in the world.

However, if you start talking about putting nuclear plant on Iceland you might rise a few eyebrows.

They didn't stop buying gas until the invasion 2022. Im not even sure that they don't do it now, just cant admit to it publically. And as a swede, i find it incredibly naive to trust any Russian government ever in the history of ever. There has never existed any trust between russia and Sweden/Finland. Only mutual assurance.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

Fortunately these aren't the only options.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago

They have cheap Russian gas so who nee...