this post was submitted on 20 Mar 2024
668 points (92.3% liked)

News

23275 readers
3429 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

Shuttering of New York facility raises awkward climate crisis questions as gas – not renewables – fills gap in power generation

When New York’s deteriorating and unloved Indian Point nuclear plant finally shuttered in 2021, its demise was met with delight from environmentalists who had long demanded it be scrapped.

But there has been a sting in the tail – since the closure, New York’s greenhouse gas emissions have gone up.

Castigated for its impact upon the surrounding environment and feared for its potential to unleash disaster close to the heart of New York City, Indian Point nevertheless supplied a large chunk of the state’s carbon-free electricity.

Since the plant’s closure, it has been gas, rather then clean energy such as solar and wind, that has filled the void, leaving New York City in the embarrassing situation of seeing its planet-heating emissions jump in recent years to the point its power grid is now dirtier than Texas’s, as well as the US average.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Nuclear is is the most stable and carbon neutral form of energy production to date. Not to mention the safest. And that's not even considering EOL disposal and recycling figures that always get brought up with Nuclear but no one ever seems to talk about for Solar and Wind when their components reach end of their service life and have basically no plan for how to recycle or dispose of them in any way that isn't a landfill.

[–] [email protected] -4 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Nuclear is in no way carbon neutral?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Nuclear power plants produce no greenhouse gas emissions during operation, and over the course of its life-cycle, nuclear produces about the same amount of carbon dioxide-equivalent emissions per unit of electricity as wind, and one-third of the emissions per unit of electricity when compared with solar.

https://world-nuclear.org/nuclear-essentials/how-can-nuclear-combat-climate-change.aspx

Per kilowatt produced, wind power is the only thing that competes and that assumes operating in areas ideal for wind turbines to function. If you're trying to make land use efficient (because the less land we need to use, the more can be converted back to wilderness to sustain fragile ecosystems) and able to serve high density population areas, nuclear is the only viable option as a solid baseline.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] -1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

"the market will solve this problem" but woke?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

The claim was that renewables don't have a recycling story. I gave references showing that's not true and the comments that these efforts are early days and ought to improve with scale. Your glib response adds nothing

[–] [email protected] 9 points 7 months ago (2 children)

You sure can indeed. But running with one leg isn't as efficient as two.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

Its a wrong analogy. We have limited resources and investment in renewables are faster and more efficient. Every dollar spent on nuclear doesn't go in renewables, so its better to focus the effort.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Are you saying that building nuclear power plants is analogous to having a stick in one's ass?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago (1 children)

No, I just thought that was as glib response to a complex issue as the one you provided (and along with the original post)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

Hey man, thanks for the insightful and intelligent response then.