this post was submitted on 16 Nov 2024
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Science Memes

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I feel this is all moot. When we run out of fossil fuels and go off the energy cliff, the nuclear facilities will basically build themselves, assuming there will be anyone around that will even know how to build a nuclear reactor

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[–] [email protected] 45 points 6 months ago (8 children)

It's sad that the coal lobby has convinced so many people that the most reliable clean energy source we've ever discovered is somehow bad.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago (2 children)

There is a huge lobby of pro-nuclear think tanks who try to astroturf pro-nuclear shit onto social media. We, scientifically literate, rational people, need to counteract these harmful narratives with some facts.

FACT: Renewable sources of energy are as cheap or cheaper per kwh than nuclear.

FACT: Renewables are faster to provision than nuclear.

FACT: Renewables are as clean, or cleaner, than nuclear.

FACT: Renewables are much more flexible and responsive to energy fluctuations than nuclear.

FACT: Renewables will only get cheaper. Nuclear will only get more expensive, because uranium mining will get harder and harder as we deplete easily accessible sources.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago (1 children)

You don't actually need to mine more uranium though. You can run certain nuclear designs on Thorium, Plutonium from weapon stocks, or even waste from other reactors. Current generation nuclear designs are laughably inefficient at using the nuclear fuels we have available, and I fully understand why people don't support them.

Realistically though I don't ever expect nuclear fission to be as cheap as renewables in most areas. In some places nuclear or another power source is always going to be needed though just because renewables are not practical in certain conditions.

In the long term the answer is almost certainly going to be nuclear fusion or another future power source like neutrino voltaic. Solar and wind power are ultimately just offshoots of fusion, and so is fission if you think about where uranium, thorium and so on come from. In fact all power we know of seems to come from either gravity or some kind of nuclear reaction (inc. geothermal and fossil fuels).

[–] [email protected] 11 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Fact: renewables take more land, that could be used for other purposes.

Fact: renewables by themselves cannot, and I mean CANNOT, be used alone. Unless you are willing to have a ridiculous over-provision. They depend on weather and have massive seasonal divergences. You need a base line power production to have a rational generation scheme.

Fact: nuclear have a higher cap for total production than renewables. As humanity needs more and more and more energy renewables (even destroying all our usable land) won't be enough.

Fact: no everyone that doesn't share your opinion is an "astrosuftist lobby" some of us can also think by ourselves. And some of us can ever think above the dogma of our political school of choice.

[–] [email protected] -5 points 6 months ago (2 children)

if 15% of the land used for parking spaces in the USA was instead used for renewables, that would generate enough electricity to power the whole country.

a report from the IEA showed that renewables CAN, and I mean CAN fully power the entire world. So take that one up with the experts. thanks!

nice brainwashing though!

[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Do you have the calculations for thar 15%? I'd love to fact check it.

Quick search didn't found me that report from the iae. You should probably pass me a link so I can fact check it too.

My country is not the USA, we do not have those ridiculous parking places that you guys have. Still renewables takes a ridiculous amount of space. I shall now as the land where I grew up is totally changed due wind power installations. And we are at 50% renewable generation. I fear to think what would become of this land if it was a 100% (that would probably need to be not double the land but 3-4 or more times the land if we want to cover energy usage during not windy months)

I really think that the sweet spot would be about 30-40 nuclear and 70-60 renewables.

You really need to stop following political dogmas, and start thinking.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Can you reply to the other points too? Also, could you link that source, it's very intriguing

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[–] [email protected] 39 points 6 months ago (5 children)
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