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.”
By amount of power generated, compared to other sources, yes, it is, and it’s safer now than ever in the past. The only source of power safer is large-scale PV.
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/cp/charted-safest-and-deadliest-energy-sources/
https://www.statista.com/statistics/494425/death-rate-worldwide-by-energy-source/
If you want to disagree, provide some sources. Sure, some disasters have happened, but even those haven’t been as bad as portrayed and the risks have been significantly mitigated, to the point where it’s practically impossible to happen again outside of very specific circumstances. The fact you can’t eat mushrooms in some places in negligible compared to the entire world being damaged by coal and other dirty energy.
This is total BS. It’s only unprofitable for a few reasons only nuclear has to deal with. They have a lot more regulations and stuff they have to pay for. For example, all nuclear waste is contained and stored by nuclear power generators (in the western world at least). They have to pay for this. No other power source has to pay this cost. They just release the waste and it’s a negative externality everyone else has to deal with, but not them.
For a visualization of this, check out this graph from wikipedia:
(Edit: embed didn’t work for me at least, but this one.)
The cost of Nuclear went up over time, despite the technology advancing. Why? Because more regulations were passed to force it to cost more. That’s the only reasonable conclusion. It didn’t get more difficult to perform nuclear fission. It should, at minimum, be cheaper than coal and offshore wind.
A nuclear booster’s excuse dichotomy:
If someone says, “nuclear isn’t safe,” respond “nuclear is heavily regulated and perfectly safe!”
If someone says, “nuclear is comically expensive,” respond “that’s only because of regulation!”
You’re pretending I said something I didn’t. It’s perfectly safe because of all the safeguards in place. Some regulations are needed, but it’s over-regulated. Anyone who doesn’t have their head in their ass can see this. Nuclear power generators have to contain all of their fuel (and pay in advance for the privilege), meanwhile coal spews radioactive material everyone at no cost to themselves. Does that seem reasonable?
Nuclear has caused very few deaths and little damage relative to most other power sources. It is safer than ever and only getting safer. It’s a fantastic base-load power source. If you factor in storage to green energy (which I approve of too) it becomes even more expensive than nuclear. Nuclear doesn’t need storage as it can ramp up at any time. Green energy is great for peak-demand during the day, but when it’s not available or not sufficient, nuclear is an ideal option to make up for it.
Hey, you left out this Wiki page
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nuclear_power_accidents_by_country
Yeah, this doesn’t say what you think it says. More people fall off of rooftops installing solar panels than casualties are caused by nuclear accidents.
Well I ain’t going to simp for nuclear, oil, gas or coal.
If you’re anti-nuke, you’re probably already simpling for oil, gas, and coal.
Fuck nuclear.
Fuck oil.
Fuck LPG.
Fuck coal.
Edit: wow, so many simping for the four above.
Also, fuck solar and wind because the waste they require right? Fuck batteries because they cause a lot of pollution to create!
I can say fuck all kinds of things. At least I pretend to have a reason. You can’t even be bothered to do that.
Solar and wind don’t produce anywhere as much waste. And the land involved can be easily repurposed, unlike ex-nuclear sites which cannot. Not without bilions being spent and years in clean up investment.
Hey, here’s an opinion for you: fuck you. Was that pretend? I will never support nuclear.
When people fall off a rooftop, you don’t have to make an exclusion zone around it for hundreds of years.
And you don’t need to for most nuclear accidents either.
I think that’s the point here. OP is claiming that nuclear is overburdened by regulations, which normally protects people. But when they go wrong or aren’t followed, it changes the map.
That OP is me. Yeah, you’re right. Some are required. The same for any other power source. Coal, for example, constantly sprays radioactive waste into the sky, and they aren’t burdened by it. Nuclear is singled out, and that’s because it’s a risk to existing industries. It isn’t so burdened out of actual need.
That’s why I’m hoping for the smaller modular designs that can be certified and studied very well.
Both are good. Usually scale gives better efficiency, though nuclear is already so efficient that it isn’t strictly required. I’m in favor of moving forward with both, and we should be getting the government to support the development, at least by removing unnecessary barriers that are there just to prop up dirty energy a little longer.