"Nuclear power is a potential safety threat, *if* something goes wrong. Coal-fired power is *guaranteed* destruction, filling the atmosphere with planet-heating carbon when it operates the way it's supposed to". (Bill McKibben)
Same for fossil gas, by the way.
@kravietz Nuclear power is guaranteed destruction as well… Creating nuclear waste lasting for centuries and other than CO2, we don't even have a remote idea on how to get rid of it.
And no, hiding it in the ground is not a great answer as all temporary depots have shown.
I think we have to come up with better solutions there.
@sheogorath Then, nuclear *fusion* does not create any radioactive waste and ITER is now scheduled to go first plasma in 2025.
@kravietz Well, fusion is definitely the hope, but looking at its history, I don't think it's on time to save us from climate change.
Given that ITER is successful, we would have left less than 3 years to bring it out of Prototype status, build production halls, and rollout facilities around the world.
But only when scientists didn't get things wrong (which turns out, they might did due to north pole melting) and we produce less or equal CO2 than 2018, which also is not the case.
@sheogorath So for example France did just that using nuclear and renewables. Their energy related CO2 emissions are below 100 gCO2eq/kWh - last week they were below 50 even.
Germany scared itself to death with nuclear, and closed still operational plants, switching instead to coal and fossil gas. Their emissions are usually 3-6x worse than France.
In terms of decarbonization, France closed its last coal plant in 2007, while Germany just *opened* a new one thus year.
Certainly no more nuclear power in Germany, because society is so terrorized by the Greens that no rational arguments are going to work until that generation passes away so another 20 years.
@kravietz Well, in Germany I agree the situation is a bit weird. But not really for technical but more for bureaucratic reasons. The number of new wind power plants last year is on a historical low due to appeals of citizens and a whole state blocking it. Reduction of subsidies for renewable energies in general and further subsidizing of coal-based energy sources.
So yes, there has to change something, but I don't think towards nuclear power plants.