this post was submitted on 14 Nov 2024
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Summary

Rafael Grossi, head of the IAEA, called Germany's decision to fully phase out nuclear power "illogical," noting it is the only country to have done so.

Despite the completed phase-out in 2023, there is renewed debate in Germany about reviving nuclear energy due to its low greenhouse gas emissions.

Speaking at COP29, Grossi described reconsidering nuclear as a "rational" choice, especially given global interest in nuclear for emissions reduction.

Germany’s phase-out, driven by environmental concerns and past nuclear disasters, has been criticized for increasing reliance on Russian gas and missing carbon reduction opportunities.

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[–] ValiantDust@feddit.org 21 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago) (1 children)

I deeply wish that people would understand that this horse is deader than dead. There is no Frankensteinian experiment and no virus that will bring it back to even a zombie-like half-life. So would you, please, please, just stop beating the poor thing.

It doesn't matter anymore how it died, it's really time to get a new horse.

Edit: Instead of just down voting, could you explain to me:

  • How should we get nuclear plants running in any time frame relevant to our current problems?
  • Who is going to pay the billions of Euros to build new nuclear power plants? The energy companies are not interested.
  • Where we should keep the waste, since we have not yet found a place for the decades' worth of nuclear waste we already have.
  • How this is making us independent of Russia, our former main source of Uranium

I just fail to see any way how this could right now solve our problem.

[–] tb_@lemmy.world 7 points 14 hours ago (2 children)
  • Where we should keep the waste, since we have not yet found a place for the decades' worth of nuclear waste we already have.

Pumping all of our waste into the atmosphere is a much better solution!

How should we get nuclear plants running in any time frame relevant to our current problems?

If we had started building them the first time that question was asked we'd have them by now.

[–] ValiantDust@feddit.org 7 points 14 hours ago (2 children)

Pumping all of our waste into the atmosphere is a much better solution!

I never said that. But there are ways we have to do neither. Why not concentrate on those, especially since they are magnitudes cheaper.

If we had started building them the first time that question was asked we'd have them by now.

That might be true, but how is that helping us right now? That's why I said it doesn't matter how the horse died. It's dead now. There are many faster solutions, why take the one that takes longest?

[–] atzanteol@sh.itjust.works -2 points 13 hours ago (2 children)

I never said that. But there are ways we have to do neither. Why not concentrate on those, especially since they are magnitudes cheaper.

FSS I hate discussions with people.... You can do more than one thing. You could have concentrated on both nuclear AND renewables and stopped burning COAL - but no, instead Germany had a fucking uptick in coal power while dropping the much cleaner nuclear.

This was so foreseeable it hurts. Renewables simply aren't up to the task of baseload generation yet in the way that nuclear is.

[–] ValiantDust@feddit.org 7 points 13 hours ago

I also hate discussions with people who miss my point and argue against things I never claimed.

[–] derGottesknecht@feddit.org 5 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

but no, instead Germany had a fucking uptick in coal power while dropping the much cleaner nuclear.

You have a source for that?

Actually coal consumption is down to the level of the 1960s.

https://www.ise.fraunhofer.de/de/presse-und-medien/presseinformationen/2024/oeffentliche-stromerzeugung-2023-erneuerbare-energien-decken-erstmals-grossteil-des-stromverbrauchs.html

[–] atzanteol@sh.itjust.works 1 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago) (1 children)

Actually coal consumption is down to the level of the 1960s.

Yes, it's down since the 1960s. If this is your level of understanding I don't expect this to go well.. 🙄

It shot up between 2020 and 2023 (4th chart here): https://www.cleanenergywire.org/factsheets/germanys-energy-consumption-and-power-mix-charts

Yes other things were happening, yes other values are moving up (renewables - yay!). But with no nuclear to fall back on Coal plants had to fire up to bear the burden of pressure on other fuels.

Nuclear is clean. Coal is certainly not clean.

Edit: also - https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/germany-approves-bringing-coal-fired-power-plants-back-online-this-winter-2023-10-04/

[–] barsoap@lemm.ee 1 points 3 hours ago

How much of that is due to French nuclear reactors shutting down, both during summer (to not turn the rivers that cool them into fish soup) as well as all that maintenance stuff they had going on lately.

Germany is an electricity exporter.

Also: You're looking at generated power. Not coal consumption. That doesn't completely erase the bump but it's quite a bit smaller, they shut down some very old plants and replaced them with more efficient ones.

The current biggest chunk is oil, mostly used in transportation, and gas, for heating. Those will need to be electrified and replaced with what 25% of their Joule-value in electricity production, gas will stay longest because it's used for peaker plants and, once the grid is completely renewable, that will be done with synthesised gas.

Had the original plan to phase out nuclear and coal been followed we'd already be there but the CDU insisted on knee-capping renewables because the likes of RWE were asleep at the wheel and hadn't shifted their investments fast enough, electricity production in Germany suddenly wasn't an oligopoly, any more, can't have that.

[–] tb_@lemmy.world -1 points 13 hours ago (2 children)

It's dead now

But what if it turns out we do need it in 10 years?

All renewable everything is cool, but that's also going to require a lot of storage for the days where it isn't so windy or sunny. I think having nuclear to cover (some of) the base load on the grid will be very helpful.

[–] leisesprecher@feddit.org 10 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

And I think, you have absolutely no idea how incredibly expensive nuclear power is.

Solar power is literally free during the day in Germany right now. Investing a few hundred million in storage is much much much cheaper and easier to scale than building a nuclear power plant that will only start producing energy in 20 years or so.

[–] tb_@lemmy.world 0 points 12 hours ago (2 children)

And I think, you have absolutely no idea how incredibly expensive nuclear power is.

Less expensive than whatever the fuck we've been doing with our climate these last 100 years. But those aren't direct costs, so who the hell cares.

[–] derGottesknecht@feddit.org 6 points 12 hours ago

But still more expensive than renewables + storage, so what's your point?

[–] leisesprecher@feddit.org 3 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

And that refutes what argument?

[–] tb_@lemmy.world 1 points 4 hours ago

The costs of climate change are costs the people and our governments have to bear; just look at the billions in damage done by the recent hurricanes.

Those costs are a subsidy to the "cheap" fossil fuels we've been using. In fact, fossil fuels receive a ton of subsidies upfront too. Nuclear can be subsidised too.

I don't have faith our governments will switch to 100% renewable, and any fossil fuel is too much fossil fuel given how far we have already gone. We need to actively start scrubbing CO2 out of the atmosphere, and we're going to need as much power as we can generate for that.

Nuclear is expensive because it's relatively rare. Economies of scale don't apply to it as is. If we start building, it will become cheaper. Not cheap, perhaps, but cheaper. And it's a cost worth paying. We are already paying the price for the "cheap" fossil fuels.

[–] ValiantDust@feddit.org 2 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago)

But what if it turns out we do need it in 10 years?

That's the point, we likely wouldn't have any new nuclear power plants in ten years, even if we started planning them now. The one they are building in the UK was started somewhere around 2017 I think and maybe, fingers crossed, it might be finished by 2029. Right now the estimated cost is around £46 billion, up from originally about £23 billion.

That's one plant. We need many more for any relevant effect. Not even starting on the fact that nuclear energy is very inadequate for balancing out short term differences in the grid since you can't just quickly power them up or down as needed.

[–] nublug@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

why do nuclear diehards always pretend it's nuclear or fossil fuels only, like renewables are nonexistant? it smells bad faith as fuck. nobody arguing against nuclear fission power plants are arguing for fossil fuels. absolutely nobody.

[–] remon@ani.social 5 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

FSS I hate discussions with people… You can do more than one thing. You could have concentrated on both nuclear AND renewables and stopped burning COAL - but no, instead Germany had a fucking uptick in coal power while dropping the much cleaner nuclear.

Relevant comment from this thread.

[–] derGottesknecht@feddit.org 6 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

But still false, because we had a short, small uptick while switching away from russian gas. Now Germany burns less coal than ever in the last 50 years.

https://www.ise.fraunhofer.de/de/presse-und-medien/presseinformationen/2024/oeffentliche-stromerzeugung-2023-erneuerbare-energien-decken-erstmals-grossteil-des-stromverbrauchs.html

[–] remon@ani.social 4 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago) (1 children)

The point is his claims "why do nuclear diehards always pretend it’s nuclear or fossil fuels only, like renewables are nonexistant? " is compleltly bollocks in the first place. I've never seen any one pro nuclear arguing against renewables. That's the ideal combo.

And this could have been easilsy debunked by just scrolling a few comments down. Was just point out the blantent lack of good faith of the previous commenter.

[–] derGottesknecht@feddit.org 2 points 12 hours ago

why do nuclear diehards always pretend it’s nuclear or fossil fuels only, like renewables are nonexistant?

Is not the same as

pro nuclear arguing against renewables

They mostly don't argue against it (only sometimes on reddit) but they always ignore its existence and accuse everyone who is not a nuclear fanboy on wanting more CO2 emissions.