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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[–] Zacpod@lemmy.world 9 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

Never understood what kind of an idiot you have to be to choose coal over nuclear. Absolutely bonkers.

[–] ms_lane@lemmy.world 1 points 40 minutes ago (1 children)

Such an attitude afflicts Australia too. We could have close to unlimited free energy, but instead choose to build more Coal since 'Nuclear Bad' and 'Nuclear too much money' (despite the same people decrying the idea of 'too much money' being applied to anything else)

[–] assassinatedbyCIA@lemmy.world 1 points 11 minutes ago

Hmmmm, I don’t think nuclear makes much sense in Australia when we have an abundance of renewable resources available to us. Nuclear energy has never been known to be cheap and rapidly deployable. If we were going to go down the road of nuclear power we will have to start from the ground up given our utter lack of nuclear energy industry. This would take so much time and money. Why do that when we have sun baked deserts, are girt by sea and have every key mineral under the sun.

[–] Fisch@discuss.tchncs.de 19 points 16 hours ago (2 children)

Basically, when the right-wing CDU started the phase-out it was a good thing, when the Greens phased out the last 3, it became a bad thing.

That's literally all this discussion is about. Anyone who's actually taken a look at the data knows that phasing it out was the right move and that there's no point in bringing it back. There's a reason the share of nuclear keeps going down in the EU. Germany is also not the only country that doesn't use nuclear anymore.

Here are the sources for anyone interested:

[–] atzanteol@sh.itjust.works 12 points 14 hours ago (2 children)

It was a stupid idea no matter who conceived of or implemented it. Nuclear is the only viable clean baseload power generation option we have. Solar and wind can't do it, coal and oil are filthy, battery storage is nowhere near where it needs to be yet.

Bro has been asleep for the past 10 years lmao

[–] derGottesknecht@feddit.org 2 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

Baseload is an antiquated concept that doesn't work with lots of renewables. Battery storage may be not completely feasible yet, but look at California to see that it has the potential to be ready faster than we can build new npps.

[–] atzanteol@sh.itjust.works 6 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

Baseload is an antiquated concept that doesn’t work with lots of renewables. Battery storage may be not completely feasible yet, but look at California to see that it has the potential to be ready faster than we can build new npps.

"Baseload" is still needed. Renewables are great but they are simply not there yet. There is a world between "potential" and "available".

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

Yeah, right now. But not in 10 years when the first npps could be ready. And you would also need storage for npps when there is a lot of wind or sun, cause you can't shut down the npps all the time or thermal stresses will cause damages to the pipes. And renewables are here now, it's the storage that needs to catch up.

[–] atzanteol@sh.itjust.works 0 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Baseload is still needed now. End of.

[–] killingspark@feddit.org 3 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

You can't magically get npps now. End of.

[–] atzanteol@sh.itjust.works 1 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Which is why it was stupid to start shutting them down! 🤣

[–] killingspark@feddit.org 1 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

That doesn't really matter if we are discussing how to move forward from where we are, does it?

[–] atzanteol@sh.itjust.works 1 points 12 minutes ago

We?

It was a stupid idea no matter who conceived of or implemented it.

[–] atro_city@fedia.io 0 points 13 hours ago

Basically, when the right-wing CDU started the phase-out

LMAO. Completely false:

In 2000, the First Schröder cabinet, consisting of the SPD and Alliance '90/The Greens, officially announced its intention to phase out the use of nuclear energy. The power plants in Stade and in Obrigheim were turned off on 14 November 2003, and 11 May 2005, respectively. The plants' dismantling was scheduled to begin in 2007.

Fukushima forced the hand of the CDU afterwards.

It was a dumb idea in 2000, a dumber idea in 2011, and amongst the dumbest ideas during the war. Unfortunately, the anti-nuclear people shot us all in the foot with their "what about our children in 1000 years" crap. So concentrated on the far far future were they, that they ignored what impact it would have on the near and medium term. Sure, the children in 1000 years might not run into nuclear waste, but they'll be living in a climate change wasteland. Good job!

[–] atro_city@fedia.io 6 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

According to a 2024 article in the International Journal of Sustainable Energy, Germany could have saved hundreds of billions of euros and reduced its carbon emissions by as much as 70% by embracing nuclear energy rather than rejecting it.

Good job German Greens! Well done! 👏👏👏

They are like the right wingers: ideology over facts. I bet if the conservatives win in the next election, fuck some other parts of the country but manage to introduce nuclear again, the next green government will go about undoing nuclear, regardless of its benefits.

[–] killingspark@feddit.org 8 points 8 hours ago

Ok you'll have to explain how exactly that's the German greens fault. They were not in power when the decision fell to stop relying on nuclear power. Even if they really wanted to there are no plants that are operational right now. We'd need to renovate old ones for a lot of money or build new ones for even more money.

Additionally the specialized workforce needed to operate these plants isn't available. We stopped training new people for obvious reasons and it's not like we currently have a lot of skilled people in unemployment that could be recruited on short notice.

And again, nothing of that has been implemented by the greens. This is the result of conservatives being in power.

[–] ValiantDust@feddit.org 19 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 16 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 8 points 15 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 6 points 15 hours ago (13 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?

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[–] nublug@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 14 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 14 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 13 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 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 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 13 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.

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

Never ever ever. Mainly because Germany is sooo bad with new tech, we don't need more juice :)

[–] derGottesknecht@feddit.org -1 points 13 hours ago (2 children)

We can get more bang for our buck with renewables+storage.

[–] griD@feddit.org 1 points 8 hours ago

No, we won't. A certain dude in the government made sure to cut 99% of the funds pertaining to the study of storing energy (i.e., batteries). It is the same dude who accused the Green Party for only making ideological policies. This is the state of stupidity in this country.

[–] NOT_RICK@lemmy.world 3 points 13 hours ago

I’m under the impression that large scale energy storage is a bit of an unsolved problem at this point, is that not the case?

[–] Hugohase@startrek.website 3 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

Propagandist propagandizes.

More news at 11

[–] TimeSquirrel@kbin.melroy.org 2 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

Because being addicted to the teat of Russian fossil fuels has worked out so well...

[–] einkorn@feddit.org 9 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

Russia also has one of the largest reserves of uranium in Eurasia as well, only behind Kazakhstan.

Also Germany would only trade one teat for another. Energy indepences is only possible by using renewables.

Lastly every energy corporation has said they won't touch nuclear with a twelve feet pole because it is too expensive and there is no insurance agency willing to back them up.

The nuclear horse IS dead.

[–] TimeSquirrel@kbin.melroy.org 4 points 15 hours ago (2 children)

Unless you're ready to fill the country with a thousand battery farms, you need some sort of steady base supply that solar and wind cannot provide. Hydroelectric is not really a big option in Germany, so that leaves you with coal, gas, and nuclear energy.

[–] einkorn@feddit.org 6 points 14 hours ago (4 children)

Unless you're ready to fill the country with a thousand battery farms,

Oh I am totally ready to do that. A third of these batteries will be actually farms, a third will be sitting stationary in everybodies cellars and sheds and the other half will be rolling on the streets in form of electric vehicles.

Top off your own batteries and EV with surpluses during excess production and drain them during dry situations. Most people seem to forget that EVs can work both ways.

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[–] Hugohase@startrek.website 4 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

Maybe you should read up on the topic and not just repeat baseless falsehoods.

That would be so nice...

[–] TimeSquirrel@kbin.melroy.org 1 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

By all means, correct me then. What power delivery system out there doesn't have a base load?

[–] Hugohase@startrek.website 1 points 14 hours ago

Come on, don't be that guy...

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