• Photonic@lemmy.world
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    7 hours ago

    There are plenty of countries that have nuclear power plants but no nuclear warheads or intention to get them. Like Japan and many European nations.

    Nuclear is costly, but its the only green form of electricity production that is both feasible everywhere and can provide baseload power. As of yet, an energy transition towards renewables does not seem feasible without it. On top of that, SMR and MSR technologies will greatly reduce costs.

    • Zwiebel@feddit.org
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      5 hours ago

      What is it with nuclear proponents and completely misunderatanding what baseload means

      Renewables need the exact opposite of a baseload as a complement

      SMR and MSR technologies will greatly reduce costs

      might or would not will. If we go by hypotheticals, then any of the twenty promising new battery technologies “will” make battery storage so cheap that we will go with 100% renewables

      • Photonic@lemmy.world
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        4 hours ago

        Where did I mention we shouldn’t also use wind and solar?

        Maybe I’m not the one misunderstanding….

        And you’re making assumptions based on your own misguided beliefs and biased opinion.

        The technology isn’t there yet but it’s not as impossible as you would make it seem: we have been using molten salt in solar powered plants for a while now. We are getting close to using it in commercial NPPs and there are many test projects already running. Luckily governments worldwide have seen the potential benefits and are investing heavily in them. If we leave everything to the “nuclear scary and bad” crowd we wouldn’t get anywhere…

        • Zwiebel@feddit.org
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          3 hours ago

          Where did I mention you mentioning we shouldn’t also use wind and solar?

          I said nuclear doesn’t complement renewables well, unlike a lot of people think who throw the word “baseload” around.

          I also didn’t say “nuclear scary and bad”.

          • Photonic@lemmy.world
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            2 hours ago

            I said nuclear doesn’t complement renewables well

            Because it’s complete nonsense. Of course you need baseload power. Supplying the entire world with power from batteries alone is the only ridiculous idea. We don’t have enough storage capacity as it is, not to mention when we want to switch the world to EVs.

            people think who throw the word “baseload” around.

            I used a word. I’m not throwing anything around, and I don’t have anything to do with what other people do or say.

            And you said bad, I assumed scary, because that is the basic emotion many anti-nuclear people have about it, and clouds their judgment. Maybe you watched Chernobyl on HBO, but that is not something that can happen with modern reactors.

            You haven’t made a single valid point and started off with personal attacks. That is not a way to have a discussion, with anyone, about anything.

      • Photonic@lemmy.world
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        6 hours ago

        I think only China and Russia have ones that generate power. Other than that, test reactors.

    • Hellgruen@lemmy.zip
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      6 hours ago

      I concede the nuclear warheads part. Still true fir a lot of countries tho.

      The fun thing about smr is that investors are fleeing and the start ups are going bancrupt. Additionally when the nuclear power plants were initially developed they had to upscale the to high size because the big overhead of maintenance, safety measures and poor yield from heat power coupling only gives a small net power output. So to make it work they had to make it big. Now they try to make it small again. Apart from some niche use they won’t make a big difference.

      • Photonic@lemmy.world
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        5 hours ago

        You’re comparing technology of the 1980s to today’s technology. Nuclear power research has come a long way since then.

        Part of the reason NPPs (as in, conventional PWRs, as we use in the west) had to be so big is the giant containment structure to keep pressurised water inside the reactor. Molten salt does not need to be pressurised and is much more efficient because it runs at much higher temperatures than water does. So these two technologies combined definitely have the ability to reduce the size of NPPs.