Read an interesting interview today about nuclear power and their grand plans to “save the planet.” Unfortunately its in german. I link it here if you can read it or try to translate it:
So I googled to find something in english from the guy and found something:
Some of his points he also made in the german version:
If we look at what happened in the industry over the past 20 years since 2003, there have been 103 new nuclear reactors starting operation. But there have been also 110 that closed operation up until mid 2023. Overall, it’s a slightly negative balance. It’s not even positive. Now if you consider the fact that 50 of those new reactors that were connected to the grid were in China alone and that China closed none, the world outside China experienced a negative balance of 57 reactors over the past 20 years.
Back in 2002, the US government pledged under the program “Nuclear Power 2010” (that’s how it was called) to have “at least” two new reactors online by 2010. But the two are not even operating now. Only one of those reactors is currently in operation, 23 years later. That’s the reality. And this despite huge amounts of public money being poured into these projects. So this has nothing to do with climate change or the difference in the perception of emergency. The nuclear industry just did not deliver.
In the past two decades, the construction rate has been of five per year on average. So, you would need to double that construction rate only to maintain the status quo. Now, tripling again that rate, excuse me, there is just no sign there. I am not forecasting the future, but what the industry has been demonstrating yesterday and what is it is demonstrating today shows that it’s simply impossible, from an industrial point of view, to put this pledge into reality. To me, this pledge is very close to absurd, compared to what the industry has shown.
It’s like Trumpism enters energy policy: It’s a pledge that has nothing to do with reality, and it doesn’t matter. It is giving you the impression that it is feasible, that it is possible. And all that completely dilutes the attention and capital that are urgently needed to put schemes into place that work.
short version:
the industry cant deliver on these projects
Problem is democracy, these projects require community buy in, tons of assessment impact studies, and tons of planning before a shovel hits the ground. You have 5-10 years of work before construction starts and then a new government comes in and cancels the project. Then you have to start all over again. In Canada you need buyin from both the provincial and federal government, so if one changes it often all goes tits up.
Mycle Schneider is a self-taught[5] energy consultant,[4] nuclear analyst,[6] and anti-nuclear activist[7] who has been adviser to Greenmembers of the European Parliament on energy issues for more than twenty years.
So do you have any counter evidence that what he says is wrong or are you just looking for some gotcha so you can back to believe in some nuclear fantasy?
It’s tautologically true that if we let sociopaths like this dude shut down new nuclear power plants as fast as we can build them, then we won’t get more nuclear power on net, with dire implications for the world’s climate. The counter-evidence is right there in the piece. What appears to be a flat supply of nuclear power comes from overlaying rapid growth in China and rapid, policy-driven contraction in the West. Could these goals be met if the West built reactors like China is? I honestly have no idea. But if it was inherently impossible to have nice things like nuclear reactors, we wouldn’t need this guy’s movement to take them away from us.
I don’t have a ton of optimism that nuclear will spin up as fast as we need it to, but if it does work out, the first step is actually trying to accomplish something.
Uhh my bad. I saw it posted on a subreddit I follow and was bamboozled into thinking this was recent. Hopefully they get enough snow this year they don’t have to bring it in by train.
FYI they aren’t bringing in snow for the race itself, it was for downtown Anchorage where they do the ceremonial start. The race itself starts the next day in Willow Alaska.
There are years where there isn’t enough snow in southern Alaska as a whole and they have a few times started the race in Fairbanks and adjusted the route. They still do the ceremonial start in Anchorage those years.
What a time to be alive. When activists glue themselves on the roads you can hit them without being charged or they get sentenced to jail. When farmers block streets with their tractors, parade gallows through the streets, unload liquid manure and show that they are right-wing extremists the government gives then back their tax reductions on fuel. And all this during a time where parts of the country are flooded. Nothing to see here move on. Fuck this.
According to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), 2023 was 1.48 C warmer than the pre-industrial average from 1850-1900, [beating out 2016’s record of 1.25 C].
I know we arent exactly at 1.5, but 1.48 is damn close which makes me think we are wayyyyyyyyy ahead of that schedule (and yes I know that it needs to be a sustained and not one time number but 1.48 is incredibly concerning)
