Nuclear energy produces the worst toxic waste guaranteed, and can and has a record of leaking a lot of radioactive material.
When wind and solar are ready alternatives it just makes no sense.
Bullshit. Nuclear waste (more precisely, spent fuel that can be reprocessed for new fuel or other useful radionuclids) is the only waste we have actual good solutions for. It's not an engineering problem, we know very well how to safely dispose of the small amount of ultimate nuclear waste.
All the other waste, including waste from producing new and retiring old solar panels and wind turbines, basically just gets thrown into the landscape with no containment whatsoever. And some of that stuff is toxic, some will never degrade (plastics used in composite materials the wind turbine blades and towers are made of).
Plus, if you only used nuclear energy throughout you life, the amount of ultimate waste can literally fit into a coke can. That's how efficient and energy dense it is.
Please don't down vote just because you don't agree. Please please don't let this be reddit again
Cause once again no one can see the potential advancements nuclear technology can have if it had proper investment. Everyone see's Chernobyl and Fukushima and then they switch off.
Yes Renewables are better than nuclear for the moment but to demonize and not even discuss it is just burying your head in the sand
Nuclear, the costliest energy source available with massive room for long build projects and years of service contracts to manage the waste materials and deconstruction costs with at least nine figures. Cui bono?
Wind and solar ia cheap and save, batteries work. Build time is manageable.
Pretending that the baseload problem is solved for solar and wind doesn't help anybody. "batteries work", but not at the scale of the demands of a power utility when wind and solar happen not to be producing.
I find it fascinating how few people remember the time when Greenpeace was literally selling Russian gas.
I don't think we should shutter existing nuclear plants, but renewables are a better idea than new nuclear plants
I always feel like I'm taking fucking crazy pill when we talk about nuclear energy.
Are we forgetting Chernoble, 3 mile island, or even more recenlty fukishima?
Sure, nuclear energy is great, cheap and reliable.. but IF something goes catastrophically wrong, like I dunno.. earth quakes, hurricanes, tornados, floods, etc (IE things we can't really plan for) you run the risk of not being able to fix it easily...
I guess I"m not a huge fan of making large swaths of the earth uninhabital if shit goes sideways.
There aren't "large swaths of thr earth" that aren't inhabitable because of nuclear. Nuclear kills less people than coal mining - where hundreds of people dying during one catastrophe happens. Renewables aren't a solution for every country either and cover large swaths of land you mentioned. Hydro also has a huge effect on the environment, despite being the "most green" solution (unless you count the concrete needed to build dams).
Nuclear should be the default. It's not "profitable" for the people building them who think short term.
There are currently 401 operational nuclear power plants worldwide, and you've managed to list three (with three mile island not even breaching facilty containment) accidents in 70 years of nuclear energy exploitation. If that doesn't vouch for safety and reliability of nuclear, I don't know what does. Unlearn cold war hysteria.
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