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this post was submitted on 14 May 2026
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I want to say "no shit" but then I remembered that most people have no idea how safe nuclear reactors actually are
There's a huge anti-nuclear crowd, I'd prefer we focus on renewables as much as possible but it's stupid not to phase out oil/gas for nuclear as a more consistent source.
Which was grass-rooted by oil companies back in the 70s.
astroturfed. Because it's fake grass-roots.
Wait, is that what astroturfing refers to?! That makes so much sense now.
Yeah, I learned it after years of seeing it on reddit, because someone finally explained it lol
Yes! That's the term I was trying to think of.
Given the massive amount of land we have renewables are the clear winner. Densely populated countries, with little to no coastline, would get better use out of nuclear.
Yes that's why I said both, renewables require a lot of space both for generation and storage and generally has peaks and valleys on generation, vs nuclear which can consistently provide a stable amount generally.
Even if/when we replace fossil fuels with renewables, we still need a solution for surges, and nuclear would fit that very well
I thought nuclear was slow to ramp up and down and basically has to operate 24/7, providing a baseload. Batteries otoh are the quickest source to respond to surges from my understanding. Renewables+batteries are have been cheap enough for years that they're also good for baseload.
I live in a dry but mountainous area. I'd like to see them pump water uphill with any overpower so we can just use turbines to recapture that energy later. The average american keeps impressing me with their turnip-level intellect to the point where I don't want them running a carwash, much less a nuclear reactor. There are a lot of IRL Homer Simpsons out there.
I'm anti-nuclear, but it's because nuclear is so much slower to build and more expensive than solar or wind so the fossil fuel industry is pushing for nuclear to delay the transition away from fossil fuels and use up all the funding.
If you have nuclear plants, you've paid to build them and you're on the hook for decommissioning costs, sure, keep running them. Starting construction on new nuclear in 2026? That's a terrible idea.
You won't be up and running before 2040 and you're not going to be competitive against 2040's renewables and batteries, never mind 2070's.
China is building them in 5-6 years, the best time to plant a tree was 30 years ago and the second best time is now.
We can't build them in China, though. Only China can do that. My country doesn't even have an existing nuclear industry.
Sure we could start building reactors now, but we can get enough solar and battery storage through the night for less than nuclear would cost.
I'd like to see scientific proof of that
Everyone who's looking to make money is building wind, solar and batteries. Nobody's looking to invest in nuclear. That's what the people with all the financial data and feasability studies are doing.
The only people we've got pushing for nuclear are the people who were trying to build new coal plants a few years ago.
Props to China, but I know how long building projects take in my country. The plan will say 15 years and it will be done in 25 for 3x the price. And all that to have it produce a kWh for 0.50€. No, thanks.
So don't build 1-off designs, look at the most expensive parts of plant construction, and lower those costs. China's nuclear industry isn't just some construction company that commissions bespoke parts for each nuclear plant, it extends to from heavy forging capacity shared with ship-building to colleges producing construction managers.
I work in construction, and that's just not the way things work in America. Any government project is required to have a bidding phase with multiple options for nearly every required item so that every company has a fair chance to compete.
I do doors, and even when a government project is calling for some hyper-specific Blast+RF+STC door that only one company can even make, my manager still makes me reach out to a bunch of other companies to get a second number just to have something, even if I then have to qualify that what they're able to make doesn't actually fit the specifications.
It's not uncommon for a large, complex project to spend 4+ years in the bidding phase alone, getting rebid over and over with dozens of addendums and RFI's working out all the kinks, without even mentioning the time spent in the planning phase beforehand and the lengthy construction phase afterward.
The 20+ year time to build is at best the direct result of lobbying and NIMBY and realistically just propoganda by antinuclear. The US mean for nuclear construction to production is 8 years. Japan has it down to under 5.
And also really depends on the needs of the community. Solar, especially, can be deployed cheaply and relatively quickly, and may meet the needs of the community while phasing out oil and gas. Nuclear power plants are very expensive to build and take a really long time, but provide a large amount of power. A local community may not need a nuclear power plant.
Nuclear power plants are also expensive to maintain and tend to attract questionable investors.
"tend to attract questionable investors" what does this even mean, every industry attracts questionable investors and there's basically zero nuclear in the US to even gauge that from.
He's talking about that shady coyote who's always chasing after that flightless bird.
Tangentially related, anyone else excited for Coyote Vs. Acme? It looks fantastic IMO, the premise is a 10/10 idea.
Well when annoying orange decided to cut the safety regulations on nuclear they became a bit more sketchy but yeah still would rather have that than a data center... One benefits all and the other benefits shareholders feelings till the bubble pops