this post was submitted on 30 Jul 2024
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technology

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[–] [email protected] 57 points 3 months ago (3 children)

It's kinda wild that there is a science that allows us to harness an almost limitless power of molecules for almost entirely clean energy, but the US just wants to literally burn ancient dinosaur fossils for energy despite it being a major cause for the total collapse of the environment.

Just barbarian level shit.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 3 months ago (3 children)

Remember when we first figured out how to do this and everyone though that by the 2020s we'd be running nuclear powered cars and vacuum cleaners and shit?

Yeah me neither cause I wasn't born yet but still, why couldn't I have been born into that world kitty-birthday-sad

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 months ago

I was born in the 90s but grew up reading Foundation books. I thought for sure we'd get nuclear powered everything

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 months ago (3 children)

I get the sentiment but you definitely don't want nuclear powered vacuum cleaners.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I get the sentiment but I definitely want a nuclear vacuum cleaner

As long as it's a Miele and not a fucking Dyson

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I don't know, my Dyson works great.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

The cordless changed my life.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

That one is nice. My friend has it.

I have the corded, pet hair one. Damn, that shit is powerful.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Honestly it's kind of a ridiculous concept. It's way more efficient to have one big plant generating power and then send that power to all the location it's needed then have a million tiny engines everywhere. That's why cars are so damn inefficient.

Early train engineers figured this out, before widespread use of electricity they were trying to make trains that were driven by long vacuum tubes powered by one big pump station cuz that was more efficient (on paper at least) than having a big fuck off steam engine dragging around all it's own water and coal.

So have one big nuke power plant and then just have all the cars run off pantographs.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago

One big power plant is more efficient, but also a single point of failure. Having multiple medium-sized power plants is more reliable.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago

Anyone who gets most of their electricity from nukes already has a nuke powered vacuum.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Yeah me neither cause I wasn't born yet but still, why couldn't I have been born into that world

zoomer?

[–] [email protected] 17 points 3 months ago

"Human nature"

[–] [email protected] 39 points 3 months ago (5 children)

I don't believe it. You'd have to convince me that the capacity to build a nuclear reactor even exists in the us anymore.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 3 months ago (1 children)

can't wait until elon musk unveils the CyberReactor and it blows up and idk causes the yellowstone eruption

[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 months ago

He's gonna watch that movie where people drill into the core of the earth and then "invent" geothermal energy and activate Yellowstone on purpose

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 months ago

they could pay russia to build it :D

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

tbs the article says the US is still the leader in nuclear production

[–] [email protected] 32 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Besides bombing the global south, what isn't the US decades behind China in?

[–] [email protected] 28 points 3 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 months ago

Communism kills 9 billion Americans a year.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 3 months ago (2 children)

The US is infinitely behind because the US does not have the political capability to build any nuclear power anymore.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago

good point, there's no path for US to actually catch up

[–] [email protected] 26 points 3 months ago (3 children)

they have to be more than 15 behind

[–] [email protected] 20 points 3 months ago

lol wouldn't be surprised if this is a wildly optimistic estimate

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago (1 children)

They have to write something that sounds plausible against the backdrop of american exceptionalism.

Looking at Wikipedia, the US has brought 2 new nuclear reactors online at a plant in Georgia this decade. Meanwhile, China, has brought 8 online in the same time span. Before those 2 reactors, the US only brought 1 other online since 1996, and that one began construction in 1973. If I counted correctly, China has brought 54 online and operational in that same period, all since 2002. Most have a capacity of at least a gigawatt like the most recently completed US reactors. China also has 25 reactors already under construction, while the US has none. Just 9 that are planned. Also, the US hasn't managed to get a reactor operational within 10 years of the start of construction since 1987, while most of China's recent new reactors have taken around 6 years from start of construction to operation.

Some of China's reactors are designs from US companies, so the US clearly has the ability to design competitive reactors. Building them is another story though.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

you cant have a profitable nuclear reactor so the us doesn't make them

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago

Rookie numbers

[–] [email protected] 17 points 3 months ago

15 years behind, and counting

[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 months ago

no more half measures walter

[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 months ago

"Richest" country in the world btw

[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 months ago