Summary

France’s Flamanville 3 nuclear reactor, its most powerful at 1,600 MW, was connected to the grid on December 21 after 17 years of construction plagued by delays and budget overruns.

The European Pressurized Reactor (EPR), designed to boost nuclear energy post-Chernobyl, is 12 years behind schedule and cost €13.2 billion, quadruple initial estimates.

President Macron hailed the launch as a key step for low-carbon energy and energy security.

Nuclear power, which supplies 60% of France’s electricity, is central to Macron’s plan for a “nuclear renaissance.”

  • Don_alForno@feddit.org
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    2 days ago

    Certain groups (funded by dirty energy companies) have pushed an idea that nuclear isn’t Safe

    Nuclear isn’t safe. You should still not pick mushrooms in parts of germany because it isn’t. It’s an inherently dangerous technology, which you can only try to mitigate.

    Nuclear has been strategically handicapped though because they know it’d destroy their business if it’s able to compete on a level playing field.

    Nuclear can only work because it is heavily subsidized. If it had to compete on a level playing field, not a single plant would ever have been built in history, as they are uninsurable on the free market and no investor would touch them with a stick without huge government guarantees.

    It’s the most expensive form of power generation there is, and in 2024 with renewables as good as they are it is just plain unnecessary to sink resources into this dead end.

    • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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      2 days ago

      Nuclear isn’t safe.

      By amount of power generated, compared to other sources, yes, it is, and it’s safer now than ever in the past. The only source of power safer is large-scale PV.

      https://www.visualcapitalist.com/cp/charted-safest-and-deadliest-energy-sources/

      https://www.statista.com/statistics/494425/death-rate-worldwide-by-energy-source/

      If you want to disagree, provide some sources. Sure, some disasters have happened, but even those haven’t been as bad as portrayed and the risks have been significantly mitigated, to the point where it’s practically impossible to happen again outside of very specific circumstances. The fact you can’t eat mushrooms in some places in negligible compared to the entire world being damaged by coal and other dirty energy.

      Nuclear can only work because it is heavily subsidized.

      This is total BS. It’s only unprofitable for a few reasons only nuclear has to deal with. They have a lot more regulations and stuff they have to pay for. For example, all nuclear waste is contained and stored by nuclear power generators (in the western world at least). They have to pay for this. No other power source has to pay this cost. They just release the waste and it’s a negative externality everyone else has to deal with, but not them.

      For a visualization of this, check out this graph from wikipedia:

      (Edit: embed didn’t work for me at least, but this one.)

      The cost of Nuclear went up over time, despite the technology advancing. Why? Because more regulations were passed to force it to cost more. That’s the only reasonable conclusion. It didn’t get more difficult to perform nuclear fission. It should, at minimum, be cheaper than coal and offshore wind.

      • WoodScientist@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        A nuclear booster’s excuse dichotomy:

        If someone says, “nuclear isn’t safe,” respond “nuclear is heavily regulated and perfectly safe!”

        If someone says, “nuclear is comically expensive,” respond “that’s only because of regulation!”

        • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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          1 day ago

          You’re pretending I said something I didn’t. It’s perfectly safe because of all the safeguards in place. Some regulations are needed, but it’s over-regulated. Anyone who doesn’t have their head in their ass can see this. Nuclear power generators have to contain all of their fuel (and pay in advance for the privilege), meanwhile coal spews radioactive material everyone at no cost to themselves. Does that seem reasonable?

          Nuclear has caused very few deaths and little damage relative to most other power sources. It is safer than ever and only getting safer. It’s a fantastic base-load power source. If you factor in storage to green energy (which I approve of too) it becomes even more expensive than nuclear. Nuclear doesn’t need storage as it can ramp up at any time. Green energy is great for peak-demand during the day, but when it’s not available or not sufficient, nuclear is an ideal option to make up for it.

        • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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          2 days ago

          At least 57 accidents and severe incidents have occurred since the Chernobyl disaster, and over 56 severe incidents have occurred in the USA. Relatively few accidents have involved fatalities, with roughly 74 casualties being attributed to accidents and half of these were those involved in the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

          Yeah, this doesn’t say what you think it says. More people fall off of rooftops installing solar panels than casualties are caused by nuclear accidents.

            • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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              2 days ago

              If you’re anti-nuke, you’re probably already simpling for oil, gas, and coal.

              • WhatYouNeed@lemmy.world
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                15 hours ago

                Fuck nuclear.

                Fuck oil.

                Fuck LPG.

                Fuck coal.

                Edit: wow, so many simping for the four above.

                • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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                  1 day ago

                  Also, fuck solar and wind because the waste they require right? Fuck batteries because they cause a lot of pollution to create!

                  I can say fuck all kinds of things. At least I pretend to have a reason. You can’t even be bothered to do that.

                  • WhatYouNeed@lemmy.world
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                    1 day ago

                    Solar and wind don’t produce anywhere as much waste. And the land involved can be easily repurposed, unlike ex-nuclear sites which cannot. Not without bilions being spent and years in clean up investment.

                    Hey, here’s an opinion for you: fuck you. Was that pretend? I will never support nuclear.

          • sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            2 days ago

            When people fall off a rooftop, you don’t have to make an exclusion zone around it for hundreds of years.

              • sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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                2 days ago

                I think that’s the point here. OP is claiming that nuclear is overburdened by regulations, which normally protects people. But when they go wrong or aren’t followed, it changes the map.

                • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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                  2 days ago

                  That OP is me. Yeah, you’re right. Some are required. The same for any other power source. Coal, for example, constantly sprays radioactive waste into the sky, and they aren’t burdened by it. Nuclear is singled out, and that’s because it’s a risk to existing industries. It isn’t so burdened out of actual need.

                  • sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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                    1 day ago

                    That’s why I’m hoping for the smaller modular designs that can be certified and studied very well.

    • rottingleaf@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      You should still not pick mushrooms in parts of germany because it isn’t.

      My gullible cabbage-eating friend, mushrooms are mostly safe to eat even around the Chernobyl station itself.

      I mean, not now probably, there are landmines and rotting corpses and what not. But before 2022 they were.

      And if you’d read something on the subject, you’d know it. Don’t be like flat-earthers and homeopathy proponents. Also “half-life” is not just a video game.

      Nuclear can only work because it is heavily subsidized. If it had to compete on a level playing field, not a single plant would ever have been built in history, as they are uninsurable on the free market and no investor would touch them with a stick without huge government guarantees.

      That’s not how it happened historically. Nuclear energy became more and more expensive due to regulations explicitly intended to press it out entirely. Just slowly.

      People feared nuclear bombs and transferred that fear onto nuclear energy. It’s irrational.

    • Lemzlez@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Nuclear is subsidized? I think you’ve got that backwards. Renewables are HEAVILY subsidized in many places (rightfully so), nuclear isn’t.

      Nuclear would be, in fact, the cheapest form of generation if you factor in storage which is a requirement for a functional grid based on renewables, and aforementioned regulatory handicaps weren’t in place.

      A grid based on nuclear for the base load (the always-on stuff like various industries) + renewables is a far better solution than dragging on fossil fuels for longer and longer, or trying to make 100% renewables work with gigantic amounts of expensive storage.

    • Miaou@jlai.lu
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      2 days ago

      Those mushrooms are pretty much completely safe to eat, but sure, keep burning coal instead.

      • rottingleaf@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        The guy probably doesn’t know burning coal causes radioactive pollution too. All the time, not in emergencies, unlike with nuclear power.