Originally posted by Counterfiat
Where's the electricity going to come from in the switch from oil fuels to electric cars? Germany is a basket case importing electricity in from nuclear France and coal Poland. Because their investment in wind/solar has failed, (should have been spent on nuclear), simply compare Co2 output of nuclear France and frozen windfarm Germany and the failure of underachieve emission goals.
'Coal’s content of uranium and thorium, both radioactive elements. They occur in such trace amounts in natural, or “whole,” coal that they aren’t a problem. But when coal is burned into fly ash, uranium and thorium are concentrated at up to 10 times their original levels.'
If a nuclear plant spewed radioactive ash like a coal plant it would have to have collection filters.
Most countries don't have the luxury of choice that Australia has. Our small pop can carry solar and batteries ok, and be first in to use up rare earths. Billions can't and won't. Coal polluted air is killing 1.5m Chinese / yr, and worldwide is a bigger killer than smoking.
Yet even solar is dirty, 17000 times more in the case of a certain chemical, and end of life disposal contamination will not be pretty. Where's the news on that?
Safety of reactors have risen dramatically such as with the BWR type now having filtered hydrogen release vents for emergency release so it is no longer a bomb.
There is only one solution to clean energy, and that is nuclear. Nobody is talking the dirtyness of solar, and the pollution pools in China manufacturing areas. Blow hard wind isn't even worth discussing as a global solution.
'With hindsight, the former residents of Fukushima would definitely have preferred solar energy.' - no it was a gross negligence issue, in hindsight. In hindsight in 40 years socialist marxist greenies will regret opposing nuclear today.
I like hydro, but there is a cost of dams.
So we should have less kids in first world countries is your solution. Grow up and see the reality of where we are headed. Africa pop is going to explode. Get off soul destroying team marx, and have a look at the real enviro cost of solar and wind and the lack of resources to implement the socialist unicorn plan.
If getting rid of dirty fossil fuels is essential, no amount of unicorn logic changes the fact nuclear must be the baseload to billions of peoples. As scientists are now coming to realise.
Coal is horrible in Australia. Solar in hindsight will be realised to be an environmental disaster, in prod and disposal, and a wasted financial opportunity for cleaner nuclear, and the opportunity loss of time on hype. Australia can do solar/batteries, but few others can. But nuclear would be smarter.
Next gen reactors will be able to recycle nuclear waste.
Regarding your comment: "Next Gen reactors will be able to recycle nuclear waste"
Forget about Next Gen reactors. There are already thousands of nuclear plants around the world that aren't Next Gen & don't recycle nuclear waste. Any one of those only needs to suffer a catastrophic meltdown once: meltdown has happened at least five times that we know of (Windscale, Chernobyl reactor 4, Fukushima reactors 1, 2 & 3). It's the current populations as well as future generations that need to deal with all the horrid contamination inflicted on their health & the broader environment. Waste disposal from various nuclear processes is exponentially problematic, especially in view of historic & current containment efforts that are far from safe.
Regarding your comment: "If a nuclear plant spewed radioactive ash like a coal plant it would have to have collection filters."
The Fukushima & Chernobyl explosions spewed clouds & particles all over the place: radioacitve vomit heaved over thousands of square kilometers. Collection filters would have been totally useless. The UK Windscale reactor (1950's) was fitted with collection filters & they proved to be ineffective for the containment of radioactive particles during a reactor fire.
An interesting article about The Meaning of Sustainability:
https://www.albartlett.org/articles/art_meaning_of_sustainability_2012mar20.pdf
(20min delay)
