this post was submitted on 11 Aug 2023
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Not sure how it is here but lemmy.world absolutely loves their atomic reactors, I tried to point out flaws and while noone debunked a single one of them it seemed VERY unpopular, I just ended up blocking theur Technology community...
While I don't want to necessarily sign myself up for a debate and I don't think nuclear energy is perfect, I think pound for pound it's a better alternative for large scale power production than fossil fuels. Any issue that nuclear energy has, fossil fuels have as well, and usually worse on a per kWH basis. We've just lived with those ramifications for so long that we're more comfortable dealing with it. A great example is nuclear waste. Yes, it's a problem that needs to be dealt with, but so is coal waste. We just already have infrastructure in place already for coal waste, and coal waste is much more abundant. Per kWH, the nuclear waste generated is on the order of grams while the waste generated by coal power plants per kWH is on the order of kilograms. And coal fired power plants create radioactive waste as well, usually from incidental uranium and thorium, so we already have to take that into account. So yes it's an issue, but the amount of waste that needs to be dealt with is much lower overall.
While I fundamentally agree but you realky downplay nuclear waste, we don't have any way to dispose of that btond theory, just temporary "solutions" and while coal also generates highly toxic waste the "just so few grams" part isn't great if you ask me! Don't get me wrong, in our current situation coal is about the worse wnergy source we can use but atomic power most likely won't be "the future" like almost everyone in that thread claimed ether and if it's just because we don't even have enough urainium supply the world energy consumption for more than a few year. Another fast that really worries me are the rising natural disasters, that's about the only way a modern reactor can truly cause damage and we will need a lot stronger rules around the areas we place those in, a earth quake area like Fukushima for example is a awful place for them! Another argument against it is that the real price of nuclear energy is by FAR higher than any other kind but currently paied by taxes rather than those companies or peoples energy bills and that won't improve considering we have to store the shit for millions of years and don't even know how yet. I am open to arguments on the topic but if all I get are downvotes and "that's not what I read" without any source and no matter what I write that's simply not a community I want to participate in.
Or in short, my unpopular take is that we can call nuclear energy green (nature loves environmentes without humans) calling it sustainable or technology of the future isn't much smarter than bridging with fossile gass when you are far too late to the party already!
Nuclear is sustainable though, we can sustain it for the forseeable future - many generations. Fossil fuels are not sustainable, their supply is more limited and the consequences of pollution too severe.
Nuclear is not renewable, but it is sustainable and not polluting so it fits into the category of "green".
However, nuclear is not quick. Like you say, we're already late to the party when it comes to fixing things. Using money and resources for nuclear over renewables may end up taking longer to get to net zero than just going hard on renewables and transmission first (although the specific circumstances do vary widely by region/nation).
True!
How is the waste of the reactors not considered polution? Especially when you consider that if people would really decide to make a swing for nuclear power there will be a lot more waste.
Doesnβt βpollutionβ refer to material that is released into the environment? We could make an argument about uranium mining being polluting (because it is), but operating a nuclear plant does not create pollution during operation.
Do you trust every single country / political part on earth to store the waste for thousands of years responsibly and safe?
The nuclear power industry is known for astroturfing. Just enter something like "nuclear power pros and cons" and you will find dozens of websites which only exist to advertise nuclear power.
Most of them seem to be legit enough at a first glance, but when you dig through their impressums or otherwise look up who owns the website they often belong to some group that's associate with the nuclear power industry.
I believe at least some of the die hard fans of nuclear power perhaps were convinced on these one-sided websites.
Another reason why you find so many fanboys is because on Lemmy (and similar platforms) everything considered "hard science" is cool. Even if they don't really understand it. Having reservations against or be careful with, what these people deem, technological advancement, shows that you are at least unintelligent and probably "too green".
Also, a lot of conservatives are into nuclear power reactors and they seem to have a general tendency to be extreme in their opinions.
I agree with all that but I would expand it from website to studies, there are multiple institutes that produce a few really suspicous and highly neo liberal studies from time to time and nuclear power is always in there so they have "scientific" backing as well and that often leads to legit and well researched articles with questionable information! :/
There is honestly an equal amount of astroturfing in the opposite direction to.
That doesn't make a lot of sense since no one monetarily benefits from being against nuclear power reactors.
Nuclear power's competitors sure do.
True, the legidimacy of criticism is often very questionable because you quickly land in tinfoil hat territory but only one side has a ton of money to fund scientists!