I always feel like I’m taking fucking crazy pill when we talk about nuclear energy.
Are we forgetting Chernoble, 3 mile island, or even more recenlty fukishima?
Sure, nuclear energy is great, cheap and reliable… but IF something goes catastrophically wrong, like I dunno… earth quakes, hurricanes, tornados, floods, etc (IE things we can’t really plan for) you run the risk of not being able to fix it easily…
I guess I"m not a huge fan of making large swaths of the earth uninhabital if shit goes sideways.
Uninhabitable by humans. Chernobyl created a nature preserve in an instant. The coal pollution you’ve inhaled has affected you more than all 3 of these nuclear disasters.
There aren’t “large swaths of thr earth” that aren’t inhabitable because of nuclear. Nuclear kills less people than coal mining - where hundreds of people dying during one catastrophe happens. Renewables aren’t a solution for every country either and cover large swaths of land you mentioned. Hydro also has a huge effect on the environment, despite being the “most green” solution (unless you count the concrete needed to build dams).
Nuclear should be the default. It’s not “profitable” for the people building them who think short term.
There are currently 401 operational nuclear power plants worldwide, and you’ve managed to list three (with three mile island not even breaching facilty containment) accidents in 70 years of nuclear energy exploitation. If that doesn’t vouch for safety and reliability of nuclear, I don’t know what does. Unlearn cold war hysteria.
Ironically, burning fossil fuels is actually making large swaths of the earth uninhabitable. Even if you include nuclear disasters nuclear is outrageously safe
All of these items are accounted for when feasibility studies are conducted for new plants (and even old plants up for license renewal). Chernobyl was due to the type of reactor (which doesn’t exist in the US), 3 Mile Island resulted in no adverse effects to health or environment and led to more stringent training and equipment upgrades, and Fukushima was built in a poorly selected location.
Of course there’s risk involved with nuclear, but we mitigate those risks appropriately. We don’t stop driving cars because of deadly accidents - we engineer safety systems to mitigate risk.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but coal powered plants have caused more cancer than any of those events on their own and when operated safely to modern standards they have a very low to no risk of release whereas coal plants release pollutants by design. Nuclear waste is in a solid state so it’s far easier to dispose of underground vs coal which immediately gets put into the atmosphere
There are talks about civil war in the US and fears of a further escalation of the war in Ukraine, while Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is in the war zone right now.
I always feel like I’m taking fucking crazy pill when we talk about nuclear energy.
Are we forgetting Chernoble, 3 mile island, or even more recenlty fukishima?
Sure, nuclear energy is great, cheap and reliable… but IF something goes catastrophically wrong, like I dunno… earth quakes, hurricanes, tornados, floods, etc (IE things we can’t really plan for) you run the risk of not being able to fix it easily…
I guess I"m not a huge fan of making large swaths of the earth uninhabital if shit goes sideways.
Uninhabitable by humans. Chernobyl created a nature preserve in an instant. The coal pollution you’ve inhaled has affected you more than all 3 of these nuclear disasters.
Chernobyl is an acceptable outcome for you? Scary af
Chernobyl was a worst case scenario. It has affected millions of people and will have an unknown death toll due to the inability to measure it.
It’s still less harmful than any non renewal able energy source.
Nuclear is a safe, intermediate bandaid while we find a long term solution.
There aren’t “large swaths of thr earth” that aren’t inhabitable because of nuclear. Nuclear kills less people than coal mining - where hundreds of people dying during one catastrophe happens. Renewables aren’t a solution for every country either and cover large swaths of land you mentioned. Hydro also has a huge effect on the environment, despite being the “most green” solution (unless you count the concrete needed to build dams).
Nuclear should be the default. It’s not “profitable” for the people building them who think short term.
There are currently 401 operational nuclear power plants worldwide, and you’ve managed to list three (with three mile island not even breaching facilty containment) accidents in 70 years of nuclear energy exploitation. If that doesn’t vouch for safety and reliability of nuclear, I don’t know what does. Unlearn cold war hysteria.
Ironically, burning fossil fuels is actually making large swaths of the earth uninhabitable. Even if you include nuclear disasters nuclear is outrageously safe
https://www.statista.com/statistics/494425/death-rate-worldwide-by-energy-source/
And when operating properly coal plants irradiate their surroundings significantly more than nuclear plants
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/coal-ash-is-more-radioactive-than-nuclear-waste/
And we actually can plan for natural disasters. Fukushima was avoidable https://carnegieendowment.org/2012/03/06/why-fukushima-was-preventable-pub-47361
Also it’s worth noting that most of the world has the luxury of not building nuclear plants on seismically active, volcanic islands.
All of these items are accounted for when feasibility studies are conducted for new plants (and even old plants up for license renewal). Chernobyl was due to the type of reactor (which doesn’t exist in the US), 3 Mile Island resulted in no adverse effects to health or environment and led to more stringent training and equipment upgrades, and Fukushima was built in a poorly selected location.
Of course there’s risk involved with nuclear, but we mitigate those risks appropriately. We don’t stop driving cars because of deadly accidents - we engineer safety systems to mitigate risk.
A car accident doesn’t have ripple effects for those no where near the car accident.
I just think it’s absolutely nuts that, given the volatility of the earth, that we would even risk it.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but coal powered plants have caused more cancer than any of those events on their own and when operated safely to modern standards they have a very low to no risk of release whereas coal plants release pollutants by design. Nuclear waste is in a solid state so it’s far easier to dispose of underground vs coal which immediately gets put into the atmosphere
There are talks about civil war in the US and fears of a further escalation of the war in Ukraine, while Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is in the war zone right now.