2 upvotes, 1 direct replies (showing 1)
View submission: War in Ukraine Megathread
Well, it's not perfect.
It does create nuclear waste. It requires a lot of transportation with those same materials, and which present their own security risks.
These risks also drastically increase build time/money/maintenance.
They require huge bodies of water to regulate the reactor. People also don't generally want that water as a portable source.
They are not suited for peak shaving, or to bring online/offline quickly.
BUT
They are far and away the best option we have.
If we had decided to pour resources into it a decade ago, you'd be looking at our base load switching almost entirely to nuclear over the next decade.
We didn't. Unfortunately, it's increasingly difficult to coax people into the time and resources required now, especially given the 10+ year turnaround time, and that's why it's been abandoned from a political viewpoint.
Comment by VikingCreed at 25/02/2022 at 01:17 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I'm gonna use my "No such thing as a dumb question" pass here.
Wouldn't switching entirely to nuclear be even more threatening to its own country if they are at war? Attacks on a fully nuclear-powered infrastructure would make Chernobyl look like July 4th sparklers.