this post was submitted on 13 Aug 2024
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[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 months ago (3 children)

I was bullish on nuclear for a while but having looked at how expensive it is to build out I don’t think it really makes much sense anymore

[–] [email protected] 22 points 3 months ago

It really depends on the location and situation. With the new generations of reactors they can also do things like seawater desalination with the waste heat alongside power production. You also have situations where the nuclear waste heat is used to heat entire communities far more efficiently than could be done with electricity. There are also many places where solar and wind just aren't practical for various reasons. In those areas nuclear may be a good option for base load power. Nuclear is also still far less environmentally destructive than hydro.

Yes, nuclear power plants are henoiusly expensive and there are definitely areas that they shouldn't be built, but they do still serve a purpose in certain areas. Most of the flack nuclear gets is just because most of our reactor fleet was built durring the cold war. New technologies can acheive far more with nuclear power far more safely and cost effectively than those old reactors.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago (2 children)

What about the conversion of coal fired power plants to nuclear ones? I've seen that proposed quite a bit.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Wouldn't only the turbines and cooling tower be reusable? I thought the hard part was the reactor itself.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

Even then I don't imagine it would be easy. Anything in a nuclear plant needs to be built to an extremely exacting standard that I'm pretty sure old coal powerplant components wouldn't be. I can't see how you could convert a coal plant into a nuclear plant without having to completely rebuild everything.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

From the little I know it's a pipe dream. Just completely different scales.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago

Most of the cost is regulatory, and for good reason. I’d like to think that the new small modular reactors will allow us to reduce cost but it’ll take a lot longer than we have available to us.