this post was submitted on 04 Sep 2023
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Asklemmy
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How is nuclear renewable?
It's renewable the same way as the sun is: Not, but it will last for a really, really long time.
Because the amount of fuel used in a nuclear reactor is exponentially less than fossil fuels.
There's enough nuclear material on this planet to power nuclear reactors for tens of thousands of years.
Nuclear power is clean, efficient, and lasts for essentially ever
It's close to 'renewable' but technically it should be called 'low carbon fuel'.
That's like saying air isn't renewable..
There are processes on our planet renewing air. I'm not aware of similar processes for fission materials.
It's renewable in the same way that solar is. Eventually the sun will die and solar won't work just like we'll eventually run out of fissible material.
where's the carbon in nuclear?
The graphite neutron moderator.
As with all power plants, wind turbines, solar panels, etc. there are carbon costs associated with the manufacturing, construction and transport. Remember that there's a lot of steel involved.
The carbon expended in producing the fuel is a good example.
It's an interesting take. I guess the sun is not renewable either.
Is any practically infinite (in human scales) source of energy called renewable? I am hearing this for the first time.
You are asking The Last Question It's one of those short stories that you'll read once and think about it occasionally for the next 20 years
I don't understand this comment.
How is the sun not renewable?
Renewable energy means using renewable resources. Meaning things that either replenish themselves within a short enough period or things that produce massive amounts of energy over long periods of time.
Because the sun is also a depleting source of energy. I question the definition of renewable that's all.
I would have never considered nuclear energy being renewable, but I guess a similar argument could be made.
The sun will exist for hundreds of thousands of years after humanity has gone extinct. The sun will exist for millions of years before it burns out. Humanity will thrive diminish and die before the sun dies.
It is by all intents and purposes an infinite resource for a finite species.
Your timescales are off. Even if humanity lasts a very long time, which seems unlikely, the sun will last for billions of years after humanity is gone. In one billion years the sun will have become hotter so that life becomes impossible on Earth. There will be four billion years of a lifeless Earth before the sun expands into a red giant and either swallows up or cooks the Earth. One billion years after that the sun will kick off its outer layers into a nebula and become a white dwarf. At that point it's not reacting any more so it just gradually cools down over billions more years until it's just a cool lump.
Technically speaking, it does not renew itself. It is being slowly depleted. You are right in saying that we can treat it as a renewable source as far as us and our technologies are concerned.
Which is similar to the reasoning for calling fissile material renewable.
The sun will eventually explode.
Long after humanity has ceased to exist.
I'm quite certain we can manage to stop existing before nuclear fuel runs out as well.
Is lemmy just stupid?
Like seriously?
The sun is an infinite resource to humanity. This isn't a debatable fact. Yet I seem to be receiving downvotes despite this.
The sun will outlive humanity a million times.
We can either harness it's energy and other sources like it or run out of energy.
It seems people just don't like the word "renewable"
That just makes those people stupid.
Lemmy at this point is the same as Reddit for quality of discussion.
The sad part is it seems like this has become a recent problem. As in the past few days.
I deliberately switched from sh.itjust.works to lemmy.world because I was sick of hexbear users starting fights and just being disingenuous with their arguments.
Now it seems that's normal everywhere..
Itβs not big enough to explode, itβll have a heat death