this post was submitted on 16 Jul 2022
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Nuclear Power

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Exactly, what it comes down to is that nuclear is the only practical option for getting off fossil fuels right now. It's a well understood technology and one we can deploy at scale today. China plans to build 150 reactors in the coming decade, and I'm sure they will start exporting their tech globally as well. This is our best hope for getting emissions under control.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

apart from the fact that uranium is a very limited resource which will very soon become uneconomic to mine, apart from the social and environmental consequences of mining

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Except that uranium isn't the only fuel available. The only reason it's been used traditionally is because it doubles as fuel for nuclear weapons. Thorium is both much safer and more readily available.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Except that Thorium reactors are still experimental and will definitely be much too late to replace fossil fuel

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

Uranium solves the immediate and pressing problem of moving away from fossil fuels, which are worse in every single way. Thorium addresses the concerns you raise around the cost of uranium becoming uneconomic to mine. So, not sure what the except here is to be honest.