I sortof agree, but nuclear is used by technopositivists as a mirage to push global warming under the rug. Sure, we can use nuclear for essential stuff if there’s no other way, but the priority is to decrease consumption and consume smarter. I am all for nuclear if it powers ambulances. I don’t want nuclear to power the tenth plastic-shit plant building the next thing nobody needs or a billion SUVs.
We gave nuclear plants to private companies, but no private companies are crazy enough to insure them. We taxpayers are doing that. This is essentially a huge subsidy.
The anti-greens are always reminding us about how Germany tried to get rid of nuclear and ended up opening coal plants, as in Germany was a monolithic bloc. No. The german public wanted no nuclear and the German private sector opened coal mine. Their only flaw is not to have impose quotas on their industry.
Coal use in Germany has actually continued to decrease since the nuclear plants were turned off. Germany just tends to import a bit more energy (mostly hydro from Scandinavia/Austria/Switzerland, wind from Denmark or solar/nuclear from France) from its neighbors because that’s cheaper than running gas or coal plants in Germany. (And of course there are also the economic woes which have led to slowing demand for energy.)
I sortof agree, but nuclear is used by technopositivists as a mirage to push global warming under the rug. Sure, we can use nuclear for essential stuff if there’s no other way, but the priority is to decrease consumption and consume smarter. I am all for nuclear if it powers ambulances. I don’t want nuclear to power the tenth plastic-shit plant building the next thing nobody needs or a billion SUVs.
Coal use in Germany has actually continued to decrease since the nuclear plants were turned off. Germany just tends to import a bit more energy (mostly hydro from Scandinavia/Austria/Switzerland, wind from Denmark or solar/nuclear from France) from its neighbors because that’s cheaper than running gas or coal plants in Germany. (And of course there are also the economic woes which have led to slowing demand for energy.)