Re:US emissions fell 2.1% in 2019
by acidburnNSA on Wednesday January 08, 2020 @01:19PM
(#21994186)
Sounds like we should help make nuclear cheaper and more popular. No high carbon gas needed.
Re:US emissions fell 2.1% in 2019
by bradstewart on Wednesday January 08, 2020 @02:23PM
(#21994791)
That would be great. Episode 3 of Netflix's documentary on Bill Gates [0] that gets into his efforts to develop and deploy new reactor tech. While it only presents a small piece of the picture, it at least touches on the political climate surrounding nuclear energy. Worth a watch.
But the climate activists strongly oppose nuclear every chance they get.
The problem is not climate activists, the problem is NIMBY.
I'm a "climate activist" and know plenty of others and they are by far the staunchest supporters of nuclear that I know.
Nuclear is only expensive due to NIMBY regulation and lack of economies of scale. Look to South Korea to see how perfecting a plant design can dramatically lower cost.
The first thing we need to do is reverse the devolution of local control in the United States. If any random neighborhood council can block nuclear development then we aren't going to get anywhere.
Natural gas power plants are cheap to build and significantly cleaner than coal plants currently in operation. Nuclear is a fantastic option that I strongly support, but building reactors is a very expensive and multi-year process (if you can even get approval for it).
NG is not the endgame solution, but it is an immediately available solution to fill that gap until grid scale battery technology and sufficient renewable or nuclear capacity comes online.