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A comment on Nuclear power is the climate superhero too nervous to wear its cape. Parent comment

Re:Nuclear power is the climate superhero too nervous to wea... by loopback_device on Monday August 15, 2022 @11:43AM (#32471115)
Not sure how regarding nuclear fission as reasonably dangerous automatically makes you a "fossil fuel lover", but okay. It's not like there aren't any other options out there. They just haven't received much investment in the past decades (except for a few places, i.e. geothermal in Iceland).

I'd like to be educated about that radioactive waste lie – I've not seen it work (meaning no-maintenance, safe, long-term or permanent storage) yet anywhere. And yet, supposedly a solved problem. Waste processing & storage has a long history of irradiating, or even leaking into the environment – one that immediately comes to mind is Sellafield [1], which is a repeat offender. Gorleben [2], another more recent example of how the "solved problem" turned out to be mainly money in other people's pockets. In the US, they recently had an issue with waste stored on the surface [3]. The list is long, and growing – yet not a single storage facility exists that is deemed permanently safe? I also don't know of any such facility currently under construction.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sellafield#Incidents [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorleben_salt_dome [3]: https://nypost.com/2021/04/03/leak-of-radioactive-wastewater...

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Re:Nuclear power is the climate superhero too nervous to wea... by GekkePrutser on Monday August 15, 2022 @01:45PM (#32472865)
Finally someone with a realistic view on the waste problem.

To me it just seems we're exchanging the results of not tackling one long-term problem (climate change) with another even longer term problem. Externalizing to the future. We don't seem to have any other ideas.

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[dead]
Re:Nuclear power is the climate superhero too nervous to wea... by loopback_device on Tuesday August 16, 2022 @09:41AM (#32482586)
> One of them has to do with weapons grade material which isn’t even the subject we’re talking about

Btw, the Sellafield complex has a civilian nuclear power plant – the fact that there was a military facility there in the 50s does not make that disappear?

> and this pretty much proves my original point about how incredibly uneducated people are.

Ouch.

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Re:Nuclear power is the climate superhero too nervous to wea... by loopback_device on Tuesday August 16, 2022 @09:02AM (#32482205)
Sellafield is what caused mainland Europe to stop importing Irish butter in the nineteen-somethings, among other things. Not buying Irish butter is a thing I still remember. And Gorleben - I've been there recently. It's been a candidate for long term storage in Germany, and is still a processing/holding facility today. You can also get a tour of the mine that was supposed to be used as storage. Not sure if you're aware, but Germany doesn't have nuclear weapons, so it's all commercial nuclear fuel and waste processing. (EDIT: This is relevant to Sellafield, as waste from there is or was also processed in Gorleben if I recall correctly)

The phosphate mine waste incident - while not from a power plant - is still a radioactive waste issue. (EDIT 2: I mentioned this because it was the most recent incident in my memory)

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Re:Nuclear power is the climate superhero too nervous to wea... by loopback_device on Tuesday August 16, 2022 @09:16AM (#32482316)
If you need another example, read up on La Hague, where Germany also disposed of some of its waste.
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