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Re:Why are nuclear power construction costs so high? Part II... by aidenn0 on Friday September 30, 2022 @06:43PM (#33041690)
One comment on your sustainability argument, now that I know you are the author:

Calculating "years of energy" based off of current usage seems silly to me given that global energy usage has been rising exponentially for centuries.

For example, if you assume a 3% per-year increase in global energy usage, 12 billion years becomes a bit less than 1000 years.

Re:Why are nuclear power construction costs so high? Part II... by bombcar on Friday September 30, 2022 @06:57PM (#33041804)
Meanwhile California has increased population and kept their energy production relatively stable. We may have reached a peak.
Re:Why are nuclear power construction costs so high? Part II... by parineum on Friday September 30, 2022 @08:34PM (#33042525)
California's power grid is not in great shape.
Re:Why are nuclear power construction costs so high? Part II... by VintageCool on Saturday October 01, 2022 @12:19AM (#33043831)
With the increase in EVs, AC, and heat pumps, I'd expect electricity demand to increase in the next decade.
Re:Why are nuclear power construction costs so high? Part II... by adrianN on Saturday October 01, 2022 @01:24AM (#33044130)
Electricity demand will surely increase. Primary power demand on the other hand will most likely go down. An EV is about 80% efficient from solar panel to movement, an ICE is only about 30% efficient from gas to movement (and you have to invest a whole bunch of energy to get gas into tank starting from oil underground). Similarly, heating with a heat pump is about three times more energy efficient than heating with oil or gas.
Re:Why are nuclear power construction costs so high? Part II... by acidburnNSA on Friday September 30, 2022 @10:18PM (#33043169)
Today we use about 600 exajoules of primary energy per year. The sun hits us with about 3.8 million exajoules per year. 1.03^1000 is a factor of 7e12. So under that assumption, the earth would be making 1 billion times more power than we receive from the sun.

I can pretty much guarantee that we won't be scaling at 3%/yr for the next 1000 years. And if we do, that's an argument for lots more nuclear fission, and a lot of fusion too. Because the solar-derived flows (wind, solar, hydro, biofuel, fossil fuel) won't be able to keep up even if we covered 100% of the earth with solar panels!

Re:Why are nuclear power construction costs so high? Part II... by aidenn0 on Saturday October 01, 2022 @10:33PM (#33052269)
Yes, every exponential curve is really a logistic curve in disguise, but using today's energy is picking an arbitrary point along that curve.
Re:Why are nuclear power construction costs so high? Part II... by ncmncm on Friday September 30, 2022 @10:27PM (#33043203)
Earth? Who said any of that will be used on Earth? OK, Earth will use a bit of it.

We will need to dismantle gas giants' moons for construction materials.