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Re:Why are nuclear power construction costs so high? Part II... by epistasis on Saturday October 01, 2022 @11:57AM (#33047532)
If you live in a place that only gets four hours of sun a day, sure, look more into nuclear.

But instead of being so "black and white" and insisting it must be nuclear that powers things, also evaluate options like thermal storage to gather summertime heat in reservoirs for use throughout the winter. It's super cheap, and makes a ton of sense in most areas, yet it's so low tech that it gets ignored.

I will be black and white that fission is not a feasible solution for the vast majority of the human population for at least the next 20 years, and probably forever. Despite more than half a century of experience, it has not improved as a technology. There would have to be some sort of drastic breakthrough for nuclear to be a realistic power source for most of the earth's surface.

Re:Why are nuclear power construction costs so high? Part II... by stormbrew on Saturday October 01, 2022 @04:52PM (#33050005)
> But instead of being so "black and white" and insisting it must be nuclear that powers things

It sure is a good thing I didn't say anything of the sort or wow I'd be a hypocrite.

I am definitely not the person trying to shoehorn the entire earth into one energy mix box in this conversation. I think the answer to this is likely to vary a lot all over the world.

Also a lot of the world's population is far enough north that winters produce relatively little solar or wind energy. And those places also tend to be massive energy consumers because it's also very cold.

Right now that doesn't show up in electricity stats because of how common in-home gas heating is. In order to decarbonize the northern parts of the world we will need to dramatically increase both electric energy consumption and production, during winter, because heat pumps will almost certainly be replacing gas furnaces.