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A comment on Germany to switch off last remaining nuclear power plants. Parent comment

Re:Germany to switch off last remaining nuclear power plants by ChuckNorris89 on Thursday April 13, 2023 @12:40PM (#35558202)
That couldn't be more false. Coal burning in Germany is at its peak. They're even tearing down old villages to mine coal.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Germany to switch off last remaining nuclear power plants by PurpleRamen on Thursday April 13, 2023 @03:45PM (#35561133)
The current peak is because of Russia. Coal is used to replace gas, on which they had not much choice. And this peak is supposed to stop in summer. We will see if it will work out. But the phase-out is a long investment and the current plan targets 2038, so it is there. A crucial point is, coal is an important part of some industries, and they have started moving hard to replace it there, so there is a good chance it will work this time. They already tried that 20 years ago, until some corrupt people figured out it's more profitable to move slow, as nobody cared anyway.
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Re:Germany to switch off last remaining nuclear power plants by ChuckNorris89 on Thursday April 13, 2023 @05:08PM (#35562081)
>The current peak is because of Russia.

No. It's also because they moronically shut down nuclear right after Russia happened instead of keeping it longer. Since they can't replace gas too easily, the coal peak will be longer into the future not just current.

>Coal is used to replace gas

No. Coal is used to generate electricity. Do you know what else they could have used to generate electricity? Nuclear.

The reasoning you provided is just the same ol' anti-nuclear propaganda spewed all over German politics and media: "Oh, it's Russia's fault. We can only use coal. Never nuclear."

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Germany to switch off last remaining nuclear power plants by PurpleRamen on Friday April 14, 2023 @04:39AM (#35567033)
> No. Coal is used to generate electricity.

No, in the first place it's used to generate heat, which is also used for generating electricity, but also to heat up homes and other systems. Nuclear Plants are simply not in a location where they can serve this purpose.

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Re:Germany to switch off last remaining nuclear power plants by themaninthedark on Friday April 14, 2023 @02:23PM (#35572927)
Germany is centrally burning gas and then distributing the heat to houses? And they had to switch their gas plants over to coal because Russia?

I thought they just restarted old coal plants.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Germany to switch off last remaining nuclear power plants by PurpleRamen on Saturday April 15, 2023 @06:15PM (#35585136)
Yes, it's called district heating or teleheating. And generally is heat also a form of energy used in some other processes, not just for heating up buildings or streets. Energy-politic is far more complex than electricity and building big plants.
[ Parent | on HN ]