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Re:Belgium stops decommissioning nuclear power plants by sunaookami on Thursday April 30, 2026 @06:20PM (#47968998)
Everyone is entitled to their opinions.
Re:Belgium stops decommissioning nuclear power plants by yawaramin on Thursday April 30, 2026 @06:57PM (#47969359)
But they're not entitled to their own facts.
Re:Belgium stops decommissioning nuclear power plants by TheOtherHobbes on Thursday April 30, 2026 @07:58PM (#47969871)
The facts are that all large nuclear plants require a stable water supply, and climate change directly threatens that.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211467X2...

Re:Belgium stops decommissioning nuclear power plants by Manuel_D on Thursday April 30, 2026 @09:27PM (#47970367)
To be clear, all thermal plants - be they nuclear, fossil fuel, biofuel, etc. - require water for cooling. But this doesn't need to be freshwater, many nuclear plants are cooled with seawater. In non-costal arid areas, nuclear plants can be cooled with sewer water: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palo_Verde_Nuclear_Generating_...

Electricity demand is concentrated in population centers, which themselves require water and produce sewage as a byproduct. Thus it's pretty rare for a place with strong electricity demand to simultaneously have a shortage of water available for cooling. In places with limited freshwater supply, this results in plants using wastewater. Again, thermal plants of all kinds need cooling. Nuclear changes nothing relative to the status quo in this regard.

Re:Belgium stops decommissioning nuclear power plants by Moldoteck on Saturday May 02, 2026 @10:44AM (#47986833)
water isn't an issue. You can use cooling towers, wastewater or even dry cooling
Re:Belgium stops decommissioning nuclear power plants by frollogaston on Thursday April 30, 2026 @11:53PM (#47971133)
There's not much trust in anyone who says nuclear is completely safe, "we fixed it now," etc. That shouldn't be the motto. But fossil fuel is already killing more people, coal puts more radioactive uranium dust into the air even, and that's before getting into climate change.

I think people who are anti-nuclear and environmentalist are wrong, but it's not an insane opinion to have. There's no fact you can point to that says nuclear is safer than renewables. I just don't see how the world is realistically going to switch to renewables. We've already seen oil companies use those as distractions from nuclear.

Re:Belgium stops decommissioning nuclear power plants by mpweiher on Friday May 01, 2026 @03:14AM (#47972032)
Nothing man-made is "completely safe". No such thing.

However, nuclear energy is the safest form of energy production we have.

By far.

And that includes Chernobyl and Fukushima.

People overestimate the danger from nuclear energy by incredible amounts.

That doesn't mean that close exposure to a running nuclear reactor won't kill you in short order. That's why we build these things with shielding. A lot of other things will kill you in short order if exposed to them: cars/trains in motion, for example.

Re:Belgium stops decommissioning nuclear power plants by Moldoteck on Saturday May 02, 2026 @10:45AM (#47986845)