Swiss parliament lifts ban on new nuclear power plants

Re:Swiss parliament lifts ban on new nuclear power plants by Handrail on Thursday June 18, 2026 @09:17PM (#48593789)

I'm amazed that the main debate on how clean or dangerous nuclear energy is still circles around the plants themselves and storage of spent energy. I believe that glaring oversight here is that enriched nuclear fuel doesn't grow on trees. Somehow no one ever seems to talk about how efficient and clean the mining of these rare earths is and in which countries that happens. Nuclear being a clean energy is a myth as far as I know. Actually relevant information would be how the necessary mining for uranium etc. compares to coal. I suspect it is only slightly better

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Re:Swiss parliament lifts ban on new nuclear power plants by mortoc on Thursday June 18, 2026 @10:01PM (#48594030)

Nuclear lifecycle calculations include mining. The human cost is terrible, but a separate problem (we could theoretically have ethical mining practices that don't produce more CO2).

Here's some numbers I was able to find on total carbon lifecycle for the energy types: https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/2018/02/ipcc_wg3_ar5... - Coal is 68x more CO2 than Nuclear https://unece.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/LCA_final.pdf - Coal is 165x more CO2 than Nuclear https://ourworldindata.org/safest-sources-of-energy - Coal is 161x more CO2 than Nuclear

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Re:Swiss parliament lifts ban on new nuclear power plants by itishappy on Thursday June 18, 2026 @09:25PM (#48593838)

Keep in mind that the energy density of nuclear fuel is astronomically higher than that of coal, so even if the processes were equivalently wasteful (and I'm fairly certain they are not) coal would still cause significantly more damage. The process also differ significantly:

Uranium is often pumped out of the ground after being chemically extracted.

Coal is almost always carted out after being blasted.

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Re:Swiss parliament lifts ban on new nuclear power plants by DarkUranium on Thursday June 18, 2026 @10:26PM (#48594185)

Solar isn't exactly squeaky clean either.

Look into things like lithium mining (for batteries; yes, I am aware that other options exist, but lithium is still a very common one). That one is straight up nasty.

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Re:Swiss parliament lifts ban on new nuclear power plants by LtdJorge on Thursday June 18, 2026 @10:05PM (#48594061)

To add to what the other comment said, you have to take into account a reactor is normally refueled every 18-24 months. A coal plant, for example, takes in trains of coal a day.

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Re:Swiss parliament lifts ban on new nuclear power plants by Moldoteck on Saturday June 20, 2026 @06:37AM (#48608150)

For the storage, check Onkalo for example

Enriched fuel can be gotten from Urenco/Orano or you can build Candu units otherwise. Over half of global uranium mining is already in situ (with several exceptions, Canada among them for good reasons) which is more or less ok enviromentally. Especially considering nuclear requires least amount of mining vs alternatives per kwh. "Nuclear being a clean energy is a myth as far as I know" - then you should inform yourself better. You can start for example with UNECE report https://unece.org/sites/default/files/2022-04/LCA_3_FINAL%20...

Trying to say nuclear mining is as bad as coal without even trying to inform yourself about the topic is fascinating

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