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Living in Germany I can add: Yes, shutting down nuclear power plants "so early" was naive, however, even the now horrible war in Ukraine boosts the process to m
by fdomig 4y ago
Living in Germany I can add: Yes, shutting down nuclear power plants "so early" was naive, however, even the now horrible war in Ukraine boosts the process to migrate to (more) sustainable energy even faster. Also, pretty soon energy prices in Germany might be so much lower and this will be a key advantage.
- tmikaeld 4y agoAs long as most of the wind-mill and solar components are manufactured in China, it's difficult to call it "sustainable".
- dubbel 4y agoYou are right about solar panels being built in China, but windmill components are usually built in local factories, because they are very hard to transport. You might call the dominance of the Chinese solar manufacturers a national security risk, but as long as we have the knowledge and resources to theoretically build them in the West (albeit more expensively), they are easier to replace than for example Saudi-Arabian oil or Russian natural gas.
- tmikaeld 4y agoI'm also talking about the very large amount of Neodymium magnets needed for the very large generators of wind-mills. It's the most dirty part to mine and is exclusively from China (95% of worldwide production).
- dubbel 4y agoUhh, I didn't know about that and will read up on it - thank you!
- uniqueuid 4y agoAlso: The war in Ukraine shows what a security liability nuclear plants are in wartime.
- _ea1k 4y agoWhich, in what is surely a coincidence, is good for Russia.
- MagnumOpus 4y ago…with the Russian state-owned Rosatom being the biggest (and cheapest) builder of nuclear plants abroad? Occam’s razor applies here, I think; no need for conspiracy theories.
- AstralStorm 4y agoCheap is not necessarily better, their designs are now outdated. Most importantly, they are not water sparing, which will be necessary really soon now.
- IYasha 4y agoAren't you all kinda missing the main point: who is the world's manufacturer of nuclear fuel. Hold your laugh when you realize. :)
- belorn 4y agoThat is an common misunderstanding. You can't interchange one nuclear fuel for an other. Fuel rods are designed and built explicitly for the kind of plant that will use it, which mean that the fuel mostly used will be for the plant that is mostly built. Guess who holds the patents to the fuel rods design for a specific nuclear power plant design. Uranium mining however is pretty diversified. about 1/4 come from Canada, 1/4 from Australia, 1/4 from Russia and 1/4 from Africa. It then get processed into a powder, and then shipped to a fuel construction facility. One of the larger site of fuel rod construction is actually Sweden, which has also recently started to expand construction for fuel to Rosatom reactors. Creating fuel rods from Uranium refined powder is however not the biggest problem that the world has.
- 4y ago
- mbeex 4y ago> Also, pretty soon energy prices in Germany might be so much lower Jürgen Trittin (2004): Eine Kugel Eis... (costs for "Energiewende" ) There is the infamous saying, "Fusion is always twenty years ahead." But renewables seem to be trying hard to live up to that saying (AND getting more expensive along the way) https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/13020/umfrage/strompreise-in-ausgewaehlten-laendern/ https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/13020/umfrage...
- the_cramer 4y agoI am not sure if these lower costs are ever projected onto the end users. the energy prices weren't lowered since ~2000