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[+] 2 points 2 months ago* (10 children)
  • [–] 12 points 2 months ago (8 children)

    Airplanes don't have a bad rep, they are incredibly safe and if one occasionally crashes the death toll is generally limited to the passengers.

    My issue with nuclear being presented as perfectly safe is that this is largely theoretical. In practice the list of nuclear and radiation accidents is quite long. If you dig a little into your deaths per terawatt-hour list you can find that they count 433 deaths from Chernobyl. The real death toll remains unknown, but ranges from the 30 officially reported by the Soviet government, the WHO estimate of 4000+, and the 35000 families receiving compensation for "owing to the loss of a breadwinner whose death was deemed to possibly related to the Chernobyl accident." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deaths_due_to_the_Chernobyl_disaster)

    My point is, each of these nuclear accidents has the potential to kill tens of thousands and cause long-term increases in cancers and birth defects. And despite all the safety claims, we see a major incident about once a decade.

    Additionally, we still don't know where to store the nuclear waste and enriched uranium continues to bring cash to Russia, as we haven't been able to shake dependance there either.

    All in all, nuclear is another fossil fuel that has risks we can't seem to manage properly and the price is much higher than most renewables. I'm not saying to shut all nuclear plants down immediately, especially if we then have to use coal or gas to make up for the loss in production. But let's stop praising it as this amazing alternative by making safety and sustainability claims that are based on propaganda numbers.

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  • [+] 0 points 2 months ago (6 children)
  • [–] 8 points 2 months ago*

    Reservoir hydro, geothermal and concentrated solar with thermal storage are actually green and could provide base load energy.

    You're free to continue ignoring my points with linked sources in favour of your airplane tangent and theoretical possibilities. As I also said, nuclear sounds all great in theory, but the human factor of cutting corners and prioritising immediate profits are nor giving me the confidence that I'd like to embrace nuclear today.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 months ago (4 children)
  • [+] 0 points 2 months ago* (3 children)
  • [–] 3 points 2 months ago* (2 children)

    You shared an opinion piece written by a self-styled "investor" who proceeds to endorse the forthcoming feasibility of fusion. I shared a piece written by one of the authors of the study he is basing his article on. A study published in a peer-reviewed journal and conducted by a reputable university. They are not the same.

    As for the date...renewables have only become more viable since 2013. The price has plummeted, and the feasibility of battery storage has skyrocketed.

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  • [+] -1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)
  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    Ok it's obvious you're not here to discuss anything in good faith. You've arrived at your conclusion and will make up whatever nonsense you feel like will support it. Have the life you deserve.

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  • [+] 1 point 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 child)
  • [–] 0 points 2 months ago

    And I’m the one discussing in bad faith?

    If you're going to pretend that batteries haven't become enormously more popular over the past decade and that some investor hack is equivalent to someone whose career is research in this exact area, that tells me everything I need to know about how you are approaching this. It's not worth effort partaking any further with someone who cannot have the basic decency to do likewise.

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