this post was submitted on 16 May 2025
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Belgium has dropped nuclear phaseout plans adopted over two decades ago. Previously, it had delayed the phaseout for 10 years over the energy uncertainty triggered by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Belgium's parliament on Thursday voted to drop the country's planned nuclear phaseout.

In 2003, Belgium passed a law for the gradual phaseout of nuclear energy. The law stipulated that nuclear power plants were to be closed by 2025 at the latest, while prohibiting the construction of new reactors.

In 2022, Belgium delayed the phaseout by 10 years, with plans to run one reactor in each of its two plants as a backup due to energy uncertainty triggered by Russia's war in Ukraine.

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[–] fossilesque@mander.xyz 9 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (2 children)

GOOD. BUILD MORE. The newer generations of nuclear plants can recycle their own waste and are basically meltdown proof. It's a no brainer. Shit is literally alchemy magic.

For the haters: https://youtu.be/5WKQsr9v2C0

[–] torrentialgrain@lemm.ee 11 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Still (way) more expensive than just building cheap renewables.

[–] tal@lemmy.today 6 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (2 children)

Air and wind are inexpensive insofar as they have a low LCOE, but are intermittent, so require being coupled with energy storage, and that is not inexpensive.

If you're talking hydropower or geothermal, then they don't have the intermittency issue (well, hydro does, but to a far lesser degree), but both are subject to the geography of the area. They aren't available to everyone.

EDIT: And in the case of hydropower, there are also some environmentalists unhappy about the impact on river systems, since dams inevitably have at least some impact on river ecosystems, even if you build those fish channels.

EDIT2: "Fishway" or "fish ladder".

EDIT3: In fairness, for some uses, intermittency isn't such a big issue. That is, you may have an industrial process that you can only run when energy is available. So, for example, the Netherlands used to do this (sans electricity) with their windpumps in the process of poldering. That's not free


if you want your pumps to run only a third of the time on average, then you need triple the pumping capacity


but for some things like that, where the process is basically the pumping side of pumped hydrostorage, it might be cheaper than providing constant operation with a non-intermittent power source.

But for an awful lot of uses, people just want electricity to be available when they flip the switch.

[–] fossilesque@mander.xyz 3 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)
[–] wewbull@feddit.uk 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Air and wind are inexpensive insofar as they have a low LCOE, but are intermittent, so require being coupled with energy storage, and that is not inexpensive.

First, AIR and wind?

Second, yes they are intermittent but that's not an argument in favour of nuclear. Pairing intermittent sources and sources that need to run at full power 24/7 to be economic isn't a good match.

[–] tal@lemmy.today 6 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Solar and wind, sorry.

Second, yes they are intermittent but that's not an argument in favour of nuclear.

Sure it is. It's just not an argument in favor of using nuclear as a peaking source to fill in the gaps for solar and wind intermittency.

[–] yournamehere@lemm.ee -4 points 5 days ago (1 children)

+120% cancer in children in the area...so worth it.

[–] fossilesque@mander.xyz 2 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

This is for the older plants. The newer plants are fundamentally different (Gen 3+). There are ways to mitigate these things.

[–] yournamehere@lemm.ee 0 points 5 days ago (1 children)
[–] fossilesque@mander.xyz 3 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

I don't speak German. Generation 3+ only came into use in the West in the last 5-10 years. China has over 150 planned for a reason, watch the link I already provided. They are fundamentally built to avoid the accidents of the past. The standards set by the Chinese on this meet Western standards, hell, they are selling the tech to us.

More on China, because the YT link already covers this stuff:

[–] yournamehere@lemm.ee -5 points 5 days ago (1 children)

and those convince you? you think these are prone to war, human error, terror etc?

[–] fossilesque@mander.xyz 1 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

You obviously haven't read these or watched that video as that's covered. It's literally physics.

[–] yournamehere@lemm.ee -5 points 4 days ago (2 children)

you re still not getting the point.

name (like write out the word) a successful new plant or an old plant thats safe.

all i hear from you is chinese propaganda

[–] fossilesque@mander.xyz 2 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

TIL the University of Illinois is Chinese propaganda. There's a list of them in the wikipedia, but you're not arguing in good faith lmao.

[–] yournamehere@lemm.ee -1 points 4 days ago

look at britains failed attempt to build a v3 reactor that pays off. you still think what americans say is worth a dime anywhere on the planet. fuck em.

[–] Cethin@lemmy.zip 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Name (like write out the word) a new plant that isn't safe.

Every power source has issues. Installing solar panels onto houses is more dangerous than nuclear. Large scale solar is safer, though not significantly, and thar includes all nuclear disasters of the past, and it also doesn't include waste that we'll have to deal with in the future like we're already doing with nuclear.

[–] yournamehere@lemm.ee -1 points 4 days ago (1 children)
[–] Cethin@lemmy.zip 2 points 4 days ago

I don't speak German.

All sources of power cause some amount of harm. Is it comparing it to other sources? Coal power plants throw radioactive waste into the air. Is it worse than that? I doubt it.