this post was submitted on 08 Aug 2023
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France has been importing more electricity than exporting in 2022 because their nuclear reactors can’t perform in the heat resulting from climate change. And this is more likely to happen again as each year becomes hotter.
I’m not sure where this fetishism for France‘s nuclear energy is coming from.
Besides, it's not a technical limitation on nuclear power, it's an ecological measure.
The hole in production was due to a corrosion problem detected in several reactors, which occurred at the same time as maintenance work in other reactors that were behind schedule because of COVID. This would have had no impact if nuclear power had not been left virtually abandoned for 30 years because of the anti-nuclear movement.
It's the classic story: anti-nukes shoot nuclear power in the foot, then claim that nuclear power doesn't work, despite reality.
Genuinely curious here... what about the concerns of nuclear waste? My understanding of it is based on the Simpsons so ELI5 how modern tech resolves the waste issues?
This is the entirety of the high-level nuclear waste that France produced for 80 years while having 70%+ of nuclear in its electricity mix.
The question of nuclear waste is an extremely minor problem compared to the ecological issues we're facing, and which we've been addressing for decades.
Anti-nuclear people just prefer to cover their ears and pretend it's an insolvable problem.
Most of it can be recycled (as in used for other nuclear products or services like MRI machines), but it doesn't because of fear of weaponization. What can't be recycled can be buried.
See these videos for more info on nuclear energy. The first one includes a nukeE's commentary. His intros are a bit dry, but he's very informative on kurzgesagt's content.
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You're quoting 2022 because that year >30% of the reactrors were taken offline for maintenance. The French government is also shutting down nuclear reactors due to lack of funding & outdated technology.
This is not an inherant problem with nuclear, but because the French government hasn't invested since the 70s.
If funding wasn't cut (due to environmental activists), the output would be more than needed.
Nuclear is still our best bet for combatting climate change and reducing carbon emissions.
Im quoting 2022 because this was last year. As in, the most recent year.
I don’t disagree that we should have phased out coal instead of nuclear first. But what has happened has happened. I do disagree that we need a „nuclear renessaince“ now, because neither the economics nor the timelines work out at this point in time. Solar and wind is cheaper, faster to build, and more flexible as you can iterate on their designs MUCH more quickly than nuclear plants. That’s the main reason why solar panel efficiency is going through the roof.
Why cannibalize the investments in what obviously works?
You only solve one part of the problem: what do you use when there's no sun and no wind? Coal? Gas?
As far as I can tell, there is no time with no sun AND no wind: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Energy_statistics_-_latest_trends_from_monthly_data
In fact, there are multiple studies claiming that you can very well supply base load with renewables, for instance this one:
https://www.ceem.unsw.edu.au/sites/default/files/uploads/publications/MarkBaseloadFallacyANZSEE.pdf
One other problem with nuclear is that it has to run at a fixed output level, and can’t be scaled down if there is eg. lots of solar power being generated. In this case, you have to scale down renewables to make sure you can use the nuclear power, which makes it clash with the eventual goal to power everything with renewables.
Maybe it comes from France exporting the cheapest energy in Europe in the last 20 years. But yeah, 2022 means nuclear energy is worthless I guess.
What do you mean by cheapest energy? Nuclear is more expensive than renewables, if you factor in construction and maintenance cost. It only works because it has been massively subdisidized.
Or do you have some source that this energy is „cheaper“? Please be aware that France caps their electricity prices internally and subsidizes them with taxes (which is fine, but makes the prices incomparable to other countries).
„The cost of generating solar power ranges from $36 to $44 per megawatt hour (MWh), the WNISR said, while onshore wind power comes in at $29–$56 per MWh. Nuclear energy costs between $112 and $189.“
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-energy-nuclearpower-idUSKBN1W909J
Are you pretending that renewable are not subsidised? Renewable are young yet, how will the prices do in 10 years when they will start to be maintained and replaced? What about the energy you need to complement renewable? Is it considered in their price or not? Do you consider the price of renewable when they're cheap because of overproduction?
https://4thgeneration.energy/the-true-costs-of-nuclear-and-renewables/
You're like "did you consider factors a, b, c, d?" and then link to an article that explicitly ignores all of those factors and compares only the amortized cost of the construction of the plants, omitting all other operating costs.
On top of that, this argument is a classic economic fallacy. It's a little bit like saying "breaking windows is an economic benefit because people will pay glass makers to fix them and so money flows back into the economy." It completely ignores opportunity costs.
I haven't seen any levelized cost of electricity study that makes nuclear competitive with wind and solar power. Now I'm not against nuclear power in principle, and as the renewable share goes up grid operators might be willing to pay a premium to subsidize reliable nuclear base load generators.
However the economic proposition I just cannot see. The long lifetime is actually working against nuclear plants here as potential investors assume much greater risk, combined with enormous up-front construction costs. Who wants to invest billions of dollars to bet on electricity prices 60 years into the future? Lots of things can happen in that time.
That's why small reactors are developed. So these parasites of investors can finally be useful to society.
Now I linked the first article I found. It's hard enough to find any relevant information. You chose to answer that only. Fine.
In Europe the market is not free. And any sane country would subsidised energy production. I would bet USA also does it. In Europe ARENH means all énergies are helped by nuclear energy production, a system meant to help other energies to compete with it. Renewable are funded by states for decades now, and they've been so eventhough they were far from competitive 20 years ago.
I'd love to see the science behind why the reactors couldn't perform in the heat seeing as how essentially all regular power generation involves spinning a turbine with steam. Temps might be hot in Europe, but they aren't quite 100C/212F hot.
Nuclear plants are cooled with river water, and that water is getting too hot:
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/warming-rivers-threaten-frances-already-tight-power-supply-2022-07-15/
"Reactor production is limited during times of high heat to prevent the hot water re-entering rivers from damaging wildlife."
So it's not due to any physical limitations but an environmental protection issue.
Also in the article
"... at a time when half its reactors are offline due to maintenance and corrosion issues."
So they are doing maintenance and found some issues requiring more work.
Why don't they build them in cold places then? They don't have any cold areas north? Can they build em next to glaciers before those melt too. If they all melt, we may be too dead for it to matter anyways.
EG here: https://www.euractiv.com/section/electricity/news/electricity-exporter-for-42-years-france-became-a-net-importer-in-2022/
The fetishism for nuclear was just imported 1:1 from Reddit
Or you know, it just makes sense and wasn't imported from anywhere? Some of us actually prefer real data and science instead of sensationalism and fear mongering.
It's just so apparent that the pro nuclear brigade is not preferring all real data, just the one it fits. I am not against nuclear per se, I just find it hilarious how at reddit and here as well, people are just SO pro nuclear that nothing else should even be considered. Which made me think if all that is just a very persistent astroturfing campaign
To suggest that the nuclear industry is capable of any kind of lobbying activity is utterly laughable, given its history. We're talking about a sector which, for over 40 years, has been unable to prevent the cancellation of almost all its research projects or new reactor construction projects, and which still sees very strong opposition all over the world, as well as in the European Parliament.
The only reason why nuclear power's reputation has been partially restored in recent months is that electricity prices in Europe have soared as a result of the common market, and countries that have opted for renewable energies have become dependent on Russian fossil fuels.
Actually, the nuclear power industry did / does indeed run astroturfing campaigns. For example the "pro-nuclear civil society" in Japan. If you read up on nuclear power online you will find an abundance of websites and groups which offer very one-sided information and are tied to the nuclear power industry.
Nuclear fission power had huge investments and substitutions but turned out to not be economically feasible in most cases. There is a lot of money to be lost and made in this industry.
Between scientists there is also no consensus whether nuclear power (in its current application) is a good thing.
Then look at the data. Vogtle was just completed for over $30/watt. You could build solar with 16x the nameplate capacity and 24 hours of lithium battery storage to make it baseload for that same amount.
Does this take into account the value of the land? Solar notoriously takes up space so I'm curious how much space you'd need for a solar farm that could produce as much power as Vogtle...
Lemmy was pro nuclear long before the Reddit migration