this post was submitted on 18 Nov 2025
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Big brain tech dude got yet another clueless take over at HackerNews etc? Here's the place to vent. Orange site, VC foolishness, all welcome.
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It's not even trying to solve the right problem. In the US, the NRC has given out licenses for new reactors. They're sitting there without the funding needed to go forward.
I have no doubt that licensing is a long process. It should be. That's how we keep fission power safe. But the more fundamental reason they're not getting built is because they reliably blow their budget and schedule.
@frezik @dgerard but when did they ever even identify an actual problem?
Even ignoring AI datacenter builds, we still need clean energy. I would be all for nuclear fission if it were at all economically viable. It just isn't.
If we're talking about the general West, then there new nuclear is probably fucked. Rest of the world still builds for reasonable costs. Not nuclear bro amounts, but still.
I think we could see a future where nuclear makes 5-10% of the world's electricity, which would technically make it a niche source of power, but it would also be a massive increase from today.
Nuclear already makes 9% of world's electricity.
OK, my bad. I was thinking about scenario like this: https://eneroutlook.enerdata.net/total-electricity-generation-projections.html
If you assume doubling of electricity production by 2050 (development + electrification) then 10% of that would mean more than double nuclear production.
5% would not really be a massive increase, my mistake, but would still mean more builds than retirement.
China has built a couple of reactors recently. They also went overbudget and overschedule.
Could be, I don't follow that closely. I'm not aware of any that come close to the level of shitshow of say, Hinckley Point C. That matters.