(Very quiet) Hooray for beginning more nuclear power

[SerendipityJane]

Lots more please. Should never have stopped building them.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c87w5ld0p80o

Yes, I wonder where the OP is located. I'll bet it's not west Cumbria where the stuff is being stored in ever increasing quantities.

They wouldn't be so blase if it were in the Midlands or south of England (ie their doorstep).

Regardless of the wittering on here, "AI" is already demanding a planets worth of energy, and it's only going to grow.

And 99.9% of renewables are nuclear powered anyway. 100% if you are a pedant.

I'd live next door to a nuclear power plant.

Yeah, but you don't do you. 🙄

Not for want of trying.

Still I have my neighbours wood burner. So I'm getting my fair share of emissions.

Completely agree, op. For both energy security and increasing load, we need a range of sources- that includes nuclear, solar, wind etc.

I live near Sizewell so am affected by the works going on for Sizewell C. It’s annoying when I’m stuck in traffic due to the lorries up and down the A12. On the other hand, I like being able to switch the lights on so accept that this requires infrastructure 🤷‍♀️

One power plant producing 7% of our electricity is incredible. How many acres of solar panels and wind turbines would we need to produce the same?

Build 5 more, then SMRs in every city.

Even the IPCC says we need nuclear and renewables so let’s go.

Emissions:

Nuclear: 10–30 gCO₂eq/kWh. Emissions mainly come from uranium mining, enrichment and plant construction.

Solar PV: 40–150+ gCO₂eq/kWh. Higher due to energy-intensive silicon purification, panel production and shorter lifespan (25–30 years v nuclear's 40–80+ years).

Not even close to being true.

When measured per unit of electricity produced, renewables - particularly solar and wind - typically require FAR more steel and concrete than nuclear power.

Why does AI get “ “?

Don't forget to add in all the emissions renewables need for storage - these are often "accidentally" left out of the advertising,.

I mean here's how you can store energy. But it ain't CO2 free

https://www.rheenergise.com/news

Because it's not.

Intelligent that is.

Exactly.

It's one power plant and it will power about 6 million homes in the UK every year for several decades.

And it's only about the size of a farm.

A solar farm, incidentally, can power a few hundred homes for about 25 years.

All energy is nuclear. Get over it.

Every type of energy generation has its drawbacks. For me the vulnerability to terrorist attack of nuclear power plants is a big concern, and increases as the US continues to destabilase the world.

Where’s the nuclear waste going? How do we keep that safe for a longer period than the entire history of known human civilization since the invention of writing??

How do we keep waste from mining coal safe for all human history? Aberfan happened (144 dead) & yet we are still using coal. Has anyone in the UK ever died due to a nuclear incident in the UK? There 'might' have been 100-200 excess cancer deaths linked to the Windscale fire but that's all I can find online (estimates from epidemiology research).

Has anyone in the UK ever died due to a nuclear incident in the UK?

Since the first UK reactor in 1947, more people have died from nut allergies than nuclear related causes. I have to say "related" of course because if you were looking for a death due to nuclear power it's zero.

But we don't want facts do we. We want the feelz.

Gas and coal powered plants produce more radioactive waste than nuclear power does. The death toll associated with nuclear power is comparable to wind and solar power and much much lower than deaths caused by power generation using fossil fuels.

Get away with you and your facts ....

It's not emissions that bother me (although I suppose they should). It's the vast quantity of spent nuclear waste sitting under the English countryside. It may not bother you but generations to come have got to find a solution.

How would you feel about the intense disruption of the 13 years of building it?

Has anyone in the UK ever died due to a nuclear incident in the UK yet?

Nope.

More people killed by dogs this month.

Still, facts eh ?

Having lived for 20 years near a University that is forever changing, I can't say I would notice.