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If we want to fight the climate crisis, we must embrace nuclear power
We all know that climate change is the direst threat to face mankind in the entire history of dire threats. Or maybe white supremacy is -- who can keep track these days? We also know that it's all Trump's fault. Nonetheless, I was shocked to see the Guardian publish an opinion piece advocating nukes, since the Guardian is a leading proponent of using unicorn flatulence to drive turbine blades.[Guardian] Even a more aggressive investment in renewable energy wouldn’t have solved Germany’s problem. There are just a handful of large economies that have already mostly decarbonized their grids; all of them have a foundation of nuclear or hydroelectricity (or both), and then to greater or lesser degrees add renewables like wind and solar on top. This is because nuclear and hydro are able to provide electricity whenever we need it. These "firm" sources of clean electricity do not need to wait for the sun to shine or the wind to blow to power the ventilators in our hospitals. Batteries and other forms of energy storage are great, and we need much more funding of research and development to make them even better, but until huge technological leaps occur, sustainables are hindered by the need for cooperative weather. Heresy! AOC will strike this person down with her mighty intellectual powers. So why, given the stakes of global warming, is there still so much hostility to nuclear power? Because reasons, that's why. Some of the paranoia is no doubt rooted in cold war-era associations of peaceful nuclear power with dangerous nuclear weaponry. We can and should separate these two, just like we are able to separate nuclear bombs from nuclear medicine. And we should also push back against popular narratives around Chernobyl and other disasters that simply aren’t replicable with modern technology. Advanced reactors and many existing ones are designed with passive safety systems — they don’t need active intervention by humans or a computer to deactivate in case of emergencies. In case you're wondering, this guy has no scientific chops whatsoever. He is the author of The Socialist Manifesto, whatever that is, which explains why the Guardian lets him offer dissenting views. In their world, he's a Made Man. Nuclear is an idea whose time came and seemed to have passed, but may indeed have a future. For those of us looking for a solution to climate change, the least we can ask is that no plants like Indian Power close until we have a clean, dependable and scalable alternative already in place. But, but, we only have until next Tuesday to stop carbon emissions. John Kerry said so. Posted by: Matt 2021-06-22 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=605124 |