From article:
From California to France to Japan and beyond, nuclear power is all the rage suddenly.
Belgium is one of several European nations looking to extend set-to-expire licenses to keep nuclear plants operational. France, meanwhile, has proposed building up to 14 new nuclear plants in the coming years. Japan, which shuttered its nuclear reactors following the 2011 Fukushima crisis, now wants to restart up to nine reactors. Meanwhile, Morning Brew reports that the UK, Poland, and the Czech Republic are all unfurling plans to build new nuclear reactors.
Nuclear power is suddenly in again, and it’s not hard to see why. Natural gas prices have skyrocketed globally. In the United States, natural gas prices recently hit a 14-year high, but that’s nothing compared to Europe, where they recently hit an all-time high and are the equivalent of $600/barrel oil prices.
This has sent shockwaves throughout Europe, where businesses are reporting five-fold year-over-year price increases.
There is now little debate that Europe is in the middle of a full-blown energy crisis, in no small part because the nations pursued a “green” energy agenda that shifted from domestic production (especially in fossil fuels and nuclear power) and led to a reliance on natural gas imports from Russia, which have been disrupted by the invasion of Ukraine and Russian geopolitics.
https://fee.org/articles/why-nuclear-power-is-quietly-making-a-big-comeback-all-around-the-world/
Good. Nuclear power = golden age.
Russia's impact is merely a severe symptom of individual country not being energy independent. When, in the not too distant past, we didn't use imported oil, our own needs were protected and economical.
Each country should use whatever technology fits their resource availability and need.
Previous generations of nuclear power generation have had their share of risks and obvious problems, but current generation designs, multiple generations in, can't melt down or be forced to melt down. They get more energy out of the fuel before declaring the waste as depleted and no longer usable, leaving less waste behind and at levels which are much lower risk.
And now they can be made to be more localized alleviating the need for additional long-line distribution infrastructure better addressing the need where it exists.
It's not making a comeback. Russia is cutting off natural gas supplies to Europe. This is forcing Germany and France to reactivate nuclear plants that are already well beyond their life span. As Electro said -- "It's the spent fuel problem, stupid".
Did you know, there is no way of really shutting down a nuclear power plant when it is suppose to be decommissioned?
The expense is extraordinary. This is why the Department of Energy is always extending the life of old nuclear plants. It's basically kicking the can down the street. Because the NRC is extending the life of these reactors, every single one of those nuclear reactors is a ticking time bomb and another Fukishima or Chernobyl waiting to happen.
The following is from 45 years ago. The NRC reports that there is over 71,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel in more than 30 states. Illinois has 9,301 tons of spent nuclear fuel at its power plants, the most of any state in the country, according to industry figures. It is followed by Pennsylvania with 6,446 tons; 4,290 in South Carolina and roughly 3,780 tons each for New York and North Carolina.
Most all of this is stored on-site at nuclear power plants across the nation either in cooling pools or dry casket storage. None of these storage methods is a solution to long-term storage. Cooling pools require a constant supply of fresh water. The Fukushima disaster occurred because the "fail-safe" backup power for the pumps lost power resulting in the several cooling pools to evaporate exposing the spent fuel rods to air. This caused a nuclear fission chain reaction leading to a China Syndrome of at least three reactors.
Nuclear power is heavily subsidized by the government and without it could NEVER be profitable. There is far more to nuclear power than its expensive energy. The integral byproduct of this energy is radiation that causes "aging" to the containment vessels themselves. This means the containment vessels become fatigued and brittle well before the normal life expectancy. This is why the Hanford site and the Diablo Nuclear power plant alarmingly found cracks and leaks in the units. Science has no solution to this. Yet, the NRC keeps extending the life of existing nuke plants well beyond their life expectancy. Tick, tick, tick.........
Fission is basically a dirty energy having deep deleterious effects on generations of wildlife.