10 votes

Why Germany won’t keep its nuclear plants open

3 comments

  1. MimicSquid
    Link
    It seems like he repeatedly brings up a challenge (like fuel for the reactors, or the need to amend the constitution, or whatever) and then says "but I guess they don't have the will to do it"....

    It seems like he repeatedly brings up a challenge (like fuel for the reactors, or the need to amend the constitution, or whatever) and then says "but I guess they don't have the will to do it". It's possible that the will truly isn't there, but it's so repeatedly used at the end of a section as a thought-terminating cliché that it makes me wary.

    5 votes
  2. [2]
    Amarok
    Link
    From the comments... We really should just pick a spot for the entire world to use for this purpose. The planet only needs one, even if we open up a hundred thousand new plants it's the same, no...

    From the comments...

    Ah, and finally. There is truly a huge disbelief that nuclear waste can be handled safely with the political personnel we have. That comes from the fact that even the most die-hard defenders of nuclear energy suddenly feel that their Bundesland is way too beautiful to host a nuclear waste site (looking at you Bavaria). That goes as far as actively blocking a scientific survey to find the best spot in Germany to set up such a place.

    We really should just pick a spot for the entire world to use for this purpose. The planet only needs one, even if we open up a hundred thousand new plants it's the same, no matter what tech/design is used or what elements are fused. We're going to need it for fusion reactor waste too - anything getting that much neutron bombardment is nasty business. Pitch in funding according to how much waste one tosses into the pot.

    I feel better if it's done in one place with everyone pitching in - less chance of a single government making a mess of it.

    3 votes
    1. rosco
      Link Parent
      I feel like complete pessimist saying it but I believe the unfortunately reality of our globalized, capitalistic world is that in that situation it would likely be shipped off to the poorest...

      I feel like complete pessimist saying it but I believe the unfortunately reality of our globalized, capitalistic world is that in that situation it would likely be shipped off to the poorest country with the leanest safety protocols with lots of plausible deniability between the nuclear plants and the "storage". I'd feel better if it had to be handled regionally to make sure the people producing the waste had a vested interest in making sure it was dealt with appropriately.

      4 votes