• Souvenir@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    2 days ago

    Might I just add that nuclear isn’t exactly dealing with climate change and water shortages that well.

    It’s something I never really thought about, but plenty of nuclear plants have faced climate related issues in recent years, and been forced to shutdown or reduce output.

    Also, in an age of drone warfare, decentralised power production is potentially also a huge plus.

    • davetortoise@reddthat.com
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      2 days ago

      This is true. We hear about it happening a lot in mainland europe because there are a lot of inland reactors relying on rivers/reservoirs, however coastal reactors aren’t vulnerable in the same way. Climate change certainly isn’t making nuclear obsolete, but it definitely changes the way we need to think about cooling systems

      • Souvenir@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 day ago

        Of course, coastal reactors are vulnerable in other ways. Climate change can exacerbate extreme weather events. It’s the annoying thing about lots of stuff, you only really find out what goes wrong, when it goes wrong.

        Unknown unknowns, as some arsehole once put it.

        Also, coal contains small amounts of uranium and thorium which gets concentrated in the fly ash. Fly ash which then gets spread across the area surrounding the power plants. So I’m certainly not saying nuclear is obsolete or particularly dangerous compared to alternatives like coal.