Nuclear energy currently provides about 70 per cent of French electricity, a higher proportion than in any other country
@Zerush@lemmy.ml
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2Y

I hope he at least wants to store the radioactive waste in the garden of his mansion, to be consistent.

Did you know that 4th gen reactors use the “waste” from older reactors as fuel? The process transmutes isotopes with 10 thousand year half-lives into more managable 50 year half-lives.

Yes, I know, but only a part of the waste can be recycled. It’s better than nothing but not a solucion to eliminate long time radiation waste.

Independent of accidents

The risks are multiples, both environmental and economic. A nuclear power plant has an average life of about 30-40 years, after which dismantling and decontamination can take decades, costs covered by the state, that is, the taxpayer, not the company that owns it.

The storage of highly radioactive waste, to this day, has not been solved, all attempts in salt mines or at great depths failed, meanwhile it is transported from one temporary warehouse to another by public roads (trains, trucks, suitably camouflaged ). Many times they are simply thrown into the sea.

Rivers and aquifers in the vicinity of the power plants significantly increase the temperature due to the exchange with the used cooling water, with important impacts on fauna and flora.

Until a fusion power plant works, nuclear energy is bread for today and hunger for tomorrow, it cannot be a long-term solution, it is energy for the next 30 years and problems for thousands, promoted many times as alibi for the arms industry, to justify the uranium centrifuges for the manufacture of nuclear weapons.

Interesting. What’s the timeline and price point here? I hear they are currently running coal power to compensate for their struggling existing nuclear plants?

EDF’s EPR reactors have suffered a troubled history. EPR projects at Flamanville in France and Hinkley Point in Britain are running years behind schedule, and billions over budget, while EPR reactors in China and Finland have been hit by technical issues.

I fear that the french government has sunk so much money into this strategy that it would be hard to exit. Especially at a time where renewable power is getting very cheap. Nuclear hasn’t seen a price drop and apparently is costing the french state a lot.

mekhos
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22Y

He just had a meeting with Putin, it may be just about neutering Russian threats to cut of gas supply. Otherwise why trumpet it? just get building.

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