Well yea, countries keep buying nuclear from France because it's clean, cheap, and they don't want to suffer the political backlash from the science lacking environmentalists which come forward when they talk about building nuclear on their own land
German green party
Nuclear plants:🤮
Carbon plants (that actually produce more radiation that nuclear plants): 🥰
See also: the "Atomkraft? Nein Danke" sticker that has a cartoon picture of the biggest nuclear reactor in the solar system on it. Irony: it's good for the blood dearie.
cheap
It's literally the most expensive power of any of the major options.
"In December 2020 IEA and OECD NEA published a joint Projected Costs of Generating Electricity study which looks at a very broad range of electricity generating technologies based on 243 power plants in 24 countries. The primary finding was that "low-carbon generation is overall becoming increasingly cost competitive" and "new nuclear power will remain the dispatchable low-carbon technology with the lowest expected costs in 2025". The report calculated LCOE with assumed 7% discount rate and adjusted for systemic costs of generation.[79] "
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cost_of_electricity_by_source
France has been importing more electricity than exporting in 2022 because their nuclear reactors can’t perform in the heat resulting from climate change. And this is more likely to happen again as each year becomes hotter.
I’m not sure where this fetishism for France‘s nuclear energy is coming from.
- France has been a net exporter for 40 years straight before that, as well as being the top exporter most of that time in Europe.
- Also they're back to Top 1 right now.
- Last year's gap in electricity production was not due to heat (only a few reactors were slowed down for a few hours, and we're talking about less than 0.5% loss due to these shutdowns over the year).
Besides, it's not a technical limitation on nuclear power, it's an ecological measure.
The hole in production was due to a corrosion problem detected in several reactors, which occurred at the same time as maintenance work in other reactors that were behind schedule because of COVID. This would have had no impact if nuclear power had not been left virtually abandoned for 30 years because of the anti-nuclear movement.
It's the classic story: anti-nukes shoot nuclear power in the foot, then claim that nuclear power doesn't work, despite reality.
You're quoting 2022 because that year >30% of the reactrors were taken offline for maintenance. The French government is also shutting down nuclear reactors due to lack of funding & outdated technology.
This is not an inherant problem with nuclear, but because the French government hasn't invested since the 70s.
If funding wasn't cut (due to environmental activists), the output would be more than needed.
Nuclear is still our best bet for combatting climate change and reducing carbon emissions.
(Unironically) good neighbor indeed. If I was Belgium, I want that sweet nuclear energy.
Just that france has nuclear power plants that are often not well maintained. We had issues with one close to the german boarder as well
Power plants that are not well maintained ? What event are you taking about ?
Minimizing the NIMBY effect by corner placing the reactor plant.
Sim City strats FTW!
I, too, like to place my garbage dump on the border so my neighbor can enjoy the aroma.
How many French nuclear plants have melted down?
They had a level 4
https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accident_nucléaire#Accidents_-_Niveau_4
Interestingly I don't seem to see a level 4 on the English page for France:
we like to share :)
Quite literally. It's a shared project between Belgium and France.
Chooz A only. And it's closed since 1991 cause it wasn't anymore profitable.
Isn't this being a good neighbour?
I'm betting they are sharing the power with Belgium. So if thats the case they are being a great neighbor.
France is one of the only net electricity exporters who don't use fossil fuels to make that electricity. Unfortunately lack of funding has seriously degraded their nuclear infrastructure and it is now at risk of collapsing, leaving the country and their export partners with severe power shortages.
As always, the issue isn't with nuclear power as a technology, but with mismanagement.
In their defense there only so many big rivers, round there, and most do function as border
Also, assuming this is the same one that gets posted constantly, it was a joint project between the two countries
And in case they accidentally pull a Fukushima, they can just secede that part of the country and say "it's YOUR problem now, suckers"
Plot twist: they create another Bir Tawil
Better than buying oil from Saudis and Russians
if anything this is a win for belgium since they get all that sweet local electricity production without paying for the nuclear plant.
Not sure if you are joking, but the customer is paying for the plant. And you can be damn sure you’re paying premium prices for imported energy.
nonetheless they benefit from having local production as that reduces the need for electricity from further away, which reduces the amount of transmission losses.
This effect is significant enough that even just rooftop solar in sweden means you're owed a rebate from the energy company, as you're saving them money.
Dumb dumb
Classic french
Belgium actually wanted this plant built
Oh cool, more power to them
Actually, the nuclear power industry did / does indeed run astroturfing campaigns
Which nuclear power industry? Given the sheer scale of a nuclear power plant project, most research and reactor projects are public projects, with only SMRs seeing any recent interest in the USA. So you think it's the States that are conducting astroturfing campaigns? The same states that have been sabotaging nuclear power everywhere since Chernobyl? Is there any evidence of this?
For example the “pro-nuclear civil society” in Japan.
The only thing I have found about this is a study which I have to pay 43€ to read.
If you read up on nuclear power online you will find an abundance of websites and groups which offer very one-sided information
You can find that kind of content for about any other subject you can think of. That doesn't make it proof of astroturfing.
and are tied to the nuclear power industry.
Same question, what is exactly the "nuclear power industry" you're talking about?
Astroturfing campaigns promoting solar and wind power can be directly linked to the oil industry, as when Jay Anthony Precourt, head of oil and energy start-ups and a major investor in gas, swung a total of $80 million over three years at Stanford University to finance the Precourt Institute for Energy Efficiency, which later published a glowing report on a 100% renewable future. (If you don't see the link between fossil fuels and renewables, take a look at Germany: when there's no wind, they burn coal and gas. Fossils are very compatible with renewables.)
Can you find the same with nuclear?
Nuclear fission power had huge investments and substitutions but turned out to not be economically feasible in most cases. There is a lot of money to be lost and made in this industry.
This is factually incorrect. What's expensive is investing to build a cutting-edge industry, then dismantling it before it becomes profitable under the pressure of public opinion.
The French Court of Auditors has estimated the total cost of French nuclear power at around 130 billion euros between 1960 and 2010, including research, construction and maintenance. At its peak, a 1000MW unit of French nuclear power cost 1.5 billion euros, and the French nuclear industry produced two 900 to 1300MW reactors a year for two decades.
Everything came to an abrupt halt in the 90s, not because it wasn't profitable, not because it didn't work, but because the Russians made a mess of their power plant, which didn't even have the same design as the others, killed a few hundred/thousand people, and traumatized hundreds of millions.
Between scientists there is also no consensus whether nuclear power (in its current application) is a good thing.
There is no definition of "a good thing".
On the other hand, we know that nuclear power is the least polluting, least resource/space-consuming and safest form of controllable energy.
The increase in nuclear power is an essential of the 4 scenarios of the IPCC reports, and the European Union, based on these reports and other studies, has recognized nuclear power as an energy with a positive impact on the environment. and they incorporated it into the green taxonomy.
For context, wind generally blows eastward across Europe
Rick: "Morty I'm gonna need you to put these seeds all the way up your ass"
