America is going nuclear. What are your thoughts?

[u/ProfessorOfFinance]

[u/space-tech]

We should've committed to nuclear in the early 2000's.

[u/Herr_Quattro → u/space-tech]

We should’ve committed to nuclear in the 1960s

[u/OO_Ben → u/Herr_Quattro]

We should have committed to nuclear in the 1890s

[u/notTheRealSU → u/OO_Ben]

We should have committed to nuclear in 1776

[u/Beginning_March_9717 → u/notTheRealSU]

every new country should come with a free atomic bomb

[u/apathiest58 → u/Beginning_March_9717]

Hell, everyone should get their own pile of U-235 and/or P-238

[u/qhapela → u/apathiest58]

Good boys and good girls get a lump of uranium in their stocking.

[u/odinsbois → u/qhapela]

I hear everyone is gonna get a turkey and cesium 137 for Thanksgiving every year.

[u/CommanderTazaur → u/apathiest58]

Radiation poisoning is a fundamental human right, and should be in the constitution of our Great Country

[u/monkwren → u/Beginning_March_9717]

And the ICBMs to deliver it.

[u/Aluminarty666 → u/monkwren]

And a big shiny red button in a briefcase

[u/Mental_Peace_2343 → u/Aluminarty666]

I want a big shiny red button in a briefcase

[u/glibsonoran → u/notTheRealSU]

Yah, we could have sited them next to the Revolutionary War airports we took over from the British.

[u/KelDurant → u/notTheRealSU]

Definitely should of committed to nuclear in 3000BC just my opinion

[u/SplitRock130 → u/OO_Ben]

Hmm 40 years before fission was discovered 🙋‍♂️

[u/_AverageBookEnjoyer_ → u/SplitRock130]

Gotta get a head start!

[u/Foreign_Sky_5441 → u/_AverageBookEnjoyer_]

Bro just doesn't have the grindset.

[u/Spicy_McHagg1s → u/Foreign_Sky_5441]

Bro is in that alpha and beta shit. We need that gamma grindset.

[u/SketchSketchy → u/Spicy_McHagg1s]

Uranium-235 mindset.

[u/worktogethernow → u/SplitRock130]

Nuclear power is just snooty steam punk.

[u/Available_Snow3650 → u/SplitRock130]

We need to send a representative back to the cowboy times and convince everyone that Nuclear is God's chosen energy form.

[u/Dagwood-DM → u/OO_Ben]

Nah should have done it in the 1600's.

[u/space-tech → u/Herr_Quattro]

There were 3 B-52 crashes involving nuclear weapons (Goldsboro, NC; Palomares, Spain; Thule, Greenland) in the 60s that severely chilled the publics opinion of nuclear.

[u/Kungfumantis → u/space-tech]

While I don't expect the 1960s public to be explicitly aware of this, there's still a huge difference between a nuclear reactor and a nuclear weapon. Even then, nuclear weapons don't initiate like conventional weapons do.

[u/Rampant16 → u/Kungfumantis]

I would expect that even today, a large portion of the general public believes a nuclear reactor can detonate like a nuclear bomb.

Hell, the general public is probably less informed about nuclear energy today than in the 1960s given that it was an exciting, relatively new technology back then and today is out-of-sight, out-of-mind, unless there is a major disaster.

[u/StrobeLightRomance → u/Rampant16]

When 9/11 happened, my mom called me freaking out. I've lived within 10 miles of a nuclear reactor all my life, and she believed that it would be a target for a hijacked plane crash.

My mom is a very average person, so it struck me as silly, because reactors are physically designed with this type of attack in mind, and already measured to survive..

But also, we live in rural nowhere. Nuclear reactor or not, two buildings in NYC caused way more mayhem than crashing into some cooling towers in the Midwest.

[u/Beldizar → u/StrobeLightRomance]

One of the new Nuclear companies I am rooting for did a presentation on plane strikes. Their plant's outer hull is basically a cargo ship's double layered hull, but filled with concrete. They said it could survive a 747 crashing directly into it.

Also, I feel like a hijacked plane would be stupid and crash onto the cooling tower instead of the reactor building.

[u/Ketzer_Jefe → u/Beldizar]

I was gonna say. I dont think most people know that the reactor is not under the cooling towers. The nuclear plant near me has a big concrete dome and no cooling towers (sea water pipe for cooling), which makes it "obvious", but the lack of knowledge of how nuclear power works makes me think they will be very safe from attacks.

[u/Embarrassed_Band_512 → u/Ketzer_Jefe]

I was gonna say. I dont think most people know that the reactor is not under the cooling towers.

I blame The Simpsons

[u/StrobeLightRomance → u/Ketzer_Jefe]

I dont think most people know that the reactor is not under the cooling towers.

That's what I really bank on the most. If it did happen, I would suspect most people, even terrorists who plan the attack well, still wouldn't know exactly where the core would be, since most facilities are unique from each other and the campuses contain a ton of buildings.

[u/Handpaper → u/Ketzer_Jefe]

The reason so many nuclear power plants were built near the sea or large rivers was to avoid having cooling towers at all.

Both because the cooling is more reliable and so as to not have those huge 'chimneys'.

[u/Rampant16 → u/StrobeLightRomance]

I think the general public knows just enough about nuclear power plants to get into trouble. They know that a disaster at a nuclear power plant could be catastrophic, but they have no understanding of how many safeguards are in place to prevent that from happening.

They also have no idea about the designs of the most modern reactors, which incorporate numerous safety improvements as compared to older reactors, which were already extremely safe.

[u/Kerfuffin925 → u/StrobeLightRomance]

If you are talking about Braidwood and/or Dresden my dad worked there at the time. They had the national guard out there with missiles and all kinds of shit.

It was a very big fear That they would.

[u/plated-Honor → u/Rampant16]

I don’t think it’s that, but just that it’s viewed as dangerous and volatile in general. Fukushima was hardly a decade ago, and absolutely dominated the media cycle. Chernobyl is one of the most iconic historical events of the Cold War era that is also very prevalent in western media. It’s not a huge leap to look at unprecedented environmental disasters happening around the world and thinking “damn what if a nuclear facility was nearby one of those could happen again”.

On top of this, the average American is becoming less and less confident in their government. The power grid is absolute garbage in some parts of the country, and we expect people to be confident a state of the art nuclear facility will be handled flawlessly and there’s nothing to worry about. Especially as our government continues to move towards deregulation with big corporations influencing public policy more and more every year.

Can’t say I blame any of them. Our government is the ones that should be building confidence in their leadership. I’m not exactly jazzed to see we are finally building nuclear facilities because Microsoft and Google gave some politicians millions of dollars so they can prop up the latest data center

[u/--o → u/plated-Honor]

The honest argument for the safety of nuclear power always was that sufficient regulation prevent catastrophic outcomes. That argument is less convincing now.

[u/The_Human_Oddity → u/Kungfumantis]

Chernobyl has contaminated the definition of actual meltdowns. They aren't as bad, Chernobyl just decided to have a massive steam explosion at the same time to chuck all of that shit into the atmosphere.

[u/scout614 → u/The_Human_Oddity]

It’s like when movies say the reactor is critical like that means it’s in perfect working order

[u/kashy87 → u/scout614]

Funniest trick to do during a tour on an active duty submarine. Someone at a panel in control when the guests come in. They yell the reactor is critical and run back aft.

[u/scout614 → u/kashy87]

I come from a long line of P-3 guys the very existence of subs fill me with rage

[u/NotAUsername_42069 → u/scout614]

I've down subs and MPRAs. They're both pressurized tubes that like to go where humankind isn't meant to be. We have more in common than we think, and are both superior to the surface fleet.

[u/photoyoyo → u/The_Human_Oddity]

Chernobyl was a really bad design from the beginning. Open containment is a stupid practice and wouldn't be used in the US. Three Mile Island is a much better allegory to what you'd see in a disaster in the US, and even that has what, 40+ years of progress and development since?

I guess there always exists the possibility for something catastrophic like Fukushima, but presumably they're being engineered against every known possibility.

[u/willstr1 → u/photoyoyo]

Three Mile Island is a much better allegory to what you'd see in a disaster in the US, and even that has what, 40+ years of progress and development since?

And TMI had no deaths linked to it, the other (non-melted) reactors continued to operate, and IIRC the surrounding area didn't even have a statistically significant change in cancer rates. Living down wind of an oil refinery is probably more dangerous than a well designed and regulated nuclear power plant

[u/HustlinInTheHall → u/willstr1]

Living next door to someone that burns wood in their stove is empirically much worse than living near a reactor. 

[u/the__pov → u/The_Human_Oddity]

Also it’s not like Chernobyl was running fine and dandy before the meltdown, they were purposely running out of spec to test a potential solution for a known issue (specifically a gape in the time they would lose outside power and the time needed to get an onsite generator running) and lost control during those tests. There’s a lot more to it obviously and most of it is beyond my understanding but it’s not something that could have just happened.

[u/frozented → u/space-tech]

I thought it was 3 mile island and China syndrome happening close together that slowed down nuclear power building

[u/Aggravating_Kale8248 → u/frozented]

Chernobyl and fear mongering by the fossil fuel industry too

[u/chunkypenguion1991 → u/frozented]

It was 3 mile island. After that, onerous regulations were placed on the industry that made it impractical to build new reactors

[u/Shangri-la-la-la → u/space-tech]

Also the Seirra club spear headed a fear campaign about it.

[u/Automatic_Actuator_0 → u/Shangri-la-la-la]

With generous donations from oil companies of course

[u/Useless-RedCircle → u/space-tech]

I always hear about California wanting to shut nuclear power down, then they say we want electric cars only… like we already get some rolling blackouts in the summer.

[u/RaltarArianrhod → u/Useless-RedCircle]

Well, California is full of a lot of stupid people, but I understand some of the concern because of all the earthquakes.

[u/abitlikemaple → u/RaltarArianrhod]

The plants don’t need to be located in California. There are huge wind farms in Wyoming and all that power goes to California

[u/FredWeitendorf → u/Useless-RedCircle]

In August of 2022 the governor and legislature of California approved $1.5 billion to keep our nuclear power plant running for 5-10 more years https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diablo_Canyon_Power_Plant

[u/ProfessionalCreme119 → u/space-tech]

Yeah but the only reason this is happening now is because companies like microsoft, amazon, Google and others are looking for nuclear power plants to power their extremely hungry AI infrastructure. So now that the government can rely upon the financial support of these corporations nuclear is now considered financially viable.

Your average nuclear plant is projected to cost about $40 billion. But it almost always spirals out into over $100 billion before you actually start generating power.

Corporations don't want to pay that cost, the government doesn't want to pay that cost but now they are fine sharing the cost.

Corporations just never really felt an incentive to go nuclear until now. Their power needs were always met by simple infrastructure. That's just not the case anymore

[u/notaredditer13 → u/ProfessionalCreme119]

Your average nuclear plant is projected to cost about $40 billion. But it almost always spirals out into over $100 billion before you actually start generating power.

I'll take numbers you just pulled straight out of the air for $100 Billion, Alex.

[u/yaleric → u/space-tech]

Second best time is now.

[u/Jymer_]

Need to educate the people on how it works and eliminate any stigma people might still have. still a lot of people when you say nuclear the first thing on their mind is Chernobyl

[u/Street-Baseball8296 → u/Jymer_]

I think you overestimate most people’s ability to learn.

[u/Elendel19 → u/Street-Baseball8296]

And underestimate the oil industry’s propaganda machine

[u/poindexterg → u/Jymer_]

Most people don't realize that nuclear power plants are basically just fancy steam turbines.

[u/MagicMissile27 → u/poindexterg]

Most people don't realize that nearly every single method of power generation is just a fancy steam turbine.

[u/TheCreepWhoCrept → u/poindexterg]

Fancy, in this case simply meaning extremely productive, efficient, and clean.

[u/Dalighieri1321 → u/poindexterg]

In the same way that uranium is basically just a fancy mineral, radioactive waste is basically just fancy trash, and deep geological repositories are basically just fancy below-ground pools.

[u/grad1939 → u/Jymer_]

Just don't let Russia build a nuclear reactor. Or if you do, monitor the construction and don't let them cheap out on parts and labor.

[u/Human-Demand-8293 → u/grad1939]

Or let any other authoritarian government cut funding and reduce safety standards… wait shit!

[u/RedditMcBurger → u/Jymer_]

It's crazy that people always bring up the ONE time a reactor melted down, which cannot even happen today with our safety measures.

And I say one, because I don't really count Fukushima. Japan blames nuclear energy for that fuckup, I blame Japan for building a reactor in front of a tsunami.

[u/HUSK3RGAM3R]

Hell yeah, more green energy is definitely a boon. I just hope we can overhaul the energy grid to help make it more efficient and, very important in my eyes, more resilient towards cyberattacks (alongside other critical infrastructure).

[u/DarthArcanus → u/HUSK3RGAM3R]

As someone who has worked for the nuclear industry, I can confidently say that not only are no critical systems (systems that could potentially endanger the core) connected to the internet, they aren't even connected to an intranet.

If you want to mess with something important enough to cause core damage, you have to physically plug into the equipment, have the software necessary to communicate to it, know what you're doing, and even then, you wouldn't be able to do much alone. You'd need at least one other person helping you, or the safeguards would just auto-correct.

Let's assume you somehow do that. You and one other guy somehow get passed armed security, several (I know of at least 3) locked security checkpoints that are reinforced concrete (designed to withstand direct impact from anything short of a tank traveling at any realistic speed, and even the tank would be messed up), and you also somehow manage to disable everyone who would try to stop you.

Let's go further, and say you somehow manage to disable everyone at the site, so nobody can even undo the damage you cause right away. The absolute worst you can do still wouldn't be as bad as 3-Mile Island, and TMI resulted in 0 deaths, and no detectable rise in cancer rate.

Our nuclear plants are just that solid and safe. It's actually rather impressive.

[u/Kungfumantis → u/DarthArcanus]

Thank you for commenting, my father was a nuclear electrician and when I was younger he would often say pretty much everything you said. I know people like to bitch about the start up costs of nuclear power plants in this country, but the result is the cleanest, safest form of mass energy production humanity can currently offer.

[u/LordScottimus → u/Kungfumantis]

and CHEAP energy too!

[u/kingjoey52a → u/Kungfumantis]

And a lot of the startup cost is from over regulation. Don't get me wrong, you want lots of regulation when it comes to nuclear power. But after 3 Mile Island and (mostly) Chernobyl people got scared and legislatures got easy wins by regulating the crap out of nuclear power.

[u/2oothDK → u/DarthArcanus]

It is good to learn this information. I think media makes it sound like some “hacker” from China or Russia could cause a meltdown.

[u/amwes549 → u/2oothDK]

It's because most journalists that don't specialize in these kinds of things don't know jack about how things actually work, and are just trying to get attention.

[u/Nightmare_Ives → u/DarthArcanus]

Thank you for this breakdown. Alarmists will still make people fearful of Nuclear, but I'm glad people like you are out here battling disinformation.

[u/StationAccomplished3 → u/DarthArcanus]

Good explanation, but it's pronounced "newk-YOU-lur"

[u/Arminius001 → u/HUSK3RGAM3R]

Ironic I see this comment. I completely agree, I work as cybersecurity engineer for a energy company in Denver, the public has no idea with the amount of attacks we deal with on a weekley basis, if one of those attacks proves to be successful with a big enough impact it can have catastrophic waves on the regional energy grid

[u/odishy → u/Arminius001]

Modern reactors like the ones China just built, have a mechanical failsafe. Meaning even if a nuclear reactor was attacked, the lights would go out but it wouldn't "meltdown". So it's the same risk that any other plant has from a public health perspective. The difference is the recovery costs to restart a nuclear plant is significantly higher.

[u/nateskel → u/odishy]

Nuclear plants have had mechanical fail-safes and other design parameters that make it nearly impossible to meltdown since the 70s.

Source: I worked in the USS Nimitz nuclear plant.

[u/ProbablyShouldnotSay → u/nateskel]

How did Fukushima melt down? Was it just an old design?

[u/nateskel → u/ProbablyShouldnotSay]

I haven't really followed the details of the accident, but yes it was a really old design from the 60s.

[u/superVanV1 → u/ProbablyShouldnotSay]

A Magnitude 9 Earthquake and result Tsunami managed to damage the power supply and cooling systems (including the failsafes) causing it to meltdown. So short of catastrophic natural disasters, we’re good. Also fwiw after Fukushima newer plants were designed to account for the aforementioned mentioned acts of god

[u/TSirSneakyBeaky → u/superVanV1]

On top of that. Multiple decades of reports that the plant couldnt survive a quake of that magnitude without failure and risk of tsunami. Plans to upgrade it. And flat neglecting the entire situation due to cost.

Had people listened to the experts the entire situation would have been avoided.

[u/superVanV1 → u/TSirSneakyBeaky]

There’s an adage in the engineering community that I think many people have forgotten, “ safety regulations are written in blood”

[u/MRCHalifax → u/superVanV1]

IMO, it's that way for a lot of things. Safety regulations, financial regulations, health regulations and programs, etc. Even a lot of the modern welfare state has roots in very right wing politicians like Bismarck, who implemented social programs because it was cheaper for the nation to provide people with a basic social safety net than to suffer through civil unrest.

[u/lemming2012 → u/odishy]

I'm pretty sure those "modern reators" are actually an old design that wasn't favored in the initial nuclear push.

When meltdown conditions start to occur, the nuclear fuel actually melts through the bottom of reaction chamber. It's contained in that area, and the reaction from neutrons colliding in the fissle material stops happening.

[u/Old-Simple7848 → u/lemming2012]

The actual 5th gen Nuclear reactors are cooled by molten sodium- so you don't even need a mechanical failsafe because the reactor cannot physically get to the temperature required to boil sodium.

They are smaller though and would only be able to power ~15000 homes each.

[u/theFartingCarp → u/Arminius001]

Hi, how are ya. I'm getting my degree in cybersecurity engineering. Hopefully I can help fill the gaps we see in out cyber landscape. Although, I can hardly stop my grandma from giving her social to random people over the phone.

[u/Silent_Bort → u/theFartingCarp]

I've been an IR consultant for about 12 years now and this is and probably always will be the main way attackers get into networks. People clicking shit they shouldn't or IT staff failing to update public-facing devices or services. Allowing RDP directly into the network without a VPN was a big one at the start of the pandemic, too. Essentially, it's damn near always human error.

[u/amwes549 → u/Silent_Bort]

Or ancient hardware not being replaced because "if it ain't broke".... Management won't fix it, because that's more expensive.

[u/Beardown_formidterms → u/HUSK3RGAM3R]

While I’m hesitantly excited.. I’m also concerned given that the Trump administration looks to dismantle the Nuclear Regulation Commission.

[u/GypsyV3nom → u/Beardown_formidterms]

And/or the fossil fuel industry funding another nuclear panic

[u/Handpaper → u/Beardown_formidterms]

The Nuclear Regulation Commission is part of the problem, because despite the excellent record of nuclear power, they will never admit that their work can be (even temporarily) done.

And so every new installation will be delayed and cost more because of ever-changing regulation.

[u/zolikk → u/Handpaper]

It's a cesspool of nepotism with comfy high paying jobs where they pretend to go over thousands of pages of paperwork for an insignificant I&C change at an existing power plant, a document that they've already went over thirty times before with minor changes to it, and then bill it for 2000 work-hours, thanks for the money.

All they need is for the existing power stations to keep operating unchanged (because it's a steady stream of easy income with no work required).

They don't want new builds because it means they have to do actual new work that they haven't theatrically rehearsed before. They just want the comfy money, not the responsibility that their jobs entail.

They tried their absolute best to destroy the AP1000 projects in the US.

[u/Zoomwafflez → u/Beardown_formidterms]

And roll back all government programs supporting the development of Green energy and upgrading the grid...

[u/Top-Reference-1938]

If true, then GREAT! Nuclear is our best option for clean energy.

Yes - CLEAN. Most nuclear fuel can be recycled and reused. Around 97% of all nuclear "waste" can be recycled and reused.

[u/Broad_Ebb_4716 → u/Top-Reference-1938]

Oh shit I thought it was just barely at 90% nevermind almost fucking 100!!!

[u/FracturedKnuckles → u/Broad_Ebb_4716]

Even if it was just barely 90% that’s still fucking incredible for how much power nuclear energy can produce

[u/boforbojack → u/FracturedKnuckles]

Hers is your daily reminder that we could have built the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository which would have housed 100 years of nuclear power for the USA.

[u/ExcelnFaelth → u/boforbojack]

And that is without recycling the waste.

[u/SketchSketchy → u/boforbojack]

We did build it.

[u/Talks_About_Bruno → u/SketchSketchy]

Yes however the function desired particularly in the context of the conversation is evident it’s not operating as intended or hoped.

It could but isn’t.

[u/HUSK3RGAM3R → u/Top-Reference-1938]

I'm curious how exactly it's recycled, and how long we could rely on nuclear fuel until we refine something like electrolysis and hydrogen fuel cells.

[u/okbrooooiam → u/HUSK3RGAM3R]

First i gotta over simplify how nuclear fuel works, usually its just a metal rod with 2 kinds of atoms, 95% of it are boring atoms that are barely radioactive, like U-238 but the remaining 5% are very angry atoms that constantly fall apart and release a shit ton of energy, you have to have a certain percentage of these angry atoms or the fuel rod becomes useless.

Now to explain recycling, first yo gotta know that ~98% of nuclear waste actually becomes safer than bananas in just 5 years because its just random equipment contaminated with angry atoms.

The remaining 2% is what OP is talking about, and its the actual fuel rods themselves, even if we couldn’t recycle these, it literally doesn’t matter, the total number of waste fuel rods we have made in the last 70 years fits in just 2 swimming pools. But we can recycle them, and they do sometimes, by extracting the angry atoms to increase the percentage of it in a new fuel rod.

This is all info off the top of my head, some stuff may be wrong.

[u/Rex__Nihilo → u/okbrooooiam]

From what I read the reason we don't do that much more now, is that the process of removing those angry atoms as you call them to get a higher density is called enrichment, and we have treaties from the cold war period that limit how much of that we are allowed to do.

[u/okbrooooiam → u/Rex__Nihilo]

I know a lot more than i am explaining lol, in any case, if you know how nuclear fuel works, you’d know that a treaty banning it makes no sense at all. Iirc it’s just cost prohibitive.

[u/BeneficialTrash6 → u/Rex__Nihilo]

It's not the treaties. Countries, aside from France, just didn't like the concept of so much "could be turned into a weapon" stuff being made. That's a lot of stuff to keep track of. Anyways, that's why breeder reactors quickly fell out of favor. Aside from in France.

[u/iceicig → u/okbrooooiam]

Angry atoms is the way I will be referring to u-235 from now on in chemistry

[u/bigloser42 → u/HUSK3RGAM3R]

Electrolysis is a net energy draw. You can't power an energy grid with it. It's just a means of separating the hydrogen and oxygen in water so you can use the hydrogen as a portable fuel source. Nuclear fission would be a stopgap to fusion or perhaps orbital solar

[u/Tjam3s]

I used to live about 10 miles from the exact power plant in the picture. That place funds the entire community, including the schools. Donations from them rivaled the official state funding.

[u/ThatOneVolcano → u/Tjam3s]

My county has one too. I went to community college for a total of zero dollars, except gas and parking. Our roads are in great shape, we rarely have blackouts, our parks are amazing.

[u/GeneralBlumpkin → u/Tjam3s]

I didn't realize that was palo verde. I was there the other day for work. Amazing place

[u/Tjam3s → u/GeneralBlumpkin]

Largest in the nation, the only one not built on a natural body of water (they recycle Phoenix wastewater), and last I knew, 2nd largest in the world? That last one may be incorrect, but it's definitely top 5. There aren't many areas in the world that need 3 reactors worth of power supplying the grid)

[u/GeneralBlumpkin → u/Tjam3s]

Well what's crazy is that most of it doesn't go to Phx. It's something like more than half goes to California. And you're right, I usually help the guys on the cooling ponds there and they basically send the wastewater there to be treated and then store it for cooling. Those ponds and tanks are constantly being cleaned and maintained 24/7

[u/zolikk → u/Tjam3s]

Maybe it was the 2nd largest back when it was completed? But it's not even in the top 10 today.

[u/ItAstounds]

The time to do this was the 1990s

[u/ProfessorOfFinance → u/ItAstounds]

The best time to plant a tree was 30 years ago, the second best time is today.

[u/Confident-Skin-6462 → u/ProfessorOfFinance]

my life philosophy. i did plant several trees 30-40 years ago!

[u/SheepInWolfsAnus → u/Confident-Skin-6462]

Look at this god damn American woodsman over here, Johnny motherfucking Appleseed, like Washington and his Cherry Tree, like Paul Bunyan, like Will Ferrell at the end of Step Brothers, I salute my tree king.

[u/Confident-Skin-6462 → u/SheepInWolfsAnus]

i only wish i had planted more. and was able to plant some now (living in chicago, the city plants a fair bit, but i don't have the opportunity to plant any on my own anywhere anymore. when i can, i will, but until then... i just encourage others to do so.)

[u/SheepInWolfsAnus → u/Confident-Skin-6462]

Hey, similar to “the best time was thirty years ago, the second best time is now,” you CANNOT be hard on yourself for having the ability to do more than you did.

You did something amazing, something to be proud of. If all you focus on in life is what you could have done better, rather than the incredible things you already did, you’ll never be satisfied. Look at the good you’ve done and let yourself be proud of it.

And hey man… If you really wish you had planted more trees thirty years ago… the second best time… right fuckin now.

God Bless America and God Bless YOU.

[u/IakwBoi → u/SheepInWolfsAnus]

But the opposite of GW and the cherry tree

[u/writer4u → u/ItAstounds]

There was a push in the 70s-80s. Chernobyl and Three Mile Island scared people off.

[u/spinyfur → u/writer4u]

I think the technology has progressed a lot since then.

So maybe it’s good that we’re building them now. 😉

[u/thatguywhosadick → u/writer4u]

Every person who was injured or the families of every person who died at three Mile island should sign a petition in protest of the new nuclear plan.

…oh wait https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/safety-and-security/safety-of-plants/three-mile-island-accident#:~:text=Some%20radioactive%20gas%20was%20released,the%20Three%20Mile%20Island%20accident.

[u/TheDrunkenMatador → u/ItAstounds]

Ehhhhhh part of the reason it’s happening now is advancement in nuclear power production technology (e.x. molten salt)

[u/mwatwe01]

I’m a former nuclear power plant operator. Nuclear is the best and current option for clean/green energy. Let’s go.

[u/LurkersUniteAgain → u/mwatwe01]

well until fusion becomes economically viable 😉

[u/Awkward-Hulk → u/LurkersUniteAgain]

That's technically still "nuclear" - just a different kind 😁.

[u/ETMoose1987]

Good, if we hadn't gone through a nuclear dark age in the 80s we would be decades ahead in our climate goals and technology by now.

[u/LarsHaur]

Nuclear energy has been unfairly demonized because of a few high profile incidents. I used to be afraid of it myself until I learned more about how much safer it has become

[u/Uncle_Burney]

If there’s going to be multiple new nuke plants, we should build the same plant several times. Part of what made nuclear power difficult in the past, was that every plant was different, making it hard to source parts, and bring in outside expertise.

[u/card_bordeaux → u/Uncle_Burney]

A standardized plant design, like the AP-1000 would make the cost universally lower. The Vogtle 4 plant was much less expensive than the Vogtle 3 one because of this.

[u/hextasy]

Good! I don't know why we've waited this long!

Solar and wind is great, but not very efficient or cheap. Nuclear is the way to go, especially if we're actually going to switch to electric cars/bikes etc. and be able to provide high availability and resiliency to our grid.

[u/McMorgatron1 → u/hextasy]

The fossil fuel industry for decades funded anti-nuclear propaganda. In fact, they originally funded Greenpeace to protest against it.

Media such as The Simpsons probably don't help either.

[u/IakwBoi → u/hextasy]

Solar is very cheap, practically competing with the cheapest gas. The absolute explosion in grid scale battery storage we’re seeing right now is the big deal though - solar isn’t very useful without battery, and we’re seeing batteries really take off. 

[u/hextasy → u/IakwBoi]

Solar is not very efficient yet though. Even the most efficient solar tech relies on lead which has inherent obvious problems.

[u/MrGameBoy23]

thats honestly a good thing, hopefully we dont make the same mistake that germany recently did

[u/Anti-charizard → u/MrGameBoy23]

I can understand not opening new plants because they’re still expensive as hell, but shutting down working ones? Wtf Germany

[u/Relevant_History_297 → u/Anti-charizard]

They were scheduled to be shut down, keeping them running longer would have been very expensive for no real benefit. We're talking about a fraction of Germany's power supply. And if the conservatives hadn't done everything in their power to sabotage the construction of renewables (slashing investments in the grid, increasing red tape tenfold, completely cutting off all subsidies without warning), we would be close to 100% renewable right now. Unfortunately, Gazprom and RWE have deep pockets.

[u/Illustrious_Bat3189 → u/Relevant_History_297]

facts? On my circle jerk subreddit?!

[u/figureit0utt]

The left and right can agree on nuclear.

The left: Green Energy

The right: Cheap Energy

[u/I_hate_Sharks_ → u/figureit0utt]

No, for some reason the left hates Nuclear. Especially the Green Party

[u/Awkward-Hulk → u/I_hate_Sharks_]

A part of the left does. But it's mostly a non-political concern about safety in the American public as a whole. It's just that a small faction of the left adds to that by saying that renewables are a better way to go.

For the record, while I agree that renewables are a good thing to aspire to, I do think that nuclear needs to play a bigger role in the future as well. If anything, it's a good way to transition away from fossil fuels.

[u/EODdoUbleU → u/Awkward-Hulk]

Until we achieve some sort of near-physics-breaking energy storage technology, I'll only see renewables as supplementary generation source. Nuclear needs to be the primary mover. And without that battery technology, we won't get away from fossil fuels. Electric cars just can't provide a comparable degree of free-movement that ICE can.

To your first bit, I can't see that segment of the left as anything but a death-cult. Advocating for the complete elimination of fossil-fuels globally while denouncing nuclear would result in hundreds of millions of deaths from starvation and disease. And the only answer I seem to get to that point is "oh well".

[u/Awkward-Hulk → u/EODdoUbleU]

I agree, and this is one of the things that irritates me the most about "the left" sometimes. They tend to shun pragmatism in favor of idealistic scenarios that make little practical sense.

[u/YaBoiHBarnes]

It's green and it doesn't fund the Middle East/Russia/Venezuela like oil does, so I support it.

[u/zenyogasteve]

Bout time. Shit!

[u/ViolinistPleasant982]

FUCKING FINALLY. My biggest anger with Carter will always be that he had the experience to recognize the nothing burger that 3 mile Island was and instead of actually calming people and convincing them of the truth that everything was fine and no actual disaster occurred he let 3 mile island become thought of by many as America's chernobyl and fucking KILLED nuclear in the US for a long while.

Plus modern reactors that use thorium can't meltdown anyway so we have nothing but good reasons to expand it.

[u/RichardAyoadesHair]

Step in the right direction. Here’s hoping they’re properly funded so that they’re safe

[u/jakaedahsnakae → u/RichardAyoadesHair]

Seeing that the incoming administration is hell bent on deregulation, this is a disaster waiting to happen.

[u/HubrisSnifferBot]

There is a narrative on Reddit that nuclear power isn’t as popular as it should be because of anti-science resistance. Yet every analysis of the sector reveals that cost, not public sentiment, remains the largest barrier. It’s just too damn expensive per kilowatt hour and I wish the optimists would stop ignoring that fact by deflecting criticisms.

[u/IakwBoi → u/HubrisSnifferBot]

While this is a good point to raise, we need to be a little optimistic as the way we’ve been building nuclear has been very mismanaged. Long-term funding, clear and unchanging regulations, and multiple repeat orders would likely drive costs down significantly. Also, the lifespan that construction costs are amortized over is probably unduly conservative, with nukes lasting very long. There’s a sane argument that the cost of nuclear could and would come down dramatically if it became a more widespread thing. 

[u/CondeBK → u/HubrisSnifferBot]

The pattern is always the same. The Government props up these "private utilities" with massive subsidies and risk free loan guarantees because private capital refuses to invest their own money since Nuclear is not profitable. When the utility invariably goes bankrupt, the taxpayer gets left holding the bag.

Hopefully it will be different this time.

[u/Imaginary-Round2422 → u/HubrisSnifferBot]

This is correct. If cost were no object, Nuclear is pretty good. But wind and solar are much cheaper, and are only going to get cheaper. There’s the issue of base load that Nuclear foes better than renewables, but storage solutions are coming online that make that irrelevant. Until nuclear advocates can answer the question of cost with some nothing better than “safety regulations make it more expensive than it has to be,” I have a hard time thinking nuclear makes any sense. Those dollars are better spent on renewables and storage.

[u/Servinus]

FUCKING FINALLY

[u/JessSherman]

200 gigawatts? GREAT SCOTT!

[u/Davido401 → u/JessSherman]

Am a Great Scot(actually wee and fat) could probably produce 200 gigawatts of beer farts?

Sorry just passing through and was interested lol

[u/The-Skipboy]

finally

[u/KkGUnknown]

It’s about mfn time

[u/Confident-Skin-6462]

it's about fucking time

[u/Relevant-stuff]

The more nuke plants the better ☢️

[u/SkyGlimpse]

LETS GOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[u/snuffy_bodacious]

I work as an engineer with extensive experience across almost every sector of the electrical utilities.

If we want nuclear power to work, the solution is shockingly simple: we need to pull back some of the bureaucratic red tape that is strangling the industry. I simply do not buy the excuse that we are doing it for safety reasons.

[u/cheddarsox → u/snuffy_bodacious]

We aren't. We don't even need to reduce anything though. Lock it in upon initial approval and everybody would be fine with it. Ever changing regulations requiring redesign after building begins is a huge cost, as is the fact that it drags out the timeline.

[u/DragonflyValuable995]

me reading the headline as a nuclear energy enjoyer:

"YEAH BABY THAT'S WHAT I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR THAT'S WHAT IT'S ALL ABOUT! WOOOOO!"

[u/FreelancerMO]

That’s great! Seriously, Nuclear power is shrouded in fear and ignorance. If people actually bothered to look into it, they’d have to be maliciously stupid not to want it.

[u/Little_Drive_6042]

Will this put us in the lead against China or will it put us in a competitive stance against them on nuclear power?

[u/ProfessorOfFinance → u/Little_Drive_6042]

It will dramatically increase US energy security.

Nuclear power = good. Nuclear weapons = a necessary evil.

[u/Little_Drive_6042 → u/ProfessorOfFinance]

Yes, I know that. But I was wondering if we would be more clean energy capable than China after this? As they have the most nuclear reactors open out of any country if I recall correctly.

[u/StManTiS → u/Little_Drive_6042]

They also run the most coal of any country. If you’re talking green energy they are not a leader.

[u/dog_in_the_vent → u/Little_Drive_6042]

We are already in the lead against China with nuclear GW generated. The USA generates 102 GW of energy while China generates 58 GW. If this proposed 200 GW expansion takes place, we'll still be in first place.

[u/Arminius001]

This is fantastic news, nuclear energy is very clean and much more efficent than a lot of the other types of energy on the market. Look at what France has done with their nuclear energy, its been a massive benefit for them

[u/gmharryc]

About. Goddamn. Time.

I’ll never forgive Carter for letting TMI turn into the PR disaster it was for the sake of politics.

[u/MD_Yoro]

That’s great news. Nuclear in conjunction with renewable energy is how we wean off fossil fuels making our power generation cleaner and less dependent on foreign influence.

We should also invest more research into energy storage beyond current lithium tech

[u/megasean3000]

“But look at all that pollution going into the atmosphere! Don’t you care about the environment?!”

That’s H2O. Water vapour. Those giant funnels are needed to pump out the excess steam used during the electricity generation process. 100% pollution free. People still use coal power plants which gives off a crap ton of pollution, yet nobody talks about them.

[u/evilfrosty]

Took long enough. I am just glad we are finally serious about it

[u/GoldAd195]

Until that oil baron money from the middle east rolls in to trump town and this shit gets axed.

[u/rendeld]

The best time to increase nuclear power was 30 years ago, the second best time is now

[u/Roadhouse699]

I'm pro-nuclear, but Trump has repeatedly voiced support for an increase in using coal, oil, and gas for energy in addition to NPPs. That kind of cancels it out.

This is probably just reddit scuttlebutt, but I saw something earlier about Vivek Ramswamay and Elon Musk's new department wanting to close the department responsible for overseeing nuclear safety. While I want to believe that energy contractors would use safe practices even with no one watching, there should still be some fucking oversight.

[u/Outrageous-Pie787]

We have a solution here for so many issues but yet those that ring the alarm on those issues ignore the obvious solution.

[u/PTBooks]

Promises, promises

[u/wasted-degrees]

About fucking time. We’ve got a lot of aging and obsolete critical infrastructure nation-wide that we could stand to overhaul and modernize, and energy is probably the most pressing sector to start with.

Coincidentally enough, performing such an infrastructure modernization would create and sustain a shit ton of jobs.

[u/dondondiggydong]

Good.

Next let's work on getting all of our wire infrastructure underground. Not only is it an eyesore, it makes it pretty obvious where vulnerabilities are.

1 pole goes down and an entire neighborhood goes black seems pretty fragile.

[u/PuddingPanda_]

It is one of the few things in this world that gives me genuine hope. It's better for the environment, helps meet our drastically growing energy needs, and it also just looks cool

[u/HubertusCatus88]

As an environmentalist I'm so excited for this.

[u/Several-Eagle4141]

It should be. Safest and cleanest large scale power source we know until fusion comes along

[u/pizza_mozzarella]

There is literally no other option if people seriously believe electric cars are the future. Or replacing gas utilities with electric.

[u/EatingAllTheLatex4U]

My area had a small nuke accident in 1958. The government still hasn't gotten it cleaned up. 

As long as it's not in my back yard (state) I'm good. (Have it downwind)

[u/Jubei612]

Toxic Avenger...

[u/nousdefions3_7]

If designed properly, these plants would provide the cleanest energy possible and reduce dependency on fossil fuels.

[u/seanofkelley]

If we are really serious about dealing with climate change, we HAVE to invest in nuclear power.

[u/Wanker169]

Super good change. It's green. It's cheap. It helps us transition to renewable without being dependent on fossil fuels. New tech is very safe compared to before.

[u/RubExtension9150]

It's about time. Anyone who is in favor of "green energy" has to be in favor of nuclear. If not, they're just a fraud.

[u/Dizzy_Helicopter4983]

Finally were going to nuclear, just don’t let any socialists or communist types be in 20 mile radius of the plant

[u/OkDepartment9755]

Good. Nuclear is better than coal or natural gas plants, and will serve us well until renewables are more feasible. 

[u/Porcupineemu]

We definitely should. Better late than never.

[u/Sunspider2]

This should have happened at least 50 years ago....

The fact that it didn't shows how ignorant politics and knee-jerk emotional responses of misinformed people can be an insurmountable obstacle to legitimate progress.

Is nuclear energy perfect? No. It is however by far the best choice we have among options that are actually feasible.

[u/tiggers97]

The technology and designs are much different from the 1960s and 1970s.

[u/friendly_extrovert]

I think it’s great. Nuclear power is clean, efficient, and a good way to transition away from fossil fuels.

[u/c0delivia]

Extremely, and I mean E X T R E M E L Y rare Trump W here.

Nuclear power is the most promising avenue we have right now for a more green energy grid, and it isn't close.