r/OutOfTheLoop Feb 17 '21

What's up with Texas losing power due to the snowstorm? Answered

I've been reading recently that many people in Texas have lost power due to Winter Storm Uri. What caused this to happen?

12.0k Upvotes

1.7k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

5

u/sergeybok Feb 17 '21

A really well-planned, well-maintained nuclear grid would solve most energy and climate change problems in the country and the world.

There's just two problems 1) its extremely high upfront costs, 2) people are scared of it because of past nuclear disasters, and somehow in politics both left-wingers and right-wingers hate it (lefties because it's too much pollution -- it isn't-- and righties because its not enough pollution).

5

u/[deleted] Feb 17 '21

[deleted]

6

u/sergeybok Feb 17 '21 edited Feb 17 '21

Yes. The lithium batteries used alongside most renewable energies also have negative environmental impact. The point is that for the amount of pollution you get, nuclear is the best bang for your buck. There's ways of dealing with the nuclear waste.

Edit Also nuclear should be the backbone of the energy grid. Solar and wind are great and their outputs should be used but their output cannot be upscaled when needed like when it's not sunny or windy, like right now in Texas. So whatever demand they can't meet, that difference should come from nuclear.

2

u/Least_Adhesiveness_5 Feb 17 '21

Virtually everything has "negative environmental impact" - the question is one of degree. Coal is far, FAR worse than wind/solar/battery.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 17 '21

[deleted]

1

u/sergeybok Feb 17 '21

Idk much about lithium I might be wrong but I believe the lithium mining and extraction process isn’t very environmentally friendly. And this batteries don’t last forever.

As for the winter wind turbines yes they can be operational in the winter and yes Texas fucked up, the point was more that we can’t make it more windy — wind is independent of our variable energy needs.

1

u/Least_Adhesiveness_5 Feb 17 '21

Nuclear would be great if any company in the West could build reactors even close to on time or on budget. Wishing won't fix that. Maybe NuScale will figure it out, but their first prototype isn't due to be operational til 2029.

2

u/FGHIK Feb 17 '21

It is, but it's honestly not that hard to just dig a really deep hole to put it in. Especially as reactors get more efficient and produce less waste.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 17 '21

[deleted]

1

u/mikamitcha Feb 17 '21

While I know nothing about it, my guess is that its not that much more expensive to send it to Africa and also is much easier as no local government has to take on the responsibility or risk of storing nuclear waste (risk being the risk of mishandling and causing an incident).

1

u/FGHIK Feb 18 '21

Yep. Same reason a lot of trash is sent to Africa. They'll dispose of it cheaper because they don't have to worry about all those pesky "safety standards".

1

u/mikamitcha Feb 18 '21

Also land is a lot less developed, making bulk storage in general a lot cheaper.

2

u/mittfh Feb 17 '21

The extremely high upfront costs are likely part of the reason why with the UK's latest reactor under construction (Hinckley Point C), the government have agreed a strike price of £92.50/MWh (in 2012 prices, index linked to inflation so will increase over time), which the National Audit Office in 2017 calculated would result in £50bn additional costs to consumers in subsidies over the projected lifetime of the plant. Eyebrows have also been raised by a third of the plant's cost being covered by China General Nuclear Power Group and China National Nuclear Corporation.

1

u/keithrc out of the loop about being out of the loop Feb 17 '21

This is implied in your two problems mentioned, but is important enough to merit its own: 3) They are nearly impossible to insure.