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ainchtoday at 12:13 AM10 repliesview on HN

I love Kraftwerk, but contributing to anti-nuclear sentiment in Germany hasn't been a major success. If only more European countries had followed the French example and developed substantial nuclear fleets.


Replies

boshomitoday at 7:59 AM

Nuclear power has been killed off by economic forces; there’s no turning back. Solar and wind power generate cheap electricity in abundance, and midday electricity prices in Europe regularly dip into negative territory (as low as minus €500 (sic!) on May 1!).

Modern grids do not require high-risk investments in ultra-inert baseload power that ultimately fails to find a market; instead, they require low-risk investments in highly flexible power sources, such as batteries or pumped-storage facilities and transmission upgrades, that can capture surplus electricity at low cost (sometimes negativ) and sell it hours later at favorable prices.

The 2036 electricity futures price for Germany is €70/MWh. The break-even point for France’s EDF for old nuclear power plants that had long since been written off financially was at roughly the same level in 2020. Due to rising labor costs, their break-even point is now significantly higher. There were solid economic reasons why EDF was recently nationalized 100%. New nuclear power plant construction in France is a foreseeable economic disaster. Private investors would have fled long ago.

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01100011today at 1:49 AM

Like most backward looking judgements these days, such things require understanding the culture and zeitgeist of the mid 70s.

I'm pro-nuclear as well, but understand that for many decades the "smart" thing to do was to oppose it. I wouldn't expect a musical artist to have a more nuanced opinion than most of their contemporaries.

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wolfi1today at 8:04 AM

nuclear is only cheap, if taxpayers pay for it, if all costs would be considered, nuclear is not cheap

kingleopoldtoday at 12:49 AM

coal kills more people, this is a fact. so with blocking nuclear lead to coal, so they indirectly supportered killing thousands, incredible stats really. who said art can't be bad for the public?

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pjmlptoday at 8:02 AM

I just saw the Fukushima documentary over the weekend, no thanks.

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mslatoday at 12:46 AM

Being against nuclear only kept the world on coal longer.

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Tepixtoday at 5:10 AM

I, for one, am glad we don‘t have yet another 2600 square kilometers exclusion zone in densely populated Germany, like the one around Chernobyl.

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aa-jvtoday at 8:10 AM

Kraftwerk killed nuclear power (Radio-Activity) and promoted petroleum consumption (Autobahn), like the true factory-idol industrialists they are ...

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pepa65today at 12:47 AM

What do you mean by "nuclear fleets"??

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stefantalpalarutoday at 11:39 AM

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