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icantevenholdtoday at 6:36 PM8 repliesview on HN

As someone who thinks nuclear is both less efficient and much more expensive than renewable energies - would you mind sharing a bit why this makes you happy?

Since all plants in Italy are closed since the 90s won’t it take decades and billions of tax euros to get them back operational again?


Replies

sndcrtoday at 6:55 PM

It’s not either or, you need both. We haven’t solved energy storage so renewables can’t be the only source of energy. If you look at Value-Adjusted Levelized Cost of Electricity (VALCOE) it changes the calculation quite a bit. We have negative energy prices a few times per year in Europe as it is.

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gignicotoday at 6:51 PM

The idea is to go to new-generation SMRs, not revive decades-old plants, which is actually impossible.

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thegabrieletoday at 6:42 PM

About the last question, i don't think the old plants will play any part in this eventual return.

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cpilltoday at 7:59 PM

can you link to data to prove the economics are bad?

AlexandrBtoday at 6:59 PM

Whether it's more expensive or not depends on how you measure "cost", and including intermittency and storage costs for renewables seems to favor Nuclear in many cases[1][2]. Based on real-world examples of countries that traded one for the other, like Germany, renewables look quite bad economically. I know there's a lot of hand waving about how this has to do with how electric auctions work, but this seems like a convenient excuse.

[1] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S03605...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cost_of_electricity_by_source#...

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rotringlvrtoday at 10:04 PM

[dead]

someonebaggytoday at 6:42 PM

It's cheaper if you stop caring about safety, right? In the USA it's now illegal for reactors to have adequate shielding - "as low as reasonably possible" is officially "woke"

cloudie78today at 7:44 PM

Two words: base load

And no you’re not solving it with a buffer (batteries or any kind of other energy storage for that matter)

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