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EU court rules nuclear energy is clean energy

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1041 points mpweiher | 1 comments | 12 Sep 25 18:18 UTC | HN request time: 0.259s | source
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mentalgear ◴[13 Sep 25 13:34 UTC] No.45231975[source]▶
France, heavily invested in nuclear, now has to shut down their reactors each summer as, due to climate change, the cooling water from rivers cant be used any more to cool the reactors. So much about being future proof. And let's not even get into the argument why no private company ever financed a nuclear reactor, but only build them with huge subsidies from states. Hint: it is because they are completely uneconomically. (and dont come with the argument of experimental small scale reactors, they are all just experimental and none proven)
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1. pqtyw ◴[13 Sep 25 14:12 UTC] No.45232223[source]▶
There are nuclear plants in much warmer places than France. And well.. in hindsight climate change probably wouldn't be as bad as it is if nuclear continued growing at the same pace as in the 60s and 70s.

> Hint: it is because they are completely uneconomically

Yes, natural gas and fossil fuels were cheaper than nuclear too. That and the irrational panic is what killed it. At this point its probably too late (and renewables are more feasible option unless there are some significant technological advancements), but if you add up all the long-term costs and externalities nuclear would have turned out to be much cheaper in the 80s and 90s than it seemed on paper.

Just coal alone used to kill (probably still does worldwide) more people every year than Chernobyl ever did... What is the cost of that?