Time to make 2024 updates to my annual “opinions about solar” thread. If you like these, the second edition of my book, Solar Power Finance Without The Jargon is new this year. A 30% discount code WSQ0437 is valid on publisher website until end of October. www.worldscientific.com/worldscibook...
Oh my sweet Caesar's ghost, it finally happened! 192 issues of NUCLEONICS, the most incredible nuclear trade magazine is available online. I've seriously been dreaming of this for years. The vintage advertisements, the historic articles, OMG! archive.org/details/pub_...
I'm a lot more worried about the coal ash. The dry casks are very robust and passively cooled and often consider 50 ft submergence in their design bases.
Enjoying the keynote from Nana Menya Ayensu, special assistant to the president for climate policy, finance, and innovation at the Nuclear NY symposium.
Your list would include "actively campaign against low-carbon nuclear power plants", and that's somehow better for climate? I wish you guys will reconsider your opposition to nuclear! What would it take?
I'll also add that nuclear can be built where renewables don't make as much sense as well. Northern Michigan winters are all gas and propane heated today. It gets dark at 430 pm. Nuclear is perfect here, and you can add district heating that can pipe heat over 100 km from the plant, like at Beznau.
I agree that renewables are doing a massive amount and being built quickly. I will say there is doubt about their cost when you look at the full system rather than just a marginal kWh. Storage and transmission costs get high. That's why Microsoft just paid to turn a nuclear plant back on.
Some are definitely annoying.
TIL that Soviet submarine K-27 had an at-sea meltdown of one of its two beryllium-moderated lead-bismuth cooled reactors where entrained fuel flowed out of the core into less shielded pipes, causing 9 acute radiation syndrom deaths whatisnuclear.com/safety-minut...
A tragic lesson in coolant purity control
