this post was submitted on 16 Nov 2024
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Science Memes

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Anon questions our energy sector (slrpnk.net)
submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 month ago (1 children)

only antimatter could provide more energy density, it’s insanely powerful.

Nuclear energy indeed has very high energy per mass of fuel. But so what? Solar and wind power doesn't even use fuel. So the energy density thing is a bit of a distraction.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 1 month ago (2 children)

just compare 1 ton of fissile fuel and 1 ton of Silicon or steel. how much power do you get out of it ?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

What are you trying to say here? Are we still talking about fuel types here?

Again, let me point out that solar power does not consume any fuel. The materials used to construct the solar panels are not having any power extracted from them. And secondly, nuclear power plants require construction materials too. ... So I really don't know what kind of comparison you are asking for here.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

yes it does, but indirectly : making solar panels comes with the cost of dumping them after they've been used, because they're not fully recyclable. (which comes after 15/20 years if not earlier). plus they use vast amounts of land when much power is needed.

so yeah, energy density is relevant when comparing technologies. otherwise, why aren't we all cycling to power our toasters / ovens / refrigerators ? because the energy yield is bad.

so no, you shouldn't dismiss nuclear, because it's insanity powerful for its cost.

solar and wind are great, but insufficient on their own.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The cost of constructing and decommissioning power plants is important for sure; but it has nothing to do with energy density - which is what we were talking about before. It's true that building solar panels takes energy and resources, and the panels don't last indefinitely. So there is a lifecycle cost to using them. But the same is true for all forms of power generation.

A common way to compare these costs is to look at the 'payback time' of each form of power generation. The payback time is the amount of time it would take for the power plant to produce enough energy to pay back the lifecycle costs required to build, operate, and decommission that type of plant. It's basically how long it takes for the construction to have been 'worth it'.

In terms of payback time, wind power is by far the best; typically taking less than 1 year to pay itself off. Solar is pretty good too, but is highly dependent on where it is used. And nuclear... is not good on this measure. It takes decades for a nuclear power plant to pay itself off, because the plants are very expensive to build and decommission.

Obviously there are other things to consider in terms of the strengths and weaknesses of different forms of power generation. But you've been talking about the cost of materials and construction as though it is a weakness of renewables, and it really really isn't. That's in fact one of their strengths, and a major weakness of nuclear. Its strange that you say nuclear is 'insanity powerful for its cost', because its cost is the greatest weakness of nuclear power. Its much cleaner than coal, but much more expensive, even though it uses so little fuel. And it is not cleaner than solar or wind, but it is still more expensive.

Your point about land usage is a stronger point in favour of nuclear power... except that depending on what country you are talking about, that could easily swing the other way. Solar and wind do take up more space than nuclear, that's for sure. But nuclear requires certain geological conditions for the safe operation of the plant, and the storage of waste. So depending on where you live, finding unused land suitable for renewables can be much easier than finding a suitable location for a nuclear power plant and waste containment facility.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

agreed and thank you for the detailed response 🤝

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

Who cares? We use economics to sort out the relative value of radically different power sources, not cherry-picked criteria. Fission boosters can say that nuclear has a small footprint. Solar boosters can say that solar has no moving parts and is thus more mechanically reliable. Fission boosters can say fission gets more power from the same mass. Solar boosters can point to the mass of the entire fission plant, including the giant concrete dome that needs to be strong enough to survive a jumbo jet flying into it.

In the end, none of this shit matters. We have a way of sorting out these complex multi-variable problems. Both fission and solar have their own relatives strengths and weaknesses that their proponents can cherry pick. But ultimately, all that matters in choosing what to deploy is cost.

And today, in the real world, in the year 2024, if you want to get low-carbon power on the grid, the most cost-effective way, by far, is solar. And you can add batteries as needed for intermittency, and you're still way ahead of nuclear cost-wise. And as our use of solar continues to climb, we can deploy seasonal storage, which we have many, many options to deploy.

The ultimate problem fission has is that it just can't survive in a capitalist economy. It can survive in planned economies like the Soviet Union or modern China, or it can run as a state-backed enterprise like modern Russia. But it simply isn't cost effective enough for fission companies to be able to survive on their own in a capitalist economy.

And frankly, if we're going to have the government subsidize things, I would much rather the money be spent on healthcare, housing, or education. A lot of fission boosters like fission simply because they think the tech is cool, not necessarily because it actually makes economic sense. I say that if fission boosters want to fund their hobby and subsidize fission plants, let them. But otherwise I am adamantly opposed to any form of subsidies for the fission industry.