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Nuclear too slow to replace coal, and baseload “simply can’t compete” with wind and solar, AEMO boss says (reneweconomy.com.au)

submitted 3 months ago by phneutral@feddit.org to c/energy@slrpnk.net

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The head of the Australian energy market operator AEMO, Daniel Westerman, has rejected nuclear power as a way to replace Australia's ageing coal-fired power stations, arguing that it is too slow and too expensive. In addition, baseload power sources are not competitive in a grid dominated by wind and solar energy anyway.

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[–] JustEnoughDucks@feddit.nl 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I think I understand what he is getting at.

Your argument is that we should build the fastest, cheapest option.

Up until recently, fossil fuels were the fastest, cheapest option. He is getting at the point that by your logic, we never should have moved off of coal and gas and started investing in solar because it wasn't fast and cheap.

People didn't follow your logic and instead heavily invested in solar and wind until it actually became the fastest, cheapest option that it is today.

Nuclear could have a similar rise in fiscal efficiency if we invested in it.

But his original point is that you are focusing on "the fastest and cheapest" (i.e. what is best for "the economy") which is the entire reason we are in this mess to begin with, because everyone wanted what was best for "the economy" and always kept the profitability of the energy companies as a high priority. This is the same thing you are repeating now.

We should not care what is the fastest and cheapest. We should be spending a metric fuck ton of all of our collective money to switch 100% over to green energy both in nuclear AND renewables . The worst thing that will happen with that plan is we overbuild and energy becomes very cheap and energy companies don't get their precious profits. Again, "oh no the economy." Nationalize energy. It doesn't need to make a great profit, it needs to be severely regulated and it is a basic human utility in the modern day.

As for nuclear disasters, I would watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jzfpyo-q-RM&t=545s How many nuclear disasters has France had who has run on 70-90% nuclear power for many decades? As for spent nuclear fuel, spent coal ash is literally radioactive for longer than spent nuclear fuel and per unit energy it produces more radioactive waste and we have no qualms about that. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/coal-ash-is-more-radioactive-than-nuclear-waste/ https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Kn2l3MoisDs We don't even test for radioactivity around the extreme majority of coal plants in the world.

[–] Aurenkin@sh.itjust.works 4 points 3 months ago

Oh yeah I see what you mean, that's my bad then for not being clear. We should build the fastest, cheapest green option. Yes we should keep investing in nuclear generation research, if it becomes the best option in the future we should build it. Right now it's not so we should build the best thing right now, is basically my view for the previously mentioned points.

I agree nuclear is safe, I'm not worried about that. The only reason we were discussing disasters was because it was brought up against solar. I think nuclear is a clean, safe option that should be on the table but it's not the best option anymore.