Will We Be Forced To Embrace Nuclear Power Again?

David Trammel's picture

Let me just say, I don't like nuclear power.

That said, I think we are going to have to re-embrace the use of nuclear power for electricity as the climate worsens.

"If we want to fight the climate crisis, we must embrace nuclear power"

While the downsides of nuclear power are large, the fact they are "subsidy dumps" of tax payer money as currently financed, as well as being terrible resource hogs and sources of toxic waste, the more we have learned of "renewable" sources, the more we've found they aren't such a cost free source of energy either, when it comes to financing, resources and toxic waste.

Some one, perhaps Greer said, we will burn the last pound of coal that's in the ground, even as the climate collapses. I fear that's going to be true of most resources.

David Trammel's picture

While I think we will end up re-embracing nuclear power because we have to, its not without its downsides. Nuclear power plants are subject to heat related problems. The water sources they depend on, the oceans and rivers, will increase in temperature in a climate changed world. Not only that, but with many power plants situated on the coast, they will be subject to storm damage and outages. While the containment will probably weather any heavy storms, the surrounding infrastructure might not.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/07/climate-events-are-the-leading-c...