Okay I got into an argument with someone the other night over the idea that it's our turn to cause an ecological disaster to benefit our time on the planet to make our lives better and easier and let someone else worry about cleaning up the mess later.

My argument was this, we should be allowed to do whatever we want with nuclear power generation and not care about the waste or byproducts of the power generation so that we can transition off fossil fuels.

Thier counter was we can't be reckless assholes with nuclear power generation and that it's not the same as oil extraction or fossil fuel power plants because of the radioactive stuff.

I thought this was an incredibly short sighted view on the impact of fossil fuel extraction and fossil fuel power generation has had and how destructive it has been.

While I do agree there are some really bad issues with nuclear. Do we create a big waste problem for people after us? sure. Is it probably going to kill people in the future? sure. Could it cause ecological disasters? sure.

I dunno I get that power generation is only a part of the issue with climate but feels like we are just being bullied by old boomer hippies to not use all the things we have available to us.

Perhaps I have in my mind already convinced myself that we are bleeding out and that while nuclear power won't save our leg it could be the tourniquet to push us over the hump into cleaner power generation from wind/solar/water etc.

So shouldn't we be allowed to kick the can down the road like the last generations did?

  • iridaniotter [she/her]
    ·
    1 year ago

    ITER dreams are just as unviable sadly. That is to say, it will eventually be useful but not soon.

    https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsta.2017.0444

    Yet, if these 10 Gen1 fusion plants will be offered to the market, which according to the present roadmap could be in 2070 or so, together they will be good for an average electric power comparable to that of wind in 2000.

    In other words, Gen1 fusion requires an upfront investment of hundreds of billions of Euros, which is coupled to a large technological risk, in order to bring a product to the market that is not competitive in performance or price, at a scale that is meaningless in terms of energy generation

    Chinese fusion research will probably bump the time frame a bit closer to present but don't expect fusion or powersats to provide any meaningful amount of energy this century. They'll be useful in the 22nd century for expanding energy production without making considerable sacrifices to the environment though.