With climate change looming, it seems so completely backwards to go back to using it again.
Is it coal miners pushing to keep their jobs? Fear of nuclear power? Is purely politically motivated, or are there genuinely people who believe coal is clean?
Edit, I will admit I was ignorant to the usage of coal nowadays.
Now I’m more depressed than when I posted this
How is nuclear renewable?
It’s renewable the same way as the sun is: Not, but it will last for a really, really long time.
Because the amount of fuel used in a nuclear reactor is exponentially less than fossil fuels.
There’s enough nuclear material on this planet to power nuclear reactors for tens of thousands of years.
Nuclear power is clean, efficient, and lasts for essentially ever
It’s close to ‘renewable’ but technically it should be called ‘low carbon fuel’.
That’s like saying air isn’t renewable…
There are processes on our planet renewing air. I’m not aware of similar processes for fission materials.
It’s renewable in the same way that solar is. Eventually the sun will die and solar won’t work just like we’ll eventually run out of fissible material.
where’s the carbon in nuclear?
The graphite neutron moderator.
The carbon expended in producing the fuel is a good example.
As with all power plants, wind turbines, solar panels, etc. there are carbon costs associated with the manufacturing, construction and transport. Remember that there’s a lot of steel involved.
It’s an interesting take. I guess the sun is not renewable either.
Is any practically infinite (in human scales) source of energy called renewable? I am hearing this for the first time.
You are asking The Last Question It’s one of those short stories that you’ll read once and think about it occasionally for the next 20 years
I don’t understand this comment.
How is the sun not renewable?
Renewable energy means using renewable resources. Meaning things that either replenish themselves within a short enough period or things that produce massive amounts of energy over long periods of time.
Because the sun is also a depleting source of energy. I question the definition of renewable that’s all.
I would have never considered nuclear energy being renewable, but I guess a similar argument could be made.
The sun will eventually explode.
Long after humanity has ceased to exist.
I’m quite certain we can manage to stop existing before nuclear fuel runs out as well.
Is lemmy just stupid?
Like seriously?
The sun is an infinite resource to humanity. This isn’t a debatable fact. Yet I seem to be receiving downvotes despite this.
The sun will outlive humanity a million times.
We can either harness it’s energy and other sources like it or run out of energy.
It seems people just don’t like the word “renewable”
That just makes those people stupid.
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Lemmy at this point is the same as Reddit for quality of discussion.
It’s not big enough to explode, it’ll have a heat death