The thing is, solar and wind are not out producing a nuclear plant. We see this expressed in a power sources capacity factor. Or what their actual output is in comparison to their theoretical output.
Solar sits at about 25% right now, meaning, if you wanted your “output” to be 1 MW, then you will need to find out how many solar panels makes that output and multiply it by 4. Then you have to consider the storage aspect, since it isn’t on demand.
As a submariner and somebody that currently working on industrial uninterruptible power supplies, you are not as afraid of batteries as you should be.
They are far scarier than the reactor. If it shorts to ground, there is nothing you can do to stop the reaction or subsequent fire. If our ships battery shorted to our hull, it would melt the hull of the submarine, that’s how powerful these things are.
Also, as for cooling, Palo Verde NPP in Nevada is cooled by the treated waste water from Phoenix. So again, not an engineering problem, just politics.
The reason nuclear is expensive is because we make it expensive. We disincentivize long-term planning on almost every aspect of our economy, including energy. We don’t require the people who built the wind turbines or solar panels to have a disposal plan in place, so they are off the hook the moment they turn their solar farm over to a utility, or privately owned power company (which shouldn’t be a thing). NPP require disposal plans for all waste and all of that is held under intense scrutiny.
Not to mention that Reactors last far longer than wind turbines or solar panels, they require less material overall because of how power dense they are, and they work well with our AC grid, where solar panels need inverters or High voltage DC over long distances, which adds hidden costs and infrastructure costs if you want it to scale at all.
The thing is, solar and wind are not out producing a nuclear plant. We see this expressed in a power sources capacity factor. Or what their actual output is in comparison to their theoretical output.
Solar sits at about 25% right now, meaning, if you wanted your “output” to be 1 MW, then you will need to find out how many solar panels makes that output and multiply it by 4. Then you have to consider the storage aspect, since it isn’t on demand.
As a submariner and somebody that currently working on industrial uninterruptible power supplies, you are not as afraid of batteries as you should be. They are far scarier than the reactor. If it shorts to ground, there is nothing you can do to stop the reaction or subsequent fire. If our ships battery shorted to our hull, it would melt the hull of the submarine, that’s how powerful these things are.
Also, as for cooling, Palo Verde NPP in Nevada is cooled by the treated waste water from Phoenix. So again, not an engineering problem, just politics.
The reason nuclear is expensive is because we make it expensive. We disincentivize long-term planning on almost every aspect of our economy, including energy. We don’t require the people who built the wind turbines or solar panels to have a disposal plan in place, so they are off the hook the moment they turn their solar farm over to a utility, or privately owned power company (which shouldn’t be a thing). NPP require disposal plans for all waste and all of that is held under intense scrutiny.
Not to mention that Reactors last far longer than wind turbines or solar panels, they require less material overall because of how power dense they are, and they work well with our AC grid, where solar panels need inverters or High voltage DC over long distances, which adds hidden costs and infrastructure costs if you want it to scale at all.