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sage at Thu, 12 Sep 2024 01:03:13 UTC No. 16375259

Why is nuclear not popular, other than chrnobyl-tier psyops? It's not safe. Can be placed in areas far from humans, and from what I understand its waste can be recycled to generate more energy in reactors--thus smallish amounts of Plutonium can generate large amounts of energy. It can also be turned on or off as required to feed into the grid whereas things like solar panels require battery storage or the energy is basically wasted. So what's the downside? Why is it not more common? I've seen charts saying the cost per terrawatt is akin to renewables which, to me, makes no sense. Also, isn't the fact you only need one reactor to generate immense power beneficial as you can build one and turn out a lot of power at will without requiring hundreds of solar farms or windmills?

Why are places like China making a lot more of them, but places in Europe closing them? I understand there is a political aspect, but China is making quite a lot of them.