• realitista@lemm.ee
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    6 months ago

    Nuclear is the solution until all coal plants are shut down. Coal kills millions each year (1000x more than coal) in addition to being a massive contributor to global warming. Nuclear is one of the safest power sources in the world and emits no greenhouse gas.

    Shutting down nuclear plants while coal plants still exist is a crime against humanity.

    • itslilith@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      6 months ago

      You know what, I actually agree on that. Countries that currently have running nuclear plants should keep them running until they’ve eliminated coal (and gas, although their use not really overlaps - base load vs peak), but then shut them down.

        • itslilith@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          6 months ago

          Yes, but it’s too late to reverse that course. Germany’s nuclear plants are out of operation, and refitting and restarting them would take many years (most of them were at their end of life when they were shut down), and involve costs better spend towards the long term by building up renewables directly, and shutting down coal.

            • zaphod@sopuli.xyz
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              6 months ago

              No, it’s going down. There was a sharp decline in 2019, in 2020 it was even lower due to the pandemic and then went up again to the level of around 2019. 2022 was a little worse because of lower gas consumption due to the war in Ukraine, gas was partially replaced with coal. The last nuclear power plants were shut down in April 2023, yet 2023 also saw lower coal consumption than even in 2020, which strongly suggests that nuclear isn’t replaced by coal.

                • zaphod@sopuli.xyz
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                  6 months ago

                  Well, if we look at nuclear and gas we can also see that nuclear wasn’t replaced by gas in Germany. Gas and nuclear have very different purposes in the grid, on can be spun up almost on demand the other can’t. Anyway, at least in Germany there is no nuclear power anymore so arguing that something else should be phased out first is pointless, and saying that nuclear was replaced by coal or gas is spreading fakenews.

                  • realitista@lemm.ee
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                    6 months ago

                    Every nuclear plant that is closed is a coal or gas plant that could be closed, so yes, coal is replacing it.