How fear of nuclear power supports Putin and global warming

[Celerity]

Fear of nuclear energy has made it harder to stand up to dictators and slow down global warming. Is it time for a rebrand?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/interactive/2022/nuclear-power-fear/?itid=hp-top-table-main



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“If you were designing a truly rational energy system to move towards a zero-carbon energy system, this is not the path you’d be taking,” Randy Bell, senior director for global energy security at the Atlantic Council, said of Germany’s decision to abandon nuclear power.

Even accounting for emissions created during the building of the facility and the mining of its fuel, the typical nuclear plant produces fewer greenhouse gases than power plants fuelled by natural gas and coal, and about the same as those running on renewable sources such as wind and solar.



Yet on windless days, wind turbines fail to spin, and even in sunny places, solar panels sit idle at night. Nuclear plants make electricity all day long. As the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a group of 278 top climate experts assembled by the United Nations, put it, “Nuclear power can deliver low-carbon energy at scale.”

What gets in the way? “Emotional factors” can make nuclear energy politically toxic, the report noted, citing Germany’s policy after Fukushima. The conclusion? “Nuclear power and accident potential score high on psychological dread.”

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