The Japanese region of Niigata is expected to endorse a decision to restart the world’s largest nuclear power plant on Monday, a watershed moment in the country’s pivot back to nuclear since the 2011 Fukushima disaster.
Kashiwazaki-Kariwa, located about 220 km (136 miles) northwest of Tokyo, was among 54 reactors shut after a massive earthquake and tsunami crippled the Fukushima Daiichi plant in the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.
Nuke bros are insufferable. There has been such an aggressive astroturfing campaign to prop up nuclear power, and it’s always the same tired (mostly outdated and inaccurate) talking points. It’s way too expensive, takes too long to build and renewables make way more sense. The main reason why nuclear power is being pushed so hard again is the unsustainable proliferation of data centres for AI, but no matter how much production you create, it will never be enough.
There is nothing wrong with nuclear energy. The problem is we haven’t invested in making smaller, cheaper reactors. The cost runaway of nuclear reactors and nuclear waste disposal are the biggest problems with it. We need to be able to spin up a reactor for the cost of a solar field, but we still are using 1960s technology in our current reactors with little to no advancement.
Solar doesn’t work during the evening hours without battery storage that we don’t have. Wind depends on…well…the wind. Tidal is consistently OK, but situational in location. Same for geothermal.
Nuclear has the advantage of being a consistent, steady output all the time and can be put pretty much everywhere. Given the choice between Natural Gas fired plants to make up deficits and Nuclear, I’ll choose Nukes every time.