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Comment by siliconunit | Hacker News Reader

When one considers the whole loop from incredibly polluting mining to disposing and keeping everything decontaminated in the process, fission nuclear should only be seen as a last resort option, as much as I see the great progress that has been made of course. I would have gone geothermal in Antarctica... with modern super depth drilling tech, and hot water as side effect, looks like a promising choice.

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We have enough "waste" nuclear material that could be burned again in advanced reactors that mining doesn't have to be a thing if we really got our act together.

Also, the question really is about carbon emissions vs other types of environmental impact. Batteries and solar panels require great gobs of mining infrastructure too.

Update your knowledge of nuclear power. Mining can be done cleanly or not at all, and nuclear power plants generate very little waste - most of the waste that exists is from bomb making.

Newer fission tech has a lot of promise... if people who are convinced they already know all about nuclear energy can be troubled to learn about it.

What we know about it is that it is the most expensive alternative. Building, operating, and maintaining a new solar installation is cheaper than just operating and maintaining a nuke steam generator, ignoring the huge construction and decommissioning costs.

We finally got the ramshackle Indian Point and Diablo Canyon contraptions shut down, after decades of constant effort, and now it will cost a billion dollars and a decade or two to take them apart.

Update your knowledge of nuclear power.

The economics don't pan out. The opportunity costs alone are staggering.

https://www.leonardodicaprio.org/the-7-reasons-why-nuclear-e...

https://web.stanford.edu/group/efmh/jacobson/Articles/I/Nucl...

> When one considers the whole loop from incredibly polluting mining to disposing and keeping everything decontaminated in the process

You could make the same comment about modern battery tech and solar though.

No, you really couldn't...

There's no err uranium involved in that one.

Also, the costs of uranium mining are insane.

And with lithium-free batteries around the corner, that comparison gets even more ridiculous.

https://www.faradion.co.uk/faradion-comment-on-catl-announce...

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