Moreover a single nuclear unit costs billions to build, billions to maintain, billions to dismantle, all under control of a single entity/company. Whereas renewable costs are much more spread, can be managed by many different companies, etc.
Yes, agreed.
> Moreover a single nuclear unit costs billions to build, billions to maintain, billions to dismantle, all under control of a single entity/company. Whereas renewable costs are much more spread, can be managed by many different companies, etc.
The government should ask nuclear power companies to post a bond upfront to pay for the dismantling.
I don't think the whole 'single entity' thing is that bad. Nuclear power plants are still relatively small compared to the whole power infrastructure of a country. They are not more concentrated than eg hydro-electric generation from dams.
Just to be clear: I'm not arguing against renewables here. I'm arguing against turning off nuclear power plants that are already running, and have modern-enough safety features.
(Though I would argue against giving direct subsidies to both nuclear power plants and renewables. You should tax emissions, and let the market sort it out. You can even re-distribute the take from that tax to all voters, so that the average person doesn't have any extra tax burden.)
Germany had so little nuclear power left that leaving them running had no impact in the roadmap for green energies and energy prices. They had to be shut down anyway soon since they were old and insecure.