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Comment by jimmaswell | Hacker News Reader

Energy would be a non-issue if we'd have went full-in on nuclear. It would be so cheap we would all be heating our houses with resistive heaters and running all the AI farms we want in our basements without a second thought. Instead we let stupidity win.

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Tell that to the Navajo Nation. They're sitting on and around the 2nd largest source of uranium in the country. Between all the miners getting lung cancer and the high rates of blood cancer in everyone else due to the environmental neglect from the mining companies they eventually declared a moratorium on mining within their land.

I had a brief teaching stint out there on Shiprock. One of the first peculiar things I noticed was a clinic that I first thought offered some kind of radiation therapy, like an oncology clinic or what have you. Upon closer inspection I realized it was a clinic for those affected by radiation-related illnesses.

Meanwhile, given all the oil and gas activity, it certainly seems like that has given them far fewer problems.

You have to compare nuclear to other actually possible power sources, not some idealized hypothetical. How many coal miner get black lung, for instance? How many excess deaths from burning fossil fuels are there? Without that comparison, it’s a bad argument.

With how energy-dense uranium is, we could pay all the workers to wear full-body radiation suits and it wouldn't make a dent in the price per MW.

Carbon emissions kill over a million people a year. I would say that’s a bigger problem

I used to be against nuclear but seeing climate change accelerate I say just bring in on.

> It would be so cheap we would all be heating our houses with resistive heaters

"Too cheap to meter" was a promise in the 50's regarding nuclear power. Since then it turned out to be one of the most expensive ways to produce electricity if not the most expensive.

It didn't turn out to be anything because they're not being built or ran

Right. Except the around 400 nuclear power plants currently in operation.

It’s only the most expensive if you completely ignore the externalities of carbon emissions

France has a lot of nuclear power. Why didn't it happen there?

Edit: looks like something different is happening:

French Power Slumps as Surging Renewables Push Out Atomic Plants https://tildes.net/~enviro/1h6r/french_power_slumps_as_surgi...

Seems like it is happening? I'm guessing the maintenance might be the downside here, but they now have all the experience to build newer, better ones.

> France derives about 70% of its electricity from nuclear energy, due to a long-standing policy based on energy security.

> France is the world's largest net exporter of electricity due to its very low cost of generation, and gains over €3 billion per year from this.

https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/country-profil...

I was wondering why electricity isn't cheaper in France.

I guess one reason is taxes? Here's an article from January: https://www.rfi.fr/en/france/20240122-french-electricity-pri...

Because their grid isn't standalone, it is linked to the rest of Europe, which is a very power hungry region.

Lots of anti nuclear movements, managed to reduce investment into the nuclear power, and increase cost. We have not opened a plant in 25 years. Research plants have been closed down by anti nuclear activists.

Some of this movement is funded by Germany Governement.

> Some of this movement is funded by Germany Governement.

At first I thought you were joking, but of course you were absolutely right: https://www.howsolargotcheap.com/germany

Our Economic Warfare School (EGE, École de Guerre Économique) recently made a report on the subject: https://www.ege.fr/sites/ege.fr/files/media_files/German_Int...

It's not exactly what you're looking for but one of the big three contenders in the AI space (after OpenAI and Anthropic) is Mistral, based in France.

Tbf we let the fossil fuel industry win - dressed up as pro-environment protestors and non-profits. Boomers were easily manipulated.

Yep, I remember Greenpeace being staunchly against nuclear. I guess they were also against the environment.

Possibly of interest:

https://www.construction-physics.com/p/the-shape-of-nuclear-...

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