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Comment by CamperBob2 | Hacker News Reader

Whether it's a net win or loss probably depends on where they were buying their nuclear fuel. E.g., from Russia? I don't imagine Taiwan has a lot of uranium mines.

In the event of conflict with China, they can buy LNG from any number of sources, unlike uranium.

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Fuel rods in nuclear reactor last 3-7 years giving high level of reliability in case of a blockade, while LNG storage is enough only for a few months in the best case.

They say 11 day storage....

Taiwan had one nuclear plant. That's like having zero backups of your data.

You can also stock up a lot of fuel in a small amount of space for a long time with uranium. I can't imagine China striking a nuclear power plant since the radiation would spread over to large parts of China.

"I can't imagine" does a lot of heavy lifting these days. A couple of years ago I couldn't imagine Russian troops bivouacking at Chernobyl or attacking Zaporizhzhia with drone strikes.

It is easy to call Putin a reckless dumbass and say that Xi is much more rational, but the two leaders have gone out of their way to put on a conspicuous show of friendship and shared interests.

I think you really misunderstand the situation in Ukraine and with PRC-Taiwan. I made a much more in-depth comment here that you may want to read. Both are still carefully maintaining a very specific image, though yes Putin is becoming more desperate, but that's resulting in Xi lowering support.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44032181

Well, the same logic about nuclear radioactivity spreading on their own territory did not stop the Russians from shelling the Zaporojnya nuclear plant. Your mileage may vary…

There's lots of uranium producers (e.g. Australia, Canada)

In the event of conflict with China, LNG transport can be easily blockaded, unlike uranium.

Uranium is also much easier to stockpile.

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