gardncl

And it worked, but unfortunately humans are too big for it to work on us.

They were able to freeze hamsters entirely then reanimate them with a microwave.

Those costs with storage are if you want 100% power from solar which is not reality. US alone gets 20% of power from nuclear today, we’re not going around tearing down the base load and adding solar. We’re keeping base load and adding renewables, which include wind.

Also if renewables are so dumb and are so problematic why were they 95% of new power generation installed in the US last year?

Yeah, my opinion on how much should come from nuclear is that current levels (~20%) are enough to fill the rest in with renewables.

I'd love to be France (~50%) but there is so much pushback against the technology due to accidents that happened decades ago with generation II plants (chernobyl + three mile island). We're now building tech for gen III+ plants and there is just almost no appetite to build them, we finished the vogles and now are completely pivoting to SMRs, which is fine.

SMR is probably what makes the most sense even if they're less efficient because until now the nuclear plants have not been very standardized which increases costs.

Why do I think nuclear is a distraction? Because I don't think it's a like-for-like replacement of fossil fuels and this admin knows that. They're willing to invest because it won't disrupt their biggest donors. The time horizon on nuclear is long, and there is a future (I hope) where we have nuclear plants hooked up to carbon capture technology and we pull these gasses out of the atmosphere. But until then what is the cheapest and most efficient path between current emissions and a massive cut in them? Renewables and battery tech (that's currently undergoing very dramatic cost reductions!).

Alternative to natural gas? Wind, geothermal, or nuclear. Wind is already in the northern half of the country and operates well when winterized, unlike the ones in Texas that broke since they were not winterized during that freeze a while back.

Natural gas and fossil fuels are not our only options, they are the easiest options.

Agreed. I misunderstood your comment and got too hot-headed. Sorry about that.

Yes, the 95% renewables is the number we should be shooting for not 100% as that causes battery backup price to explode.

I have been pro-nuclear for a long time, to disappointing results naturally. So, with how well renewables are doing I've really just jumped on this train and seen nuclear as more of a distraction from the critical next 10-20 years given how long it takes to come online.

At the end of the day the grid is only about 30% of the emissions problem (depending where you look).

My comment is not misleading, you're just using outdated data from 2022.

Sure, happy to quibble over units.

The most recent mid-2025 data is from lazard here, it echos exactly what I'm saying.

Website: https://www.lazard.com/research-insights/levelized-cost-of-e...

PDF of report: https://www.lazard.com/media/5tlbhyla/lazards-lcoeplus-june-...

Go to page 8 of that PDF and you will see these ranges for LCOE:

* Solar $38-$78/MWh

* Solar + battery $50-131/MWh

* Gas combined cycle (cheapest fossil fuel) $48-107/MWh

Yes, we are finally at price parity for the technologies.

That is not correct, and doesn't even pass the sniff test. Solar is deployed at ~$2/watt and you're saying batteries are increasing that cost 2.5x to 10x? So, someone installing a home battery system is paying up to 10x their solar install cost to also have battery backup? No way.

Also, battery tech continues to improve rapidly, we're seeing breakthroughs like this rapidly reduce the price: https://spectrum.ieee.org/co2-battery-energy-storage

A good video on LCOE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-891blV02c

US deploys nuclear energy at over $10/watt meanwhile solar and wind are deployed around $2/watt (for levelized cost of electricity) including battery storage which means they are deployed for roughly the same cost as natural gas (so, direct competitors).

Don't let comments like this fool you, nuclear is far from being competitive with natural gas. Even in countries like south korea that can deploy nuclear the cheapest it's still $3/watt roughly.

Good news? Net new solar and wind plants can come "online" in less than two years. Net new natural gas takes four years. Part of why 95% of new energy deployed last year were renewables in the US, not just the subsidies.

>What are the best resources to answer this question? Your physician. Not hacker news.

You're discounting the immense carbon footprint of building a new car then shipping it to the dealer. A number I remember, that might be wrong, is that over 50% of a car's lifetime emissions happen before it leaves the factory.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/green-living-blog/20...

I attempted suicide at fifteen years old (~2009)--three schools, two countries, and dad had lost his job twice in just three years. I'd say for me it was entirely based on social isolation and lack of self worth. I hadn't been able to participate in any sports teams or academics like I wanted since I started over twice back-to-back (in different countries, even). Very hopeless time for me and didn't feel like our family was ever going to get out of that situation.

Computers did not help me because I spent long hours on them in my room alone and if I didn't have them I likely would have found some group at school to fit in with.

When social security was started 159 people payed into it per recipient. Nowadays it's about 3 people paying in for a single recipient.

It's absolutely tied to population.

Teikametrics | Backend and front-end engineers | Boston, MA | Onsite | Full time teikametrics.com

Scala and heroku. No funding and fully profitable business. Industry leader in amazon price optimization. Looking for any experience level

Email resume to cgardner@teikametrics.com

Due to some unforeseen circumstances in the last couple of months I've had to take over (only 2 hours) the allowed PTO from my company so I'm definitely not able to take a week off. Probably something I should have mentioned originally. Thank you for discussing this with me!

I live in the south and have a 2 hour flight to Boston. I was flown up there about a month ago for a day of job interviews, but didn't get the job. A job before I move is the goal but I'm not sure how easy that will be since companies are wary of relocating--a friend of mine (same company and same experience level) after months of searching for a job in Denver finally moved there and had 5 job offers within a month. So perhaps I am too encouraged by his good fortune, but I feel it cannot be that difficult.

Booz Allen Hamilton (Formerly SPARC) | Software Engineer | sparcedge.com | Charleston, SC | Full-time

SPARC is a software startup recently acquired by Booz Allen: https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/SPARC-Reviews-E386765.htm

Contact me at gardnercm@g.cofc.edu (old college email)

Openings for Jrs to Tech leads. Beautiful Charleston, SC and excellent heath care, 401k match, etc.