[HN Gopher] Japan, US to step up cooperation in developing next-...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Japan, US to step up cooperation in developing next-generation
       nuclear reactors
        
       Author : gok
       Score  : 201 points
       Date   : 2023-01-09 16:41 UTC (6 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (asianews.network)
 (TXT) w3m dump (asianews.network)
        
       | newaccount2021 wrote:
       | [dead]
        
       | j45 wrote:
       | It might be time to start going long in Uranium and it's not so
       | well known but preferable sibling Thorium
        
         | acidburnNSA wrote:
         | Nuclear engineer here. Thorium is not actually that preferable
         | over Uranium. The point most people miss is that you can make
         | breeder reactors with uranium or thorium. Most pop internet
         | thorium takes compare uranium in non-breeders vs. thorium
         | breeders. Comparing uranium vs. thorium breeder reactors is a
         | wash.
        
           | legitster wrote:
           | Thanks! I always suspected the internet hivemind about
           | thorium sounded too straightforward.
        
           | amalgamated_inc wrote:
           | Interesting.
           | 
           | In your professional nuclear engineer opinion, what is the
           | future of nuclear in the energy mix? Not in the political
           | sense, but I keep hearing these claims that solar/wind will
           | just destroy nuclear due to lower costs. Does that make sense
           | to you, or do you think nuclear has something to offer?
        
             | acidburnNSA wrote:
             | The solar/wind cost argument you refer to relies entirely
             | on an accountant's metric called Levelized Cost of
             | Electricity, which explains what the cheapest power sources
             | are _on the margin_ , given today's fossil-backed grid.
             | Wind and solar and fracked gas do great in this metric.
             | 
             | But when you start looking at costs of the entire future
             | decarbonized electricity system, including all the stuff
             | needed to level out the weather-dependence of wind and
             | solar, and you start comparing e.g. a 100% wind + solar +
             | batteries grid vs. a wind + solar + hydro + nuclear grid,
             | you start seeing dramatic differences. There's a metric
             | being developed called Levelized Full system Cost of
             | Electricity to handle this.
             | 
             | Anyway it turns out that having a 24/7 zero-carbon
             | miniscule-footprint energy source like nuclear fission in
             | the mix is a huge help to the overall system.
             | 
             | Also, nuclear can use its 'waste' heat as district heat and
             | pump warm water up to 100 km to fully decarbonize local
             | building heat without going through an electrical
             | conversion.
             | 
             | Also nuclear works great in deep space.
             | 
             | So yeah, I see a great future for nuclear in the near,
             | medium, and extremely distance future.
        
               | amalgamated_inc wrote:
               | Thanks, very interesting. I have heard that exact
               | reasoning ("It's all about LCoE!") from various Very
               | Smart People Good At Math. Physics PhDs, VCs (Chamath
               | talks about how this means we "already have practically
               | free, abundant energy from solar").
               | 
               | Seems to me like a case of wishful myopia, where they
               | hone in on that one metric that gives them the illusion
               | that This Is Working.
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | nixass wrote:
       | Germany on the other hand is drowning in their own dirty coal and
       | subducts to green party/terrorists
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | dane-pgp wrote:
         | You may want to read something like "Common misconceptions
         | about Germany's energy transition"[0] for a fuller picture of
         | the situation there. In particular, it points out that between
         | 2002 and 2021:
         | 
         | "both hard and lignite [coal usage] decreased from 251.9 TWh to
         | 146.5 TWh for a reduction of 109.4 TWh. So Germany reduced both
         | coal and nuclear at the same time, coal did not grow, and the
         | coal reduction was actually larger than the nuclear reduction."
         | 
         | [0] https://chadvesting.substack.com/p/common-misconceptions-
         | abo...
        
           | mannerheim wrote:
           | > 29.2 TWh of reduction of Russian coal imports, vs 12.2 TWh
           | increase of Russian gas imports.
           | 
           | > The Energiewende made Germany less dependent on Russia than
           | if it had never taken place!
           | 
           | This is moronic, a total apples to oranges comparison. First,
           | coal is much cheaper than gas, so whatever they were paying
           | for Russian coal doesn't necessarily cancel out the gas
           | increase. Second, coal is way easier to transport than gas.
           | The latter needs a pipeline or liquefaction, both of which
           | require extensive capital outlays that make it much more
           | difficult to switch from one supplier to another. Third, coal
           | and nuclear are both base load, while natural gas is used as
           | peakers. The entire argument for nuclear over renewables was
           | that renewables would require more peakers (i.e., gas).
        
         | amalgamated_inc wrote:
         | If only we could harvest the energy of good intentions!
        
       | miguelazo wrote:
       | And yet _still_ no good (or even decent) solution for how to
       | handle the waste?
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | legitster wrote:
         | I dunno, there's lots of decent solutions when countries
         | actually explore them:
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onkalo_spent_nuclear_fuel_repo...
         | 
         | Keep in mind, most of the reactors we are used to are basically
         | 1960s designs. Part of the appeal of building new reactors is
         | that they are so much more efficient that they can actually
         | _burn up more of the spent fuel than they themselves create._
        
         | amalgamated_inc wrote:
         | There's also no need. Just leave it in the plant. Or put it in
         | a cave if that makes you feel good. It's not an actual problem.
        
           | coldpie wrote:
           | Even if it is a problem, it is a teeny tiny pebble dropped in
           | a pond compared to the massive tidal wave of climate change.
        
           | miguelazo wrote:
           | Oh, really? Care to explain? Seems pretty toxic from
           | everything I have seen.
           | 
           | I also don't find paying (currently) over half a billion
           | dollars a year in storage costs efficient. Usually not even
           | factored into the costs of this "clean" energy.
           | 
           | https://earth.stanford.edu/news/steep-costs-nuclear-waste-us
        
             | JumpCrisscross wrote:
             | > _seems pretty toxic_
             | 
             | We don't have a totally nontoxic power source. We do have
             | ones which offer better options for containment. Coal ash
             | is radioactive and toxic [1]. Solar panels are also toxic
             | [2]. But we don't grind them into a fine powder before
             | sprinkling them over communities. On this scale, nuclear is
             | toxic, but in small, contained and manageable masses.
             | 
             | > _paying (currently) over half a billion dollars a year in
             | storage costs_
             | 
             | Your link fingers "the United States' failure to implement
             | a permanent solution for nuclear waste storage" as the
             | cause for the "half-a-billion dollars a year [paid] to the
             | utilities for their simply keeping the fuel" [3]. The
             | current solution passably inefficient. The efficient
             | solutions are blocked by activists.
             | 
             | [1] https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/coal-ash-is-
             | more-...
             | 
             | [2]
             | https://scdhec.gov/sites/default/files/Library/OR-1695.pdf
             | 
             | [3] https://earth.stanford.edu/news/steep-costs-nuclear-
             | waste-us
        
             | amalgamated_inc wrote:
             | Seal it in metal and concrete -> done. You can now store it
             | in any old warehouse. If you're really paranoid, put a sign
             | "Warning: Dangerous Alligator!" on the door.
             | 
             | Half a billion per year is nothing compared to the damage
             | we're preventing with climate change, is it?
        
               | 93po wrote:
               | They tend to bury the waste extremely far underground,
               | and even than that isn't very expensive. It's a hell of a
               | lot cheaper the the real world impacts we're seeing from
               | carbon emissions today (over a million deaths a year).
        
       | abarringer wrote:
       | If you are interested in seeing Uranium news from around the
       | world every day and there is a lot happening in the space follow
       | @quakes99 on twitter.
        
       | ForOldHack wrote:
       | Its simply because both Japan and the U.S. are far behind Korea,
       | who has been shipping reactors all over the world after
       | Fukushima, and they are the only country to increase
       | installations since.
        
         | mi_lk wrote:
         | source?
        
         | philipkglass wrote:
         | Korea is not the only country to add nuclear power
         | installations since Fukushima. Look at date of first grid
         | connection in the following data sets for years after 2011:
         | 
         | India:
         | https://pris.iaea.org/PRIS/CountryStatistics/CountryDetails....
         | 
         | Pakistan:
         | https://pris.iaea.org/PRIS/CountryStatistics/CountryDetails....
         | 
         | China:
         | https://pris.iaea.org/PRIS/CountryStatistics/CountryDetails....
         | 
         | Russia:
         | https://pris.iaea.org/PRIS/CountryStatistics/CountryDetails....
         | 
         | Finland:
         | https://pris.iaea.org/PRIS/CountryStatistics/CountryDetails....
         | 
         | Belarus:
         | https://pris.iaea.org/PRIS/CountryStatistics/CountryDetails....
        
       | ForOldHack wrote:
       | Simply put, the radiation was detectable over more than 1/2 of
       | the entire surface of the earth. A lot of people do not think it
       | is a problem, unless you immediately die of radiation.
       | 
       | A 747 when flying straight at you, is only a tiny tiny spec,
       | until the very last second, and then it gets really really big,
       | and then you are dead.
       | 
       | I heard Randy Shilts say this "Give me a number. How may people
       | have to die?"
        
         | mrguyorama wrote:
         | Meanwhile if you fly on that 747 you experienced significantly
         | more radiation than most people in japan experienced from
         | fukishima.
         | 
         | I live in an area with lots of granite, so just existing I
         | likely experience more radiation than the average japanese
         | person after fukishima.
        
       | amalgamated_inc wrote:
       | Very cool. Japan doesn't have much of their own in terms of
       | energy resources, so I applaud both the commitment to help our
       | ally and the R&D in terms of new and especially SMR nuclear.
       | 
       | Japan is the perfect use-case for nuclear. Even when disaster
       | strikes, they're extremely safe. Only 1 person ever died of
       | radiation in Fukushima. Thousands to tens of thousands died from
       | the tsunami that caused it.
        
         | AtlasBarfed wrote:
         | How much radioactive waste was dumped in the ocean?
        
           | amalgamated_inc wrote:
           | I don't know, you tell me. Are you saying it was non-zero?
        
           | acidburnNSA wrote:
           | Fukushima dumped about 45 PBq of radioactive material into
           | the ocean.
           | 
           | For reference:
           | 
           | Chernobyl did 85 PBq
           | 
           | Global nuclear weapons testing: 400 PBq
           | 
           | Natural Uranium-238: 37,000 PBq
           | 
           | Natural Potassium-40: 15,000,000 PBq
           | 
           | https://www.whoi.edu/multimedia/source-of-radioactivity-
           | in-t...
        
             | themitigating wrote:
             | Is that natural uranium concentrated in rock formations?
             | Because the weapons testing and dumping disperses the
             | material.
             | 
             | I'm genuinely asking
        
             | JumpCrisscross wrote:
             | Or 75mm bananas.
        
             | rcme wrote:
             | Now divide each number by its area.
        
               | numpad0 wrote:
               | And factor in decays too!
        
               | acidburnNSA wrote:
               | The ocean constantly churns, mixing these all together,
               | so dividing by the constant area of the world oceans
               | doesn't change this.
        
               | bob29 wrote:
               | Explain the trash islands
        
               | thereddaikon wrote:
               | I dont think its accurate to equate floating trash and
               | something dissolved in solution. Their behavior is likely
               | to be very different.
        
               | thefurdrake wrote:
               | Explain the lack of sodium islands.
               | 
               | E: "Cesium dissolves easily in water."[1]
               | 
               | [1] https://www.epa.gov/radiation/radionuclide-basics-
               | cesium-137
        
               | mortenjorck wrote:
               | This is presumably being downvoted for the unnecessary
               | "gotcha" phrasing, but it is an interesting point of
               | distinction. I have an intuitive guess as to the
               | principles at work, but I don't really know the actual
               | physics.
        
               | JumpCrisscross wrote:
               | > _but I don't really know the actual physics_
               | 
               | Vastly oversimplifying: two versus three dimensions.
        
               | rcme wrote:
               | I don't think that explains it at all. So garbage floats
               | (more or less), so can be modeled as a 2D plane. But why
               | do patches form? Why isn't the garbage distributed
               | uniformly across the plane? And why doesn't that same
               | mechanism apply in 3D?
        
               | Schroedingersat wrote:
               | This takes decades. The plume was largely concentrated
               | over a few dozen km and couple hundred m deep when it hit
               | california five years later. And actually significant
               | spill would be orders of magnitude worse.
               | 
               | This is also why mass expansion of reprocessing
               | facilities is completely untenable.
        
             | runarberg wrote:
             | These comparisons--except for Chernobyl--are disingenuous.
             | Nuclear weapons testing has been outlawed and has mostly
             | stopped, natural Uranium and--even more so--Potassium don't
             | release radiation in nearly the same concentration as
             | Fukushima (or Hanford to that extent). Radiation is
             | dangerous when it concentrates.
        
             | gh02t wrote:
             | For some perspective: I don't have a full breakdown of the
             | release materials on hand, but according to Wikipedia of
             | the 45 PBq you quoted something like 20 PBq of that was
             | Iodine-131 and 5 PBq of Cs-137. That's about 4.3 grams of
             | I-131 and 1.6 kg of Cs-137. In radiological terms that's a
             | LOT if they were concentrated in a small area, not so much
             | when diluted into the entire ocean. Note that estimated
             | releases to the atmosphere were about 10x that IIRC (but
             | don't quote me on exact numbers).
             | 
             | Not to downplay the risks or consequences, people need to
             | decide that for themselves and the dynamics of how this
             | material ends up dispersed in the environment are
             | complicated, but talking in terms of mass helps put things
             | into perspective.
             | 
             | Wiki has a good writeup https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radia
             | tion_effects_from_the_Fuk...
        
             | throw827474737 wrote:
             | Very comparabale! And also sheer luck the main plume went
             | there too..
        
         | PartiallyTyped wrote:
         | Didn't that person actually die from cancer and not radiation
         | per se?
         | 
         | I understand that cancer can be caused by radiation, but that
         | is actually treatable and not always fatal, whereas radiation
         | poisoning is afaik fatal.
        
           | amalgamated_inc wrote:
           | This is correct, it is not 100% certain the cancer was
           | caused/exacerbated by the radiation. But let's count it as a
           | conservative 1 death.
           | 
           | It was not acute radiation poisoning.
        
         | ceejayoz wrote:
         | > Only 1 person ever died of radiation in Fukushima.
         | 
         | While I tend to agree with your point, there's also the couple
         | hundred square miles and 165k people worth of exclusion zone as
         | a side-effect. That's not small, but it's potentially something
         | you can mitigate by picking sites carefully.
        
           | amalgamated_inc wrote:
           | That exclusion zone is mostly unnecessary. You can go there
           | with a geiger counter and you'll find it's not much more
           | radioactive than e.g. Utah.
           | 
           | Most of the "measures" were completely irrational.
        
             | Manuel_D wrote:
             | The exclusion zone isn't unnecessary. It's _gone_. All
             | exclusion zones have been remediated and reopened:
             | https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/30/asia/futaba-fukushima-
             | nuclear...
             | 
             | Nobody bothered to clean up Chernobyl because the whole
             | town's existence was to support the plant and plant
             | workers. With no plant, the city had no value and thus no
             | incentive to spend money on remediation. By comparison,
             | Japan showed us what occurs when places with value are
             | contaminated: effort is made to clean them up. Half of the
             | exclusion zone was reopened within 5 years, and the most
             | intensely irradiated locations were cleaned up in just over
             | a decade.
        
           | asdff wrote:
           | If the U.S. shared similar concern for environmental health a
           | good portion of urban areas would be in exclusion zones from
           | other sources of industrial contamination too. Instead we
           | tolerate these people having elevated rates of diseases such
           | as cancer or asthma and generally shortened lifespans, and
           | let companies responsible go bankrupt with their executives
           | absolved of all responsibilities while we spend time today
           | scratching our head figuring out what to do.
           | 
           | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Susana_Field_Laboratory
           | 
           | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superfund#/media/File:Superfun.
           | ..
        
         | pkaye wrote:
         | US also has gotten Eastern Europe and South Korea involved.
         | 
         | https://emerging-europe.com/news/ukraine-joins-europes-list-...
        
         | floxy wrote:
         | >Thousands to tens of thousands died from the tsunami that
         | caused it.
         | 
         | 19,759 according to the sources cited by the wikipedia article:
         | 
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_T%C5%8Dhoku_earthquake_an...
        
           | amalgamated_inc wrote:
           | Thanks for looking it up, I remembered "something ten
           | thousand" but wasn't sure if it was just under or just over
           | or just something with a ten :)
        
         | NovemberWhiskey wrote:
         | It's been a while since I looked, but I think the claim here is
         | that the evacuation of elderly and infirm people from the parts
         | of the exclusion area that were otherwise not seriously
         | affected by the tsunami resulted in a large loss of disability-
         | adjusted life years.
        
           | amalgamated_inc wrote:
           | Yes, that's true. And that evacuation was based on irrational
           | fear-mongering, completely unnecessary.
        
             | ForOldHack wrote:
             | I'll have what he is having, in fact, Ill have a double.
             | 
             | "Because of the plant's location along the coast, much of
             | the water washed into the Pacific, resulting in the largest
             | accidental release of radiation to the ocean in history.
             | Additional airborne radioactive material from the
             | explosions and fires at the plant fell onto the sea
             | surface, where it too mixed into the water, as did
             | subsequent leaks from tanks on the site holding treated
             | water."
             | 
             | This is from Woods Hole, you probably do not know or
             | recognize their expertise.
             | 
             | "the largest accidental release of radiation to the ocean
             | in history."
        
               | PaulHoule wrote:
               | And it is is just a drop in the ocean when you consider
               | the natural radioactivity from 40K.
               | 
               | It may be a local, time-bounded problem in the first few
               | years after the accident in that certain isotopes may
               | bio-concentrate and affect fishing and agriculture in
               | that region.
               | 
               | So far as the ocean as a whole goes I'd be more concerned
               | about chunks of styrofoam.
        
               | amalgamated_inc wrote:
               | Yes, and, as demonstrated in another post on here, way
               | less than what's released naturally every day.
               | 
               | Even the worst case just isn't very bad.
        
         | jansan wrote:
         | [flagged]
        
           | petre wrote:
           | More like one confirmed radiation death and around 2000
           | because of the tsunami and the displacement.
        
             | throw827474737 wrote:
             | Radiation deaths? Lol guys, I get it, but please don't try
             | to make a bigger fool out ouf you by ridiculing about a
             | point noone ever made.. it is like someone would tell you
             | that our lethargic sitting life styles makes us sick and
             | you stand up and shout: "But noone died from sitting, while
             | tons of people die from sports a lot!!!"
        
               | foota wrote:
               | What?
        
           | bfgoodrich wrote:
           | [dead]
        
       | 6510 wrote:
       | The new Japanese nuclear reactor is apparently a rather big deal.
       | If it is what it says on the tin we should all be building them.
       | 
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uTZWaJU6ho
        
       | v8xi wrote:
       | Very good news to hear. With recent energy problems being exposed
       | via the war in Ukraine, nuclear power is increasingly our best
       | option for cheap, abundant energy. Despite decades of misdirected
       | "Green" propaganda, nuclear is the safest, most viable route to a
       | carbon-free future, while renewables are just not ready to scale
       | yet (let alone their massive footprint compared to nuclear). Just
       | hope we can get these in the ground fast enough to make a
       | difference.
        
       | binkHN wrote:
       | Small modular reactors for the win. Hope to see this move forward
       | with cookie cutter approaches that can be easily reproduced with
       | a high degree of safety.
        
       | maelito wrote:
       | Meanwhile in France, we're trying to convince people that nuclear
       | energy doesn't emit CO2 and isn't more dangerous that the others.
       | 
       | Well, 4g/kWh.
       | 
       | Although the government has planned to construct 6 reactors, the
       | historical "ecological" movement still makes fighting nuclear
       | electricity their 1st priority.
        
         | bioemerl wrote:
         | Fun fact. The soviets and now Russians have a big hand in
         | promoting this misinformation.
        
           | janef0421 wrote:
           | Why would Russia promote anti-nuclear disinformation? The
           | Russian state-owned entity Rosatom is a major exporter of
           | nuclear technology, so doing that would be against Russia's
           | interests.
        
             | mannerheim wrote:
             | Rosneft and Gazprom each make way more money than Rosatom.
        
               | janef0421 wrote:
               | At present, yes, but those revenues are threatened by
               | climate change, while Rosatom's revenues are likely to
               | expand for the same reason.
        
               | bioemerl wrote:
               | Russia has massive incentive to keep Europe dependent on
               | their fossil fuels.
        
               | janef0421 wrote:
               | Yes, but doing that by undermining nuclear is a poor
               | strategic move. It would leave Russia with no fallback
               | strategy in the case that Europe did cease fossil fuels
               | imports, and would undermine export of nuclear technology
               | to other regions.
        
               | mannerheim wrote:
               | Those revenues have specifically gone up as a result of
               | climate change measures. NS2 had a projected cost of 9.5
               | billion euros, and that's not even including any gas; you
               | don't spend that kind of money without the expectation of
               | making it back and more.
        
               | janef0421 wrote:
               | Gone up in the short term, but likely to fall in the
               | long-term.
        
               | mannerheim wrote:
               | The latter is speculative.
        
               | janef0421 wrote:
               | Speculation is inherent to geopolitical strategy.
        
           | miguelazo wrote:
           | Fascinating! Do you have any evidence for this?
        
             | bioemerl wrote:
             | https://thehill.com/opinion/energy-
             | environment/599113-russia...
             | 
             | https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/environmen
             | t...
             | 
             | https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/russian-funded-
             | en...
             | 
             | China is doing similar to prevent mines for rare earth
             | minerals being built in the United States
        
               | miguelazo wrote:
               | NICE. So two of those are just opinion pieces quoting
               | Western cut-outs/think tank hacks, and the Guardian piece
               | is relying entirely on the _statements_ of NATO 's chief.
               | Funny how low the barrier of proof is when you're "the
               | good guys."
               | 
               | "He declined to give details of those operations, saying:
               | "That is my interpretation."" LMAO
        
               | bioemerl wrote:
               | If you want to know why the bar is so low:
               | 
               | Firstly, it's incredibly difficult to track funding for
               | entities like these, so when someone like the NATO chief
               | isn't citing sources, it's probably because the sources
               | aren't for the public to know.
               | 
               | Second, this is something that Russia has done dozens of
               | times. It should be shocking to you if they aren't
               | funding this sort of narrative in the countries they want
               | to be dependent on them.
        
           | NDizzle wrote:
           | Most environmentalists are Russian?
        
             | thereddaikon wrote:
             | Not directly. More that they fund groups that are anti
             | nuclear.
        
               | miguelazo wrote:
               | Wow, had no idea they were so involved with domestic
               | politics. Where did you read that?
        
               | mannerheim wrote:
               | On the Nord Stream website.
               | 
               | https://www.nord-stream.com/press-info/press-
               | releases/conser...
        
               | dragonwriter wrote:
               | Russia, and before them the Soviet Union, has been
               | backing domestic groups in Western societies fir ourpose
               | of destablization, disrupting economic progress, etc.,
               | and weakening military stance for a long time. The anti-
               | everything-nuclear movement ticked all those boxes in
               | different ways.
               | 
               | (And, yes, this kind of geopolitically-motivated
               | propaganda works in all directions.)
        
               | MrOwnPut wrote:
               | The entire conflict is created by the environmental NGOs
               | though.
               | 
               | Many countries & people fund those NGOs, either thinking
               | they are helping the environment, or they have ulterior
               | motives (promoting their investments).
               | 
               | The NGOs are tricking people, they want to reduce nuclear
               | to further solar/wind because they have investments in
               | it.
               | 
               | Russia is playing into the NGOs because they have the
               | same end goal, wanting to reduce nuclear, but for their
               | nat. gas. investments.
        
             | bob29 wrote:
             | and green peace super soldiers
        
           | megaman821 wrote:
           | So you are Russia.
           | 
           | You have a powerful misinformation team that can sway global
           | opinion.
           | 
           | Out of all objectives that further Russian power, you have
           | decided on the squashing new nuclear plants.
           | 
           | Why this and not some other objective? Why can't they sway
           | the global opinion on Ukraine? Surely they are trying.
        
             | NovemberWhiskey wrote:
             | > _Why this and not some other objective? Why can 't they
             | sway the global opinion on Ukraine? Surely they are
             | trying._
             | 
             | The Overton window is a thing, right? "Nuclear power might
             | be really unsafe" is a much easier sell in the public
             | discourse than "it's OK to invade your peaceful neighbors".
        
               | megaman821 wrote:
               | That is exactly what I mean. There is virtually no public
               | support for invading your peaceful neighbor, and no
               | amount of misinformation is going to fundamentally change
               | that. Support for building nuclear power plants is a
               | contentious issue. Of course Russia wants to nudge the
               | outcome in their favor, but saying Russian misinformation
               | is mostly responsible for the anti-nuclear sentiment is
               | crazy.
        
               | mannerheim wrote:
               | > There is virtually no public support for invading your
               | peaceful neighbor, and no amount of misinformation is
               | going to fundamentally change that.
               | 
               | I mean, there is a sizeable minority who have been
               | convinced by Russian propaganda on this; typically they
               | refer to Euromaidan as a coup, blame the invasion on
               | Ukraine for not implementing Minsk, claim Ukraine is
               | banning the Russian language, and so forth.
               | 
               | If propaganda can bump this from zero to twenty percent,
               | why not from 40 to 60?
        
               | mrguyorama wrote:
               | These points are literally made on fox news many nights.
               | How much does it cost to get fox news to broadcast your
               | propaganda to 60 million americans versus bribing enough
               | american politicians that have enough sway to actually
               | disrupt things.
               | 
               | Russia buying a politician would hopefully be a huge
               | story. Russia buying advertising in the US to push for
               | dis-unity or their abhorrent propaganda about Ukraine
               | being full of nazis or that 1 billion dollars is a lot to
               | pay (in old, out of date, expensive to decommission
               | hardware) to absolutely defang the largest rival we had
               | last century is derogatorily labeled as "Russiagate" and
               | "conspiracy theory" and "liberal brainworms".
        
             | saint_fiasco wrote:
             | I think the idea is that if they can delay the construction
             | of new nuclear plants they increase Europe's dependence on
             | Russian oil.
        
               | asdff wrote:
               | You would think it would be a lot more straightforward
               | and effective to just directly bribe policymakers than to
               | crank out propaganda and hope 1% of it sticks.
        
               | mannerheim wrote:
               | What do you think Schroder is?
        
             | 93po wrote:
             | Russian's main export is oil/gas/coal/etc. It's roughly
             | half of all their exports and over a $100 billion worth
             | every year. Yes, squashing new nuclear plants profits them
             | tremendously, and protecting their oil/gas/etc export
             | business is likely one of their top priorities.
        
             | bioemerl wrote:
             | > Why this and not some other objective?
             | 
             | You do both. Europeans are much more easily convinced that
             | nuclear energy is scary.
        
             | sigstoat wrote:
             | > Out of all objectives that further Russian power, you
             | have decided on the squashing new nuclear plants.
             | 
             | it's not like it's a team of five guys slogging away in the
             | propaganda mines with pick axes. they can pursue a number
             | of goals simultaneously, limited mostly by budget and
             | probably other geopolitical concerns, rather than video
             | game-esque restrictions on the total number of things they
             | can propagandize about simultaneously.
             | 
             | > Why this and not some other objective? Why can't they
             | sway the global opinion on Ukraine? Surely they are trying.
             | 
             | they've had a lot longer to work on nuclear than the
             | current invasion.
             | 
             | they've also had plenty of success in the past with
             | ukraine-related misinformation, see walter duranty.
        
           | Octabrain wrote:
           | Can you provide any source for supporting that claim?
        
             | meindnoch wrote:
             | https://twitter.com/ziontree/status/1497998920739274757
        
               | miguelazo wrote:
               | I love that the Guardian article in that thread cites the
               | head of NATO's _statements_ as proof of Russian
               | involvement. This is even lazier than Russiagate.
        
               | mannerheim wrote:
               | And that makes the rest of the thread irrelevant? Here's
               | Nord Stream AG directly saying they provided funding for
               | WWF and BUND.
               | 
               | https://www.nord-stream.com/press-info/press-
               | releases/conser...
        
               | JumpCrisscross wrote:
               | > _Nord Stream AG directly saying they provided funding
               | for WWF and BUND_
               | 
               | That looks more like greenwashing than having a hand in
               | promoting misinformation.
        
               | mannerheim wrote:
               | BUND specifically states that they never opposed to
               | construction of the Nord Stream pipeline, because they
               | viewed natural gas as a good alternative to nuclear:
               | 
               | https://twitter.com/simonwakter/status/149822887368269005
               | 0
        
               | miguelazo wrote:
               | And? There's nothing here denouncing nuclear. Also, Nord
               | Stream AG? You mean the Swiss holding company of which
               | Gazprom is a partner? So the millions of dollars that
               | Exxon, Chevron, etc. have spent on misinformation to
               | undermine climate change concerns over the decades
               | implicates the US government as well?
        
               | mannerheim wrote:
               | Who owns Nord Stream AG?
        
               | consumer451 wrote:
               | > This is even lazier than Russiagate.
               | 
               | What do you mean by Russiagate exactly? (As in, which
               | one?)
        
               | miguelazo wrote:
               | The main one-- Trump is a Kremlin asset, etc.
        
         | kwhitefoot wrote:
         | The World Nuclear Association says it is even higher: 12 g/kWh.
         | See https://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/energy-
         | and...
        
           | DennisP wrote:
           | Not sure if you meant it like this but "even higher" sounds
           | like you think that's high. Your source also gives the
           | following numbers:
           | 
           | On-shore wind: 11 g/kWh
           | 
           | Hydropower: 24 g/kWh
           | 
           | Utility solar PV: 48 g/kWh
           | 
           | Biomass: 230 g/kWh
           | 
           | Natural gas: 490 g/kWh
           | 
           | Of course this is from the World Nuclear Association but they
           | link a source at the IPCC, and after doing a little googling
           | it looks like other sources agree.
        
             | Schroedingersat wrote:
             | That IPCC report is very old. Onshore wind and solar have
             | dropped significantly.
             | 
             | https://www.ise.fraunhofer.de/en/publications/studies/photo
             | v...
             | 
             | https://www.vestas.com/en/sustainability/reports-and-
             | ratings...
             | 
             | Uranium mining has dropped too which is what brings it over
             | 4g (largely due to using solar rather than diesel for
             | electricity).
        
             | xupybd wrote:
             | Wow, so on-shore wind is better than Nuclear. I would not
             | have guessed that. Even more surprising is that Natural gas
             | is only 490 g/kWh
        
               | Schroedingersat wrote:
               | PV is significantly better than either now. Their
               | reference is panels from 2015
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | killjoywashere wrote:
       | I always wonder about this balance of policy and engineering ...
       | I mean, engineering efforts need policy support, but too much can
       | drown it. Anybody have a sense of the negotiators involved?
        
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