I could be wrong, but I think nuclear's appeal is partly that from an advanced tech standpoint, there's something really cool about getting power from something so scientific, combined with how knowing they're actually pretty safe and we can manage the waste gives people a contrarianism high.
Meanwhile rebutting that with "Um, actually, while the tech is cool in the abstract, the economics of nuclear are fucking godawful and they're the cost overun-tastic construction projects from hell to try to build" isn't quite as satisfying.
Yes, but people spending billions of dollars shouldn't allow themselves to wallow in pure vibes.
Wouldn't that be nice, eh?
you can make the economics of anything awful if you do it on purpose, which is basically what happened to the safest form of energy (the solar and wind industries generate Fukushima level death tolls every time someone has a fall)
Can you explain how the incredibly high costs of constructing a nuclear power plant, which are mostly down to them being massive, incredibly complex construction projects that have to be built to very tight tolerances for safety reasons, compared to cheaper renewables, were "done on purpose"?
they used to build them affordably, then NIMBYs buried them in lawsuits so now they take forever
😂
That just isn't really true though, they were always very expensive. Why do you think the cost and construction challenges are down to NIMBYs? Similar lawsuits again Vogtle 3 and 4, the US's newest reactors, were dismissed within a few months. They were still 7 years late and $17bn over budget.
Flamanville 3 in France was meant to start production in 2012, and while I can't seem to find anything indicating it had any real delays due to NIMBY lawsuits, especially in famously pro-nuclear France, it was still 12 years later and nearly €10bn over budget.
Here in the UK we're building a new reactor at Hinkley Point, I've again not seen anything indicating NIMBYs have had any real role in delaying its construction process or increasing its cost, but it's already estimated to be around a third over budget, and years behind schedule.