solar is not pilotable like nuclear though

it's a great source of energy mind you, but I kind of wince everytime people are trying to say it's better than nuclear (if you put the dangerosity of the raw material aside of course)

there are excellent storage capacities now, which helps a lot, but nuclear stays unmatched in producing vast amounts of electricity on demand (as long as we're not in a brutal heat wave to be fair)

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__MatrixMan__ 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Isn't targeting their nuclear plants the first thing that Russia did when they invaded Ukraine? And there are all of these refineries and pipelines being bombed around Iran. And sometimes an oil tanker or several gets stolen...

Centralized energy infra just isn't resilient enough against geopolitical problems to be worth investing in. Something about too much dependency on a thing attracts bad behavior to that thing.

By contrast, ain't nobody wasting a $50k missile on a $5k battery just so they can cut power to one building.

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lightedman 15 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

" but I kind of wince everytime people are trying to say it's better than nuclear"

Solar is the superior form of nuclear energy. You're using a big ass nuclear fusion reactor in the center of our solar system to generate energy, and you harvest that energy by capturing its photonic output.

As far as storing the energy for peak demand/nighttime usage, we've got literally hundreds of methods to do it, from pure mechanical to electrochemical.

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roflmaostc 16 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I am not sure if I understand your comment lol

I could also say: Solar is the best energy source (if you put night aside of course).

I mean obviously the main drawback of nuclear fission is the waste and the potential impact of radioactivity.

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pfdietz 15 hours ago | parent | next [-]

No, the main drawback of nuclear is it costs too much.

If nuclear were just as expensive as it is now but had no waste or radioactivity it would still be struggling.

If it were 10x cheaper but still had the waste and radioactivity it would be going like gangbusters.

	▲	ben_w 15 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		> If it were 10x cheaper but still had the waste and radioactivity it would be going like gangbusters. Perhaps. While the amortisation of the costs of Chernobyl etc. over the global nuclear fleet are surprisingly low, the local economic impact was high enough that even governments are cautious about the risks. e.g. the Chernobyl exclusion zone is about the size of Luxembourg, so I'd expect their government to have had… discussions… with the French government about the safety of the nearby reactor in Cattenom: were it to détoner while the wind was blowing the wrong way, Luxembourg may cease to exist. (Low risk, but existential if it happens. Not everyone's as enthusiastic as powerful people seem to be today about AI).
	▲	triceratops 14 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		To be fair nuclear is as expensive as it is mostly because of radioactivity. There'd be no need for all the heavy concrete, armed guards, and spent fuel disposal if the materials were innocuous.

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psolidgold 15 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I don't believe the parent commenter was setting aside the waste and potential impact of radioactivity as the risks associated with those are very very low. I think they were setting aside the literal mining and handling of the raw material before it even enters a reactor which is fair IMO. Also uranium mining is more often happening with in situ leach mining which removes a lot of the risk and environmental impact [1] - especially compared to lithium extraction!

Also to clarify, modern Gen III+ reactors have passive safety systems that make leaks/meltdowns virtually impossible [2], and the total volume of high-level waste is tiny, solid, and completely contained in dry casks with little chance of escape - however there are some concerns on the 100+ year timescale, I'll admit.

Also a fun fact, deaths per unit of energy of nuclear compared to solar are nearly identical.[3]

[1]https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/nuclear-fuel-c... [2]https://www.amacad.org/publication/nuclear-reactors-generati... [3]https://ourworldindata.org/safest-sources-of-energy?hl=en-US

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jeffbee 15 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Fission is unmatched in its ability to abandon projects after spending tens of billions of dollars. I don't see how any rational person can look at the history of nuclear and say "damn, this thing can drop electrons on short notice." That's just a ridiculous take.

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dalyons 16 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Sadly nuclear also stays unmatched in cost. It was already way too expensive, and now it has even worse economics on modern grids full of cheap variable sources. It is terribly uncompetitive and that’s why you see roughly none getting built anymore