Mark Bailey
a month ago
As an engineer with over 40 years in electrical generation and distribution, including 7+ years actually working in a nuclear power station in the United States, I believe nuclear generation is absolutely essential for renewable energy to be viable. Of the technologies currently available, only nuclear and hydro power are dispatchable, i.e. predictable well in advance of need and not subject to unavoidable interruption. Until renewables solve the storage problem, any source that is not dispatchable requires back up or the willingness to tolerate outages over significant areas of the country. There is also the transport issue. Power lines are harder to get approved and cause more political heartburn than power plants. The move to non polluting sources will also require much more electrical energy to displace fossil fuel home and building heating, industrial thermal processes, and motor driven transportation. Nuclear plants produce more power per unit area occupied and do not cause large numbers of deaths to common and protected bird species.