this post was submitted on 04 Jan 2024
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So you’re saying it could have been even lower
Nope. Nuclear isn't green and therefore has no place in the future.
Yup, coal is though, comes from plants, so much greener. So glad they closed the big bad nuclear plants so they could be more reliant on green coal. The air itself is cleaner now.
Nuclear turn off was decided long ago and the coal should have been replaced by gas until the real green energy is up to required levels... That plan was thrown into the bin however by the actions of our gas supplier...
And nuclear might not be as problematic for the air, but its awful for groundwater (mining is dirty as hell) there is no good way to store the waste, its a order of Magnitude more expensive than everything else etc...
Hope you realize that green energy also requires a ton of mining and construction.
Ah yes, clean gas from green wells and mines..
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/mar/06/revealed-1000-super-emitting-methane-leaks-risk-triggering-climate-tipping-points
You should educate yourself more..
https://youtu.be/lhHHbgIy9jU
You are right that mining is dirty as hell and if we only consider the ecological impact of mining then nuclear is a much better solution than renewables energy.
For the whole world to transition to renewables energy the production of copper will need to be multiplied by 2.7 in 2040 compared to 2020 levels, rare earth by 7.3, lithium by 42 ! ...
Uranium mining is terrible for environment but so is copper mining, cobalt mining, lithium extraction ... Since uranium is so dense energetically we only need a very tiny amount of it to produce electricity so overall the mining impact of nuclear is much lower than renewables energies.
The amount of copper and other minetals used for renewable energy is way higher than nuclear, these have to be mined too.
I'm not advocating for nuclear but there is so much disinformation around it that does not help the debate.