Life cycle assessment of anything right now is not great, because every single industry requires some amounts of damage to the environment.
Otherwise how do you mine raw materials.
If you’re comparing a solar farm to a nuclear power station, that requires more than aluminium…
I don’t see how any large scale switch over to renewables doesn’t occur without nuclear to take up the slack in power generation when the renewable production is down. Water gravity batteries are probably the only at scale energy storage solution that’s reliable but its only feasible in areas with lots of water and a good topographic variance to make use of. His alternatives for energy storage are not large, scale industrial applications yet.
Look at Germany, their nuclear plants are all almost gone and the last 3 are going to decomm’d soon.So when there are light winds, heavy clouds and solar and wind production dip, well you still need to power and heat everything so you’re either burning the dirtiest coal dug up from giant open pit mines that devour towns and forests or you’re relying on russian pipelines and all the attendant geopolitical costs as well.
Because we have 9 years to make drastic change and it takes at least 15 years before you can turn a nuclear power station on. Plus all the things the go with nuclear power that aren’t power. The security and where the money ends up.
Energy storage is a problem that also needs to be solved, but so does consumption.
All this has to happen within a timeframe that nuclear power cannot meet.
We have a carbon budget to spend on this problem. Only these problems really.
With […] Brian Eno
That Brian Eno?
Wouldn’t a hedge be the best possible approach with a proven, existing technology, while also funding those newer applications that aren’t quite proven solutions yet? Decarbonization is a decades long process, nuclear is a valid piece of the puzzle. Ironically Germany in my example is still going to be using nuclear power, its just going to be generated in France and sold to Germans at market rate prices.
It probably worth investing that money on scaling up battery storage and battery R and D.
Solar and Wind can simply scale up faster and is cheaper.
I can’t comment more on the scaling up and the logistics, as I’m not an expert.
However on nuclear, it needs a it’s own topic. Sure, we need some degree of nuclear power, I agree. However renewables is the future because it is renewable.
There’s no reason for it not to be the primary source of investment since we need it now and in the future. Globally.
You can’t just set up a nuclear plant anywhere that you like, in the way you can with solar/ wind. It’s not going to happen.
Norway, a country with a petro-chemical based economy, is in the final stages of its transition to electric vehicles.
The latest episode of Build For Tomorrow addresses climate change and the myths of how each generation views the issue.
OMG they keep finding more avenues to be evil!! 
I mean, if the value of things can bet set in a bill, why stop at solar.
Carbon tax the fuck out of fossil fuels.