Not irreversible. Ontario is replacing an old reactor with 4 SMRs that will be running in 5 years.
this post was submitted on 11 Mar 2026
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When a dislikeable guy makes a comment that's right...
You know what would actually help more than these straw arguments? Upgrading the fucking grid.
Bavaria alone was unable to distribute 1 Twh of solar energy in 2024, because the grid is still neither flexible nor strong enough.
Source: SZ (paywall), Bundesnetzagentur Smard
And that is even without the energy produced from the wind farms.
Before we drop Millions (let's be realistic, Billions) into a technology that will be ready in 10+ years and bind us to a supplier from a country probably ending with *stan (supply chain risk, anyone?) and ignore the unsolved trash issue, maybe take the money to upgrade the existing grid and move to a decentralized, locally produced energy system that can't be taken out with a 5k drone...
Pfff 1TWh is only 1000 GWh. π
/joke just in case.
The grid is getting upgraded. If you take a look at all those big projects like those north south lines, they are currently in construction and will be finished in the next few years.
"But, but my beautiful lobbyists told me put my hand up and ruin my country!"
Yes. But that doesn't mean building nuclear plants is easier, somehow.
The argument seems pretty clear to be the opposite, that it is way better to upgrade the grid.
Yes
That's the opposite from what he said 14 months ago before the election.
+++ BREAKING +++ BREAKING +++ BREAKING +++
Politician lies!
More incredible revelations in the 5 o' clock news.
Wouldn't be the only thing.
Reality hits hard sometimes. He als said a lot more thinks he can't deliver like save the economy but all he does is hate on poor people.
Donβt you know: He is not related to the guy who ran for chancellor under his name.
Cut him some slack - He is very busy curbstomping poor and soon to be poor people! He just doesn't have the time to care about his pre election promises..
Maybe he didn't know the reasons why Merkel had shut them down because they come from secret arrangements which he only knows now? It already didn't make sense to shut them down then.
Merkel made some pretty stupid mistakes. Dependency on Russian gas was one, and closing the nuclear plants at the worst possible time was another.
I bet that those 2 are part in why the German economy is currently slowing down.
Merkel made some pretty stupid mistakes.
Closing nukes was a knee jerk move by Germans who shat their pants after Fukushima. People wanted that.
One of the few good decisions of this stupid party was closing the nuclear plants. If only they would have invested in a better power grid and renewable energy at the same time.. But they actively sabotaged it and relied completly on fossil energy.
Absolutely no, closing the plants made the energy crisis way worse when Russia closed for supplies.
The mistake was ignoring renewable energy, not closing nuclear plants.
The effects of the energy crisis were also noticeable for uranium oxide which also reached its 11 year peak during the crisis. More than doubling in price.
What didn't increase its cost during the crisis? Renewables. As @Aufgehtsabgehts@feddit.org said investing in those would have reduced the effects of the crisis noticeably. An example for this is Denmark. Also note that cooling reactors becomes more difficult/expensive with climate change. See energy prices in France in the summer.
Also in Ukraine you can right now see another disadvantage of atomic plants: They are huge strategic targets.
What didnβt increase its cost during the crisis? Renewables.
Absolutely, but you shouldn't replace nuclear with coal, you should build the renewable infrastructure FIRST, and not help create a completely unnecessary shortage that has to be filled in a panic. Closing the nuclear plants was replaced with coal not renewables, except slowly as that capacity is being built.
It was also a double standard, as import of French electricity from nuclear power was still imported.
It was such a shit show, although I agree we should definitely invest in renewables going forward.
It was also a double standard, as import of French electricity from nuclear power was still imported.
In 2022 Germany exported 15.3 TWh to France.
Of course there have been days where imports were made, as the power flow varies widely depending on a huge number of circumstances, but all in all the often repeated claim that Germany relies on nuclear power from France is plain wrong. Correct is that France was very reliant on other countries to get trough the hot summer due to their plants failing.
You can see the full data here: https://www.smard.de/page/en/topic-article/207552/209668/the-electricity-market-in-2022
Even a damaged clock shows the right time twice a dayβ¦ unfortunately I canβt believe he keeps this opinion.Β
He used to be massively pro-nuclear so it seems he has changed his opinion once already.
Why does what he says according to the article seem to contradict what Katherina Reiche (Minister for economy and energy) says so much?
I mean, I am not really sad about it, but still. How stable and reliable is the current German government?
How stable and reliable is the current German government?
Depends on your perspective. If you are rich enough to pay off a bunch of political parties to do your bidding, they are very stable and reliable.
Because Reiche wants to kill the renewable sector. Probably has nothing to do with her close ties to energy companies like EON where she was on the board of one of its daughter companies.
How stable and reliable is the current German government?
Stable? I donβt know. Reliable? If youβre talking about reliably lying, youβre onto something.
Our goverment is only good in filling their own pockets with money...
You don't have to be in the government for that. Just join any party and work your way halfway up.
They're filling the pockets of the oligarch class, which is much more worrying.
A bit of perspective that more mainstream people may not be remembering:
you remember when Russia was artillery-shelling Ukrainian nuclear-plants?
You remember when Germany told Russia that spraying nuclear-waste all over Europe would be considered an Act of War?
This is the year in-which regional-consolidation begins ( wait & see: it'll happen ), & having easily-destroyable data-centers GIVES the enemy high-value-targets, that is true,
but having easily broken-open nuclear-plants, which can poison an entire region of one's country..
in wartime, that isn't necessarily the brightest "strategy".
It depends on how psychopathic/nihilistic one's enemy is, obviously, but Putin?
don't bet on his consideration for one.
& once Trump crosses his tippingpoint, & ditches the Middle East, to concentrate on annexing Canada ( enforcing that with Greenland severing our EU-lifeline ), & warring on ALL of the rest of the Americas & the Caribbean, for all-Americas "kingdom", his personal "manifest destiny"..
then the EU's going to be unbacked, against Putin.
& China's going to say to Putin: "you let us supplant gov't in Russia, & we'll let you rampage on Europe all you want, with all the military-hardware China-Russia can provide you with, & with all the lives who aren't Chinese that you can scrounge"
& Putin'll agree.
Which means that Europe's going to be as Ukraine is, right now, once Trump severs Americas-Europe relations.
It's in THAT context that datacenters & nuclear powerplants are going to be targets of Putin.
"never hand your enemy weapons" is a good rule.
I've NO IDEA what motivates Merz's statement.
But I REMEMBER Russia artillery-shelling Ukraine's nuclear-power-plant being reported in the news.
Europe doesn't need another "Chyernobl".
Never provide the enemy with targets which MULTIPLY their strikes on us.
Never.
_ /\ _
PS: small, modular, nuclear reactors, thorium, IF they were sunk deep in the bedrock, in shafts, making it impossible for any "bunker buster" to reach them, I've no problem with.
It's the availability-of-nuclear-target that I oppose, not nuclear-the-whole-category.
You forgot that Russia is the bigges enricher of urnanium in the world and the EU so far has not managed to get rid of that dependence. Obviously it is possible, but hardly cheap. That is a huge reason why Russian bots love nuclear so much.
Only Brazil, Nicaragua and Cuba are not aligned with America. They are no match, there won't be warring. Canada could become an issue but that would be the only war.
The US will fight other wars.
Merkel shut down nuclear in 2011 and must have known about the risk earlier.
Why prepare for Putin then?
Somebody else has a need for a showdown.
The only irreversible things are his lies
Yeah, and we'll never forgive you.
/south Sweden
How does this even harm you?
Germany now relies heavily on our energy when renewables aren't supplying enough which has greatly increased our prices, leading to industries having to close down here.