wewbull

The EPR2 is already designed, and in service in Flamanville. Flamanville 3 took a long time because we had to rebuild our whole nuclear industry, by lack of political vision back in the 90's-00's.

Flamanville is EPR, not EPR2. Flamanville's delay is the reason for EPR2. EPR2 is not being built anywhere yet.

EPR is one of my go to examples of how long nuclear takes.

• Olikuloto 3 - Started 2005, Target 2010, Actual 2018
• Flammanville 3 - Started 2007, Target 2012, Actual 2024
• Hinkley point C - Started 2017, Target 2025, Expected 2031
• Taishan 1 & 2 - Started 2009, 2010, Target 2013, 2014, Actual 2018, 2019
• Sizewell C - Started 2023, Target 2032-2035

So I grant you that EDF needed to rebuild knowledge, but 12 years after they started the first plant they started HPC. They increased the timescale from 5 to 7 years construction, but are still going to be at least 6 years late and 35% over budget. On Sizewell they've added another 2 years minimum with a window up to 5 extra years over HPC....for the fifth site in the family. We should be accelerating now, right? Even in China the timescale was 9 years.

It's not just EDF. Westinghouse had similar problems with Vogtle 3 starting construction in 2009 and completing in 2023. 14 years construction again.

Can things get faster...sure, but 65% faster to get back down to 5 years. No.

But what would happen on the international floor if Germany suddenly started saying we should arrest Israel’s top politician,

I think telling Netenyahu that he's safe to travel to Germany because they won't enforce the ICJ arrest warrant is a horrendous, terrible piece of international PR. Of course Germany should arrest him if he comes to Germany. He has an arrest warrant outstanding on him to stand trial for war crimes. Since when is Germany a place for people to evade justice.

Germany should be seen to respect the rule of law. Not tell the ICJ it has no jurisdiction and harbour someone wanted on war crime charges. Let the international court take that problem away from them. It's not on Germany to decide. That's the courts job through due process. If he's not guilty, let the court make that decision.

Anything else is German arrogance.

stop supporting their "defense",

They can limit their support to only non-aggressive aspects. Don't supply funds or weapons. Supply medical aid, infrastructure support, etc and do the same for Gaza. Be on the side of the innocents caught up in the violence.

and openly accuse them of genocide?

Friends tell friends when they're in the wrong. Friends tell friends when they're acting irrationally through anger, fear and hatred. This is especially true if that friend has been there themselves as they can offer a perspective others can not.

To own your history is to show you've learnt from it. Germany is acting more like they have a debt to repay, but there is no amount that can be repaid. You can only internalise the facts, learn the lessons and act in a way that shows that.

45 years would be 1980. That sounds like you're refering to Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, but construction started in 1980, and although the first five reactors went live 5 years later the 6th reactor didn't go live until 1996. 16 years later.

Even so, you're only counting construction. That plant would have been being designed for at least 5 years previous.

And safety standards have gone up since then, in part because of it's slightly older cousin at Chernobyl (different design, but also built in 5 years).

Nuclear keeps us on the teet of fossils fuels for longer than switching to renewables. Nuclear takes too long to build. Renewables can come online incrementally displacing fossil fuels far sooner. It drops the rate of damage faster.

If we wait for nuclear plants that haven't even been green lot yet the accumulated damage will be massive.

Yes, following the rules everyone agreed on is lived in a rather inflexible way. If you think about it though, that’s democracy.

I would say that's a veneer of paternalism on top of a foundation of democracy.

The people's vote is never precise. It gives broad direction to those who govern. Politicians are trusted representatives of the people to act in their best interest, but they're not told precisely what to legislate on (unless you're Swiss and live in a direct democracy). They can inact things which are inline with the people's wishes, and they can get it wrong.

If the people behave as is the legislators are always right because they were placed there through a democratic process and there is never any push back, then they've surrendered a large part of their agency. If the people just obey rules without question, their government is now their fixed term authority figures. The government knows what is right, and the people should just follow along.

Talk to a Frenchman and he will be very clear that government serves the people. Not the other way around, and that sometimes you have to break the rules to remind those in government who is in charge. Bastille day is celebrated to make sure no one forgets.

I think Germany has the wrong mindset on this point.

Edit: I also think that "Never again" has become "Never again shall we see the Jewish persecuted" rather than "Never again shall we allow a holocaust to befall anyone". If Germany has truly learnt the lesson they should recognise that any country can perform evil. Even those that have been wronged in the past.

Japan doesn't have a huge amount of choice in energy generation. Off shore wind doesn't work as the water is too deep. On shore wind doesn't have the space or geography either. Solar works, but their weather isn't ideal. Geothermal...possibly being near fault lines but their not like Iceland with a small population to supply. I believe locations for hydro are limited too.

Nuclear gives them energy independence and fits.

Nobody is arguing for fossil fuels here.

It's not a binary nuclear or coal choice.

Take 50 billion Euros, you want to invest in clean energy and have the biggest impact you can. You don't buy one nuclear power plant, that's for sure. You probably build multiple wind farms (around 10bn each) which, while intermittent, will each provide similar total energy over a year.

You can't get them running again. They're gone.

The idea that NPPs are some unsafe technology just waiting to explode is dramatic and untrue.

You're the first person to mention exploding here. GP was saying that they make for a good target in war time to turn into a dirty bomb, either intentionally or not.

...but the idea that there's no safe amount of radiation is ridiculous (we don't know, but presumably it's okay in some amounts since you're getting radiation doses every day even not living near anything nuclear).

"We don't know"??? Sorry, but we do know.

There's no 100% safe level because any level carries some risk. Higher levels means higher risk.

Background radiation has some risk, but it's a risk we accept. X-rays, plane flights, etc all have increased risk (hence people exposed to lots of x-rays wearing leads) but we accept them. Material from decommissioned nuclear plants is way higher on this scale.

Nuclear power has downsides as well as positives. Depending on your perspective (e.g. do you work cleaning up the aftermath, or just benefitting from the energy) one will outweigh the other.

Fine, they've made a processor, but until I have an idea of how well tested and secure it is, I'm not running anything on it. I don't mean in a "Oh China, scary!" way but just because it's an unknown brand with no track record.

Making something that works most of the time is one thing. Making something bulletproof is another.

...and they're positioning this for servers.