[Street Pharmacist]

Former Nuclear Leaders: Say ‘No’ to New Reactors

In short, nuclear as strategy against climate change is:

Too costly in absolute terms to make a relevant contribution to global power production

More expensive than renewable energy in terms of energy production and CO2#mitigation, even taking into account costs of grid management tools like energy storage associated with renewables rollout.

Too costly and risky for financial market investment, and therefore dependent on very large public subsidies and loan guarantees.

Unsustainable due to the unresolved problem of very long-lived radioactive waste.

Financially unsustainable as no economic institution is prepared to insure against the full potential cost, environmental and human impacts of accidental radiation release#– with the majority of those very significant costs being borne by the public.

Militarily hazardous since newly promoted reactor designs increase the risk of #nuclear weapons proliferation.

Inherently risky due to unavoidable cascading accidents from human error, internal faults, and external impacts; vulnerability to climate-driven sea-level rise, storm, storm surge, inundation and flooding hazard, resulting in international economic impacts.

Subject to too many unresolved technical and safety problems associated with newer unproven concepts, including ‘Advanced’ and Small Modular Reactors (SMRs).

Too unwieldy and complex to create an efficient industrial regime for reactor construction and operation processes within the intended build-time and scope needed for climate change mitigation.

Unlikely to make a relevant contribution to necessary climate change mitigation needed by the 2030’s due to nuclear’s#impracticably lengthy development and construction time-lines, and the overwhelming construction costs of the very great volume of reactors that would be needed to make a difference.

Https://www.powermag.com/blog/former...-new-reactors/