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Italian parliament votes for return to nuclear energy

908 points · 818 comments · geox

  1. adrianN · · focus · HN ↗
    It is sad that this has become a topic of the culture wars. Nothing good comes out of this, certainly not a rational weighing of the pros and cons of nuclear power.

    I’m particularly interested in how they plan to finance reactors in a grid dominated by solar. I wouldn’t be surprised if they legally allow the building of new reactors but then fail to find investors. But perhaps they plan on using them as some sort of strategic assets and will just run them at a loss?

    1. drnick1 · · focus · HN ↗
      > certainly not a rational weighing of the pros and cons of nuclear power.

      Nuclear has no real cons other than time/cost of deployment, and it should be a no brainer for a place like Europe without significant energy resources. Once the power plant is built, it provides 50+ years of nearly free energy. It's that or buying gas from Russia.

      1. fl0id · · focus · HN ↗
        How about nuclear fuel still being dependent on either russia or us? and that is just one reason.
        1. someonebaggy · · focus · HN ↗
          Conspiracy hat time: I think this is the main reason it's being pushed so hard. The US and Russia feel threatened by the rise of renewables and will do anything to get countries dependent on them again.
          1. Moldoteck · · focus · HN ↗
            It's really a conspiracy. Ore is available in plenty of countries. Enrichment is done locally by orano+urenco amd fuel elements made by framatome

            It would also not make sense considering china is the largest builder and they also sell most of vre

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