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?
We need to increase energy output by an order of magnitude in order to upgrade civilization to the next level. Does solar offer a pathway to doing that today, once you account for the costs of battery storage?
Nuclear, moreover, keeps us on the tech tree for space exploration. I don’t think solar is going to lead us to fusion or antimatter powered spaceships.
> Does solar offer a pathway to doing that today, once you account for the costs of battery storage?
Trivially. If we push hard, more than three orders of magnitude are possible (even for overall energy use, which is itself around an order of magnitude more than electricity), even without launching anything to orbit.
IMO it's much better if we go to space after the first of those orders of magnitude, rather than pursuing K1 on the ground.
> I don’t think solar is going to lead us to fusion or antimatter powered spaceships.
Solar is as likely as fission to lead to either of these things. Each of the four is a different beast.
Solar is also the only way to scale up to a K2, which would trivially obviate both even when the ships' primary propulsion is solar (laser) sails.
adrianN · · focus · HN ↗
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?
rayiner · · focus · HN ↗
Nuclear, moreover, keeps us on the tech tree for space exploration. I don’t think solar is going to lead us to fusion or antimatter powered spaceships.
ben_w · · focus · HN ↗
Trivially. If we push hard, more than three orders of magnitude are possible (even for overall energy use, which is itself around an order of magnitude more than electricity), even without launching anything to orbit.
IMO it's much better if we go to space after the first of those orders of magnitude, rather than pursuing K1 on the ground.
> I don’t think solar is going to lead us to fusion or antimatter powered spaceships.
Solar is as likely as fission to lead to either of these things. Each of the four is a different beast.
Solar is also the only way to scale up to a K2, which would trivially obviate both even when the ships' primary propulsion is solar (laser) sails.