150
submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by Dot@feddit.org to c/technology@lemmy.world

nuclear power produces long-lived radioactive waste, which needs to be stored securely. Nuclear fuels, such as the element uranium (which needs to be mined), are finite, so the technology is not considered renewable. Renewable sources of energy, such as solar and wind power suffer from “intermittency”, meaning they do not consistently produce energy at all hours of the day.

fusion technologies have yet to produce sustained net energy output (more energy than is put in to run the reactor), let alone produce energy at the scale required to meet the growing demands of AI. Fusion will require many more technological developments before it can fulfil its promise of delivering power to the grid.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] mwguy@infosec.pub 2 points 6 days ago

You see, at some point you need a shield around the reactor to actually absorb all the high energy particles released, and turn that energy into heat.

So we have to replace a few tons of shielding that's lightly radioactive every 2-6 years. That's literally a vehicle's worth of waste to power tens of thousands of homes.

[-] Cocodapuf@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago

You'll find that nuclear fission is not very different.

Nuclear submarines for example only need to be refueled once or twice in their multiple decade lifespan.

[-] mwguy@infosec.pub 1 points 5 days ago

Yes. They're both incredibly efficient.

[-] Cocodapuf@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

And if somehow, despite that efficiency, we still have problems figuring out how to store that nuclear waste today. I know this ought to be a solvable problem, but we seem to struggle with it.

[-] mwguy@infosec.pub 1 points 1 day ago

Then we chuck it in that mountain we carved out.

[-] Cocodapuf@lemmy.world 2 points 21 hours ago

Hey, I agree with you, the yuca mountain facility was literally built for that. And yet, even then there was enough nimby sentiment to prevent it from going into use. Just crazy.

this post was submitted on 17 Oct 2024
150 points (87.1% liked)

Technology

58898 readers
4090 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS