I am pro nuclear energy. It’s the most efficient way to generate sustainable electricity in abundance in the smallest amount of space.

I’m pro but think it needs to be replaced over time

not shut down and replaced by non renewables like it’s now sometimes the case

As someone who has done quite a bit of work on power systems (in the New Zealand context) recently.

You have to consider any energy generation technology in the environment it is going to be deployed in.

Whilst I am generally pro-nuclear; as a technology. It doesn’t really work as a deployable energy system in comparison to other forms of generation; especially here in NZ. There are three main reasons for this:

• Cost in both time and money to construct nuclear is far too high.
• Industry to support nuclear doesn’t exist in NZ. Expert techs, operators, fabricators etc are not here; we would need to build an industry alongside building the first plant.
• Regulatory framework to enable nuclear generation is almost nonexistent. We have medical isotope framework; as a basic way to work with radiological material.
• Bonus challenge; we would have to import all the fuel.

Countries with existing nuclear industries and power plant have a much easier time; but when comparing the cost in time and money to get the first GWh out of a nuclear generator; it is a hard sell.

One major advantage nuclear has over other forms of generation is physical footprint; effective power density is absolutely massive. To get similar power density in renewable generation, the only thing close would be the in development supercritical geothermal power; though nuclear would still have higher power density and is not geographically constrained.

Maybe things will change in the future. Maybe small modular reactors will eventuate in an easy to deploy way; or the developments in Chinese thorium reactors will pan out to a viable generation tech. But technology is not the only stumbling block that nuclear energy faces; especially in a small country that doesn’t have an existing nuclear industry.

I know there is a lot of money being thrown at fusion; and that may change the game entirely, it is an interesting time to be looking at energy systems.

The security problem ruins the amazing tech. In an age of terrorism and drones, the risk isn’t acceptable. The same goes for hydro unfortunately, which is my fav energy form (I like watermills).

I’m amazed at how level headed and straight forward the arguments are presented across a rather large variety of instances!

Also, against. Renewable + Battery + grid is the way to go. Connect every power source and distribute the energy. Include redundancy because energy is important.

Currently in reality? Under capitalism, genocide, planetary annihilation, etc? I’m opposed. It will absolutely be used as a tool of violence and exploitation like every other “technology” developed under capitalism.

In an imaginary world… It depends on the imaginary situation, etc. But that’s largely irrelevant to actual reality.

Nation states will choose uranium / plutonium reactors so that they can abuse nuclear power for weapons grade material generation. But we already have nuclear proliferation. Cat’s out of the bag. Given that nuclear is a huge win in almost every other way, I’m pro-nuclear even in the context of nation states.

Pro, but as a temporary measure to eliminate fossil fuel usage, and it should be replaced with renewable energy later. But I doubt anything like that will ever happen.

I am against the idea “factorio” type people seem to see in nuclear in that it could solve our problems with endless energy, no politics needed.

It is an ideology that is dangerous if nuclear power can’t fulfill that promise and its even more dangerous if it can.

I am not entirely against the technology itself however.

I wouldn’t say I’m pro or against it. It’s quite expensive and politically controversial so I doubt building more of it will help us decarbonize. But I don’t support closing any plants that are currently running either, at least until we’ve fully decarbonized electricity production.

I’m unsure how this relates to anarchism though. Other than, if communities have control over what gets built near them I think it will be even more difficult to build more of them than it is now.

Pro. One of the cleanest energy sources you can get. Highly reliable. Fear about waste is vastly overblown which becomes apparent when you spend even a second researching it.

It is one of the only viable energy sources for space travel, which means it’s not something we should phase out or stop researching. The only real alternative at this time is hydrogen fuel cells, which are explosive, and a lot more complicated. Solar is only viable at a certain distance to the sun. Nuclear energy is the clear winner by almost every metric.

Think about how basic of a concept nuclear is. You have a spicy rock heat up fluid. The rock stays spicy for a long time and you rarely need to change it. That’s it. You’re not burning anything. You aren’t using overly complicated electrical equipment and membranes. You don’t need specific weather conditions or specific geological features like rivers or geothermal vents. It’s a rock that gets hot and can stay hot.

Within the current capitalist system, it no longer makes sense to build them. They are too slow to come online, and they’re more expensive than renewables. It would have been an ideal solution had the rich and powerful cared for even their own children. With that said, it still makes sense to maintain them, as they’re actively keeping fossil fuels at bay to some degree.

If the world suddenly and magically became an anarchist utopia, I’d say it makes sense to build them going forward. We need to transition as much as possible as quickly as possible, and that means doing parallel efforts where the resources needed are different, which is to a degree the case with nuclear vs renewables. We are in a crisis and should act like it.

In a magical, pretend, ideal future where climate change is no longer an issue, I don’t think it would make sense to have them. They require a lot of centralization, and renewables don’t. We should opt for less centralization.

I’m in favor of the cheapest and quickest to build means of power generation. That’s renewables and storage.

Nuclear is a massive waste of money.

I love the nuanced and well thought answers this question generated!

I am mostly pro nuclear. It’s safe, great at scale (renewables aren’t), it’s a long term commitment (renewables and in particular solar aren’t), and requires relatively few rare materials (in particular compared to solar). It also avoids the battery problem.

This being said, it’s absurdly slow to come online and economically not as viable as renewables. So I wouldn’t support building new nuclear power plants over renewables. I would support going back in time and build them 20-30 years ago.

We are orbiting a giant fucking fusion reactor. Why would I be for turning off the sun?