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0 pointscmdrfred9y ago0 comments

It's the only viable fix we have currently, and if I were elected god king of a nation I would push initiatives to build not only enough capacity with atomic power to meet demand but excess to keep costs very low.

People are worried about automation, the nation that can cheaply power automated factories and server farms in the future will prosper.

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killjoywashere9y ago

Solar and wind have no catastrophic downside, and storage is a tractable problem. A chronically small, grey-haired workforce that the population depends on both to power their lives and prevent catastrophe makes that workforce too powerful. It becomes a governance problem. I highly recommend The Dictator's Handbook for more insight on this.

jlarocco9y ago

Is large scale energy storage any better than just using nuclear energy?

They don't have the "nuclear" tag scaring people away, but modern batteries and capacitors are still very dangerous and have a lot of environmental hazards to go along with them.

putsteadywere9y ago

Gravity based energy storage is inexpensive to construct and reliable. It is wasteful - but we're capturing an incredibly tiny proportion of the energy available from wind and solar for electricity.

[0]: http://www.powermag.com/let-gravity-store-the-energy/ [1]: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/energy-storage-hi...

toomuchtodo8y ago

> Is large scale energy storage any better than just using nuclear energy?

Yes.

> but modern batteries and capacitors are still very dangerous and have a lot of environmental hazards to go along with them.

This is just absurd compared to handling nuclear fuel and waste.

https://electrek.co/2016/12/19/tesla-fire-powerpack-test-saf...

"Tesla set fire to a Powerpack to test its safety features – the results are impressive"

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cmdrfredOP9y ago

I'm not sure what the comment about "grey haired workforce" is in regards too, but "storage is a tractable problem" is often said without evidence. I'd need to see a smaller nation decommission all of its base load generators before that claim can be considered valid.

weaksauce9y ago

> grey haired workforce

there was talk in this thread about how the engineers that designed the systems in use are the ones servicing them and have been for 20-30 years or so.

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