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A nuclear waste repository only has to last ~500 years (less than the age of the Pantheon), after that the gamma is close to background, so the stuff is only dangerous if you ingest it, making it far safer than many things you can buy at Bunnings/Walmart etc.
Egypt’s Great Pyramid of Giza is around 4500 years old.
#Nuclear waste repositories will have to contain their contents for more than 20 times longer.’
Hard to guarantee 100,000 years.
In fact digging it back up again in 40 years might be more accurate.
neimagazine.com/decommission…
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'The wind is always blowing somewhere'
Here's the realtime chart of winds in Europe.
Blue = light/no winds, orange = lots
There is pretty much NO wind anywhere in Europe.
So nobody is exporting to save our bacon.
We need to rely on our own resources
Source: Windy.com
[email protected] retweeted
Remplacer le pétrole et le gaz importés par de l’électricité bas carbone produite en France (nucléaire et ENR): oui c’est possible! L’électrification, d’autres pays l’ont déjà faite (% du mix énergétique):
🇳🇴 Norvège : 49 %
🇸🇪 Suède : 33 %
🇫🇮 Finlande : 30 %
🇫🇷 France : 26,5 %
Objectif pour la France : 38 % en 2035. Explications dans cette note du Trésor via @maximsagot
tresor.economie.gouv.fr/Arti…
About the 1970-90s: “[It was] just extraordinary the pace at which we built this out.”
“It was one of the fastest decarbonizations, in terms of adding low carbon electricity, per capita, that the world’s ever seen.”
#CANDU 🍁 #NuclearEnergy 🇨🇦
thewalrus.ca/carney-wants-te…
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11/18
Der größte noch offene Ausbau heißt Forge+. Die neue Schmiede in Le Creusot soll die Kapazität von rund 100 auf 210 Schmiedestücke jährlich steigern und auch die größten Teile für Reaktordruckbehälter und Dampferzeuger fertigen. Diese kommen bisher von Japan Steel Works.
ALT Lage des geplanten Forge+‑Standorts innerhalb der Industriezone von Le Creusot. Die Grafik zeigt die Einbindung in die bestehenden Framatome-Standorte und die geplante infrastrukturelle Anbindung. Quelle: Framatome / RTE, Synthèse du dossier de concertation – Projet Forge+, 2025, S. 3. https://concertation.forgeplus.fr/media/7a482172d47c853ede87/Framatome_Concertation-Forge_
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“Atlantic Canada has seen this pattern before: large wind-powered visions, public money up front, and a pivot when buyers fail to materialize. Wind West deserves scrutiny in that light. It is a first-of-its-kind offshore wind project in Canada, built with other people’s money, with no guaranteed buyer, producing electricity for export at more than $200/MWh, plus about $70/MWh for new transmission to reach buyers. Each of those features is a risk, and federal taxpayers are being asked to carry it ….”
Nova Scotia’s proposed Wind West offshore energy project promises to transform the province into a major electricity exporter, yet its enormous scale, uncertain buyers, and rising costs raise serious questions about its economic viability
“Atlantic Canada has seen this pattern before: large wind-powered visions, public money up front, and a pivot when buyers fail to materialize. Wind West deserves scrutiny in that light. It is a first-of-its-kind offshore wind project in Canada, built with other people’s money, with no guaranteed buyer, producing electricity for export at more than $200/MWh, plus about $70/MWh for new transmission to reach buyers. Each of those features is a risk, and federal taxpayers are being asked to carry it ….”
In “Wind West: Nova Scotia’s offshore wind gamble with Ottawa’s money,” economist Edgardo Sepulveda (@E_R_Sepulveda) examines the project’s underlying assumptions, arguing that its projected costs are too optimistic, its export market too uncertain, and the electricity it generates will struggle to compete with cheaper, more reliable alternatives.
Read full commentary here⬇️
macdonaldlaurier.ca/wind-wes…
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The United States is turning to an unlikely partner to help rescue its nuclear renaissance: South Korea, a country that only half a century ago depended on American technology and expertise to build its first nuclear power plants.
Under a recently announced $120 billion nuclear cooperation framework, South Korea could help finance and construct up to eight reactors on American soil: six Westinghouse AP1000s and, remarkably, two Korean-designed APR1400s.
After decades of free-market orthodoxy, Washington has rediscovered industrial policy. The Biden administration’s CHIPS Act and Inflation Reduction Act marked a return to large-scale industrial intervention, while Donald Trump has gone further, taking an equity stake in Intel, negotiating a golden share in US Steel and promising billions in financing for the nuclear supply chain.
Korea has been practicing its own brand of industrial policy for decades. Its authoritarian developmental state mobilized capital and held industrial champions to exacting production and export targets, transforming an impoverished exporter of human-hair wigs, which once accounted for 10% of Korea’s export earnings, into a nuclear manufacturing powerhouse.
How did Korea acquire capabilities that the United States, a pioneer of commercial nuclear power, let atrophy? Can those capabilities be exported back to America? a 🧵....
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“Canada is a country of innovators whose shortcoming may be excessive humility about its own accomplishments.
Every other nuclear-exporting nation is building its own reactor designs, and in Canada, we have the opportunity to do the same.
As it stands, Candu is a great Canadian technology at risk. Canada has a long history of punching above its weight with world-leading high technology.
In the 1960s, Canada designed what has been widely recognized as the most advanced fighter/interceptor jet of its time, but insufficient backing led to the project’s cancellation.
More recently, the Canadian company Bombardier sold off its C-series jet, which had world-leading fuel efficiency, to Airbus, sacrificing huge domestic manufacturing opportunities for similar reasons.
Let’s not give Candu a similar fate. As a relatively small country, we require a cohesive industrial policy that coordinates various supply chain and utility interests alongside all levels of government.
With the home advantage on nuclear, we must seize the moment of opportunity in Ontario. We Candu it!”
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Ardent defenders of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission often push back when I point out some of the ways that the NRC slows projects and add costs.
I've been tracking an issue for several months where a (non reactor) license applicant submitted their application during the first half of 2021.
A staff recommendation was made and challenged. The politically appointed and confirmed commission asked the staff to prepare an issue paper.
The professional staff forwarded its completed issue paper in the middle of 2023.
That issue paper has been waiting for a vote for ~10 months. One of four commissioners submitted a vote less than a month after the staff policy issue paper was forwarded to the Commission for action.
When asked if there was any kind of estimate for when the other commissioners would submit their votes, the NRC Public Affairs Office replied with the following:
"Since the Commission takes up voting matters on its own schedule, I'm unable to provide an estimate on when action on any particular paper might be completed. As you noted, the Commission receives stakeholder input on many of the items up for consideration. Thank you for checking with us."
Imagine how much it is costing the applicant to sit around for an indefinite number of months waiting for commissioners to find the time to vote on an issue that must be resolved to enable their business and its innovative, problem-solving technology to move forward.
Congress has passed several pieces of legislation that put time limits on license application reviews, but AFAIK, they have not addressed the indefinite delays at the Commission that happen after the reviews are completed.
(Note: I am being deliberately vague. The applicant in this case is reluctant to publicly call out the commissioners when they need them to make a favorable decision. But I'm an often critical observer, not an involved party. There is never an excuse for regulatory retaliation, but there is definitely no excuse for retaliating because of actions of an outside party.)
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4/4
Bis 2033 sollen alle sechs Blöcke modernisiert sein und anschließend weitere 30–35 Jahre betrieben werden können.
Bruce-5 wird damit zum nächsten Praxistest: Lassen sich diese komplexen Eingriffe tatsächlich wie ein industrielles Serienprogramm organisieren?
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2/4
Bruce-6 ist seit 2023 wieder am Netz, Bruce-3 seit Juni 2026 – mehr als sieben Monate früher als geplant.
Bei Bruce-4 wurden inzwischen alle 480 Calandria-Rohre installiert, 25 Tage schneller als beim Vorgänger. Die industriellen Lerneffekte werden zunehmend sichtbar.
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I told the attendees of the Denkfabrik R 21 conference that Germany is a sleeping nuclear giant and has the capabilities to restore, reliable, cheap power, reverse deindustrialization and restore its energy security by following the Canadian and US lead in refurbishing and restarting it’s partially decommissioned nuclear fleet.
A detailed engineering study from @RadiantEnergyG with close collaboration with @Nuklearia demonstrates as much.
@Nuklearia is at the forefront of developing the cutting-edge policies needed to reverse two decades of disastrous energy decisions.
Germany’s nuclear phaseout was a political choice. It can be politically reversed.
Six reactors deserve urgent consideration for restart: Brokdorf, Emsland, Grohnde, Isar 2, Neckarwestheim 2 and Gundremmingen C.
These power plants can be restarted at fraction of the cost and time required for new construction, with the most promising reactors potentially returning to service within a few years.
Ontario has demonstrated the value of restarting retired nuclear capacity. American projects at Three Mile Island, Palisades and Duane Arnold are following suit.
Germany also has a special responsibility to act. More than four years after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Europe remains the largest customer for Russian LNG. Astonishingly, 97% of shipments from Russia’s Yamal LNG project went to the EU in the first half of 2026.
Restoring Germany’s nuclear fleet would help rebuild its industrial competitiveness, reduce deadly air pollution and reduces dependence on Russian LNG.
The greatest obstacle is political will.
As Milton Friedman argued, our task is to keep policies alive until the politically impossible becomes the politically inevitable.
@Nuklearia is doing precisely that.
Wir freuen uns über den Shout-out des kanadischen Notfallchirurg @Dr_Keefer! Er sagt, Deutschland kann seine Kernkraftwerke genauso wieder in Betrieb nehmen wie es Kanada gemacht hat, um Tote durch Luftverschmutzung zu vemeiden und die Wirtschaft zu revitalisieren!
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Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney delivers a blunt message to Russia:
“You cannot bomb Ukrainian cities and then send your junior players to Alberta to play hockey as if you were civilised people.
No Russian or Belarusian teams at the World Junior Championship. Not under your flags. Not under any other flags. Period.”
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We've purchased low-enriched uranium from @urencoglobal for our first reactors. And we're working together to establish the fuel conversion capabilities those reactors will need. We have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to collaborate on the development of a uranium deconversion facility in Copenhagen.
Why does this matter?
Low-enriched uranium is supplied as uranium hexafluoride (UF₆). Our molten salt reactors require uranium tetrafluoride (UF₄) for fuel-salt production.
The proposed facility would enable that conversion, creating an important link between uranium enrichment and molten salt reactor fuel production.
Our ambition extends beyond our own reactors. We aim to develop fuel production capabilities that can also support other molten salt reactor developers and research institutions.
We're building the reactor technology, manufacturing capabilities and fuel infrastructure needed to bring molten salt reactors to market at scale; and fundamentally change how nuclear energy is produced.
Read the full announcement: copenhagenatomics.com/news/c…
#CopenhagenAtomics #NuclearEnergy #MoltenSaltReactors
[email protected] retweeted
Dear Americans, today is Election Day.
Before you cast your vote, remember Izium, Ukraine.
414 civilians. Five children. Tortured. Executed. Buried in a forest.
Your president, Mr. Trump, called russia’s conduct “frankly normal.”
Remember that.
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The number of nuclear power reactors under construction is now 79, the highest since 1986. Eleven reactors started construction this year. 201 reactors are in the planning stage, and are planned to operate in 15 years. Article link in reply.
Based on the numbers above, the world's total number of power reactors will be ~600 by 2040. Even if you assume that the average power capacity of the new reactors are ~1000 MW, the world will need to increase the rate of nuclear plant construction, if they want to achieve the goal of tripling nuclear capacity by 2050.
If SMRs are a significant fracton of the number of reactors built, the number of reaactors built per year will have to be higher still.
These numbers are impressive; a huge increase in nuclear plant construction than just a few years ago. The world construction pace is now similar to the pace achieved during the first nuclear plant building boom in the '70s and '80s.
An utterly horrific Russian attack on the settlement of Komyshuvakha in the Zaporizhzhia region. Since this morning, the settlement has been hit several times by aerial bombs. The strikes targeted a school used for humanitarian purposes – people were receiving humanitarian aid there. After the first aerial bomb strike, there was a double-tap strike with nine more bombs, specifically targeting the shelter where people were taking cover. Tragically, 18 people have already been reported killed. My condolences to their families and loved ones. Five people have been injured. A rescue operation is underway at the site, and the search for people continues. It is extremely difficult. Military forces, first responders, and special services are involved.
The Russians could not have been unaware that every week, local residents who had remained in Komyshuvakha received humanitarian aid at that very location. And this is further proof that Russia wants no de-escalation and no real justice. After the humanitarian operation in Oleshky, there was a moment when the next steps could have shown that progress toward peace was possible. With these killings, Russia is sending an entirely opposite signal: Russia is counting on more killings. There must be a response to this – a response from the world. A strong and tough response. A response to Russia. And support for Ukraine. We must protect lives. Thank you to everyone who is helping!
[email protected] retweeted
💔 Don’t stop talking about Komyshuvakha!
We all saw the ruins of an underground school in Komyshuvakha that Russia struck with 9 guided aerial bombs while people were gathered there to receive humanitarian aid.
🇺🇦 This is what the school looked like just over a year ago, when it opened its doors for the first time. 🔽
The school was built on the grounds of the Komyshuva Gymnasium “Dzherelo,” which was destroyed by Russian forces in July 2023.
On the first day of classes, Ukraine’s Minister of Social Policy, Denys Uliutin, visited the school and personally inspected how well it met the principles of accessibility, safety, and inclusivity.
He stated that day:
“The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child guarantees every child the right to education.
Even amid the war, as Russia destroys childhoods, Ukraine, with the support of international partners, is ensuring that these rights are upheld.
Thanks to safe educational spaces, children can interact, learn, and develop. This is the foundation of our future.”
Ivan Fedorov, head of Ukraine’s State Agency for Restoration and Infrastructure Development, said today that some Russian aerial bombs weighed three tons and had three times the destructive power of a ballistic missile — something underground schools in Ukraine are not designed to withstand in a direct hit.
33 people were killed, and more than 50 others may still be trapped under the rubble.
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In most Aus states, electricity for proposed #datacentre pipelines is similar to or exceeds total state grid capacity. The environmental footprint of these centres isn't about water use but electricity requirements. Here's an SA case study. geoffrussell.substack.com/p/…
