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Comment by LatteLazy | Hacker News Reader

You're not wrong but also no one can magic up energy out of nowhere...

No, but Germany started a shutdown of nuclear power plants and the laying of the Nordstream gas pipeline as recently as 2011.

I appreciate that major infrastructure projects take a long time to build - but a gas-heavy Russia-dependent energy mix was the deliberate choice very recently.

The problem is gas is cheaper and more reliable than any alternative. It could have gone with Nuclear, but then it would have priced itself out of 101 industries decades ago. You can't blame them for taking cheap Russian gas to keep jobs and prosperity for a few decades...

>You can't blame them for taking cheap Russian gas to keep jobs and prosperity for a few decades...

That's like saying: "you can't blame the drug addict for choosing short term highs for a few years"

That's fine, but be careful where you turn that gaze. One reason Europe is so reliant on russian gas is because the US refused export licenses for a long time. Why? Because the US would rather have jobs in manufacturing than extraction. So US leaders are as much to blame for this as European ones.

Another reason is instability in the Middle East and Iranian sanctions. Both also US choices that have shored up dependence on russian gas.

Right now, the quickest way to more gas would be a rapid deal with Iran that cuts right through US sanctions...

Hmmm, if only Europe had access to this alien technology where you can slam neutrons into larger atoms and split them, creating energy in the process.

I’m glad to see a shift in sentiments from Germany about nuclear power [0]. There have been warnings about energy dependence on Russia for years [1], maybe not long enough to spin up more nuclear plants but certainly enough time to make good progress on them.

[0] https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/05/world/europe/germany-exte...

[1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2018/09/25/trump-accuse...

Don't mistake this for shift in sentiments. They are not going to continue using nuclear energy in mid or long term, just postpone its shutdown.

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