Germany shutting down nuclear is so sad to see. Next step is de-industrialization and irrelevance on world stage.
No they don't. They had a problem this year (and will for probably a few years). For the past decades, France has been a net exporter [0].
> An french three-mile island can happen any time
And a climate crisis is happening now and thousand of people die of respiratory disease every year. The problem is not as simple as you make it sound.
[0] https://www.theglobaleconomy.com/France/electricity_exports/
Negative externalities from burning coal are pretty significant*. Of course it depends on the value you place on a human life.
https://www.clientearth.org/latest/latest-updates/news/23-00....
> An french three-mile island can happen any time
As long as the likelihood of that remains substantially low it's not a huge issue. I mean the cost would be almost entirely financial since nobody died because of it (the same obviously can't be said about burning coal or even natural gas...).
The spread was much tighter before. Because "renewables"* are unreliable and needed gas plants to make up for when the wind doesn't blow, or the sun doesn't shine, price spiked up after the Ukraine war started. They wouldn't have had this problem with nuclear.
French woes are mainly linked to an aging infrastructure and delayed maintenance due to Covid-19.
Ah, and fun fact, did you know that coal emits more radioactivity per kwh than nuclear? https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/coal-ash-is-more-...
The German's foreign affairs office was funding the Henrich Boll fundation, which campaigns in France for renewables along with the anti-nuclear movement? https://archive.is/tSY2w#selection-1357.95-1357.108
The renewable sector is for from being "clean", there are many cases of corruption, influences, and vested interests behind the main proponents of this solution. Gazprom funded antinuclear movements in Europe. Many "fundations", acting for the fossil fuel industry, fund the movements that suit their agenda. https://twitter.com/GeWoessner/status/1498411537144463360
As we saw since the start of 2022, this bet has paid handsomely. EU citizens will have to deal with pollution, increased electricity prices, and wind turbines impossible to recycle.
One could also go on about how China killed the EU solar panels industry by handing out unlimited subsidies. The EU was so slow to act that when they started to tax chinese panels, it was too late already. The funniest thing being that those panels are made using coal power, so it's likely that solar panels from China are worse than their alternatives. Just like electric cars in Eastern Europe emit more CO2 than thermic due to the widespread use of the worst kind of coal there to produce electricity. https://app.electricitymaps.com/map
This is a ridiculous claim.
Edit: Source https://www.destatis.de/DE/Themen/Branchen-Unternehmen/Energ...
Contrast this with what Finland is doing. Finland is going to be one of the leading European nations in 20 years.
Where do you even get the Finland story from? It's not like having (finally) a new nuclear reactor running makes them some kind of unicorn. Again: please deliver facts. Sources. Anything besides those preachings from Shellenbergers Astro-Turf.
1600 MW for 11 billion Euro is a bad deal.
"Nuclear reactor Olkiluoto 3 has gone online in Finland some 12 years behind schedule and on a massively inflated budget."
https://www.dw.com/en/finlands-much-delayed-nuclear-plant-la...
providES. It used to be around 25% back in 2000 and was still above 10% untill very recently...
> This is a ridiculous claim.
Well... I'm sorry, but you seem to be an expert on those.
PovidED. You even admit it in the following sentence...
> It used to be around 25% back in 2000
And people where spreading the same fake news and fear back than. As we see today: it was stupid.
> and was still above 10% untill very recently...
No it wasn't. It was 6% max and more like 3% before Ukraine. If you want to correct somebody's statement, bring sources. Here is one for my numbers:
https://www.destatis.de/DE/Themen/Branchen-Unternehmen/Energ...
> Well... I'm sorry, but you seem to be an expert on those.
Compared to what you dropped here, I actually am one. Thank you.
If you actually looked at data from previous years on the site you posted:
https://www.destatis.de/DE/Themen/Branchen-Unternehmen/Energ...
You would see that nuclear was still 11,8% in 2021.
I mean really? You keep saying stuff like "fake news" and "ridiculous claim" when you can't even be bothered to read the sources you're "citing". Why?
Your comment would be fine without that second sentence.
Also oil price is still as low as it is because Russia is allowed to export most of it into third countries which decreases demand for non-Russian oil making it cheaper for Germany/EU.
As long as Russia has access to the global market Germany has not really replaced it even if none of or its products directly ended up in Germany. The only positive aspect is that China/India/etc. get to keep a significant proportion of cash which would go to Russia without the sanctions.
There is no way around it. German foreign policy regarding Russia over the last 2 decades was a huge failure. Of course the same applies to many other countries but Germany is one of the most egregious examples...