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Comment by lispm | Hacker News Reader

> Nuclear energy has pretty much nothing to do with nuclear weapons

That's not true. For example Japan has Plutonium for several thousand nuclear weapons, where the Plutonium comes from reprocessing of fuel of Nuclear Power Plants.

https://www.armscontrol.org/act/2018-10/features/japans-misg...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_latency

Take Iran, which was hiding their nuclear weapons program behind a nuclear energy program. -> "Iran says its nuclear program is peaceful,[58] and had then enriched uranium to less than 5 percent, consistent with fuel for a civilian nuclear power plant."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_program_of_Iran

> It's easy to say that "renewables doubled last year" when they go from "marginal" to "still marginal"

60% electricity from renewable for Germany is far from marginal.

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> where the Plutonium comes from reprocessing of fuel of Nuclear Power Plants.

With this logic, the Raspberry Pi foundation is involved in producing F35 fighter jets, because there is electronics in the F35.

> Take Iran, which was hiding their nuclear weapons program behind a nuclear energy program

As you say, there was a "weapons program" hidden there. It's not like a power plant reactor gives you the weapon technology magically.

> 60% electricity from renewable for Germany

All year? What happens when there is no wind and no sun?

> is far from marginal.

Electricity accounts for like 20% of the energy. So it's 60% of 20% = 12% and that's when there is wind and sun.

> With this logic, the Raspberry Pi foundation is involved in producing F35 fighter jets, because there is electronics in the F35.

You should be able to see for yourself that your argumentation is nonsense.

For Japan the accusation is that the Government by purpose produced this stockpile of Plutonium, also by creating a certain nuclear industry, to be in a position to create nuclear weapons, if they see it necessary. That's a political decision and the nuclear industry around nuclear powerplants is an enabler, created by the government via its energy and defense policies.

> It's not like a power plant reactor gives you the weapon technology magically.

They designed it.

Remember, you claimed that there is no connection. I reality, government set up nuclear industry such that it supports their weapon programs.

> All year? What happens when there is no wind and no sun?

You can find out. There is enough information about this topic.

A renewable energy landscape is more than just "wind & sun". An electricity grid is also more than a nuclear fleet in France, which for weeks&months had poor availability.

"In France, state-controlled EDF's nuclear output dropped by 30% in 2022, to 279 TWh, as more than half of its 56 reactors were taken offline for repairs which had been delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic"

> You should be able to see for yourself that your argumentation is nonsense.

I think the same about yours. Any country can pretend to do research in nuclear energy and secretly work on nuclear weapons. Or just secretly do it. It's not like they need to make energy for that.

> You can find out. There is enough information about this topic.

It was a rhetorical question. I know Germany relies on fossil fuel to compensate and imports when needed (e.g. from France...). You can see it real time, there are interactive maps.

> A renewable energy landscape is more than just "wind & sun".

How do you compensate the intermittent production of wind and sun with renewables, then? And if you have another renewable that compensates entirely, why don't you just do that instead of wind and sun?

> "In France, state-controlled EDF's nuclear output dropped by 30% in 2022, to 279 TWh, as more than half of its 56 reactors were taken offline for repairs which had been delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic"

I don't understand the criticism of nuclear power. A pandemic broke out, and with it, there was a shortage of labor to allow for the scheduled maintenance of the reactors.

What fault does nuclear power have in this? If solar panels are not consistently maintained and cleaned, their production also decreases.

Anyway, I would like to point out that France is currently the largest exporter of electricity in the world. I wonder why, considering that according to your view, nuclear power creates so many problems. https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/net-electricity-imports

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