Are you talking about storage? Because there are a lot of places to safely store nuclear waste for the foreseeable future, and initiatives like nuclear waste recycling could dramatically simplify that.
If we look at renewables, many often ignore the negative externalities of producing those products as well (mining lithium for batteries and whatnot).
government guarantees and subsidies
We’re seeing similar things w/ renewables like solar and wind.
From your first link:
The industry would be free of any liability for offsite death or damage, whereas the victims would have to go hat in hand to Congress for restitution.
I 100% agree this is an issue, and I wasn’t aware that Congress was providing this guarantee. But this isn’t a problem with nuclear itself, it’s a problem of stupid government intervention in something that should be handled privately. Nuclear facilities should be seeking insurance protection from an insurance company, and if that’s insufficient, people should be able to sue the power company and the government should be able to look for evidence of criminal conduct. Again, this isn’t a reason to avoid nuclear, it’s a reason to restructure the types of protections companies have, as well as reduce government interference in energy policy.
Likewise with waste disposal, nuclear facilities should be banding together to manage waste disposal, and governments should merely set some rules (i.e. maximum levels of radiation leakage outside of a defined area). This could be largely similar to burial plots, where you purchase usage of a certain plot of land (with appropriate lining to reduce impact on the local ecology) for a certain period of time.
cap consumer prices
Governments should never cap prices, they should instead provide cash directly to consumers who need assistance.
google has a history of investing into things that don’t work out
But that’s the great thing here, Google doesn’t have to keep using the energy these plants produce, this energy can be resold to the rest of the grid if Google decides AI isn’t something they want to keep investing in.
And yeah, we don’t know the specifics of the deal, but I think we can assume the energy company felt it was a satisfactory deal. AFAIK, there’s no government involvement in this deal, so it doesn’t really have anything to do with your main objections above.
Are you talking about storage? Because there are a lot of places to safely store nuclear waste for the foreseeable future, and initiatives like nuclear waste recycling could dramatically simplify that.
If we look at renewables, many often ignore the negative externalities of producing those products as well (mining lithium for batteries and whatnot).
We’re seeing similar things w/ renewables like solar and wind.
From your first link:
I 100% agree this is an issue, and I wasn’t aware that Congress was providing this guarantee. But this isn’t a problem with nuclear itself, it’s a problem of stupid government intervention in something that should be handled privately. Nuclear facilities should be seeking insurance protection from an insurance company, and if that’s insufficient, people should be able to sue the power company and the government should be able to look for evidence of criminal conduct. Again, this isn’t a reason to avoid nuclear, it’s a reason to restructure the types of protections companies have, as well as reduce government interference in energy policy.
Likewise with waste disposal, nuclear facilities should be banding together to manage waste disposal, and governments should merely set some rules (i.e. maximum levels of radiation leakage outside of a defined area). This could be largely similar to burial plots, where you purchase usage of a certain plot of land (with appropriate lining to reduce impact on the local ecology) for a certain period of time.
Governments should never cap prices, they should instead provide cash directly to consumers who need assistance.
But that’s the great thing here, Google doesn’t have to keep using the energy these plants produce, this energy can be resold to the rest of the grid if Google decides AI isn’t something they want to keep investing in.
And yeah, we don’t know the specifics of the deal, but I think we can assume the energy company felt it was a satisfactory deal. AFAIK, there’s no government involvement in this deal, so it doesn’t really have anything to do with your main objections above.