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Why has the world started to mine coal again? (lemmy.ml)
submitted 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) by to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml
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With climate change looming, it seems so completely backwards to go back to using it again.

Is it coal miners pushing to keep their jobs? Fear of nuclear power? Is purely politically motivated, or are there genuinely people who believe coal is clean?

Edit, I will admit I was ignorant to the usage of coal nowadays.

Now I'm more depressed than when I posted this

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[โ€“] 6 points 2 years ago (1 child)

As people pointed out in another thread, nuclear energy is NOT the future and also a really bad short term solution,so countries like Germany are going back to coal short term to make the transitions to renewables in the meantime.

It's not a great solution, but without Nordstream, there's really not much else more sensible to do right now, just to make the transition.

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  • [โ€“] 11 points 2 years ago (5 children)

    what makes nuclear energy a bad option?

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  • [โ€“] 18 points 2 years ago (2 children)
    • It takes 20 years to build
    • nobody knows how much nuclear fuel will cost in 20 years
    • you have to take out a big loan and make interest payments on it for maybe 30 years before you start making a profit
    • if you don't have enough water for cooling because of climate change, the plant must shut down
    • if your neighbor decides to start a war against you, your nuclear plants become a liability, see Ukraine.

    I think smaller, decentralized renewable energy is cheaper in the short and long run and has a much lower risk in case of accidents, natural Desasters or attacks.

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  • [โ€“] -2 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    SMR (small modular reactors) are looking like they could become the next hip thing in nuclear power tech.

    Basically a lot lower initial investment and offer a lot more flexibility.

    Linky link

    The link has a lot of info on them

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  • [โ€“] 2 points 2 years ago

    I really don't see that as a good progression. We want to focus on renewables because that's the most sustainable way to go. Why go back to nuclear again?

    That said if you are saying that's where the industry is moving even though that's probably not the best approach, fair enough. My opinion has zero effect on the industry.

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  • [โ€“] 17 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    A single new reactor takes decades to build and costs billions. Investing in solar, wind, the grid and storage instead will generate more energy, faster, and for less.

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  • [โ€“] -1 points 2 years ago* (2 children)

    It's not "instead of".

    You're supposed to run nuclear along side renewables. Opposed to running fossile fuels alongside renewables. Either way, something has be running besides renewables.

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  • [โ€“] 5 points 2 years ago

    Opposed to running fossile fuels alongside renewables.

    But that's literally what you're gonna have to do for 20+ years if you decide to go both ways and also build new nuclear plants. Put all your budget into renewables at once and you instantly cut down on the fossil fuel you'd otherwise burn while waiting for your reactor to go online, all while you're saving money from the cheap energy yield which you can reinvest into more renewables or storage R&D to eventually overcome the requirement to run something alongside it.

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  • [+] -11 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

    It's just nuclear phobia.

    It's literally the second safest form of energy production we have only behind solar.

    It's literally safer than wind power.

    Yeah there's been a few disasters with older reactor designs or reactors that were put where they shouldn't have been, but even with those it's still incredibly safe.

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