
Germany’s Dangerously Flawed Energy Policies: It Needs Nuclear - jseliger
https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/germany-nuclear-power-by-hans-werner-sinn-2019-05
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Arnt
Sigh.

I read the papers, and don't see anyone applying for permission to build
replacements for the nuclear plants that are being decomissioned. Why not?

My guess is that the taxpayers won't insure nuclear generation against
accidents/cleanup anymore. (There are also rules that would need to be
changed, but those rules have been changed before.) It might be possible to
get permission to build nuclear plant if the operator has liability insurance
and a safe way to store the waste, but not without that.

And AFAICT, if the investors/operators need to pay for insurance and waste
disposal, then nuclear power is too expensive compared to either building
spare wind/sun capacity, learning to limit electricity use, or a combination.

I'd be happy to learn better. But these "thinktank" pieces aren't thoughtful.
"X has disadvantages or problems, therefore we must do Y" is just pretense.
What Y in the real world comes without problems or disadvantages?

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kwhitefoot
There is nuclear next door in France. Just use that as baseload. Also you
could build a bigger interconnect to Norway and dump excess power in pumped
storage. Many of the problems with energy in Europe are to do with
insufficient capacity in international connections. Add interconnects to the
east and you can sell excess wind and solar to Poland, Ukraine, and Russia,
etc. Improve the connections to Spain and you can buy Spanish solar in the
early evening when your own has stopped producing.

Above all: stop trying to solve each country's problems alone, stop thinking
that borders between countries are a problem.

