Shutting down nuclear plants is an error. But building more of them is also a mistake. France is slowly stopping their plants to make room for the cheaper wind and PV. And the nuclear plants currently being built are an economical nightmare both for EDF and the gobernment: frenchs are paying a hidden cost in "cheap" nuclear electricity by subsidizing EDF through the backdoor.
The tell with France is when they terminated the ASTRID project, which was taking another stab at a sodium-cooled fast reactor.
What this means is they don't see nuclear growing enough to require breeders on any time scale that would justify retaining fast reactor expertise. Which means they don't see nuclear addressing climate change to any large extent, globally.
The cost of nuclear energy is rising only because unlike wind and solar energy it faces more and more restrictions, regulations and bureaucracy redtape. This is a direct result of above-mentioned fear-mongering. Had it received support and proper funding for R&D, by now we'd been swimming in cheap, abundant, reliable and safe nuclear power.
This can be right in Germany. But France or China are nuclear friendly, and their costs are rising as much as everywhere else.
Lets talk about the Flamanville Unit 3: the new plant was approved long ago, and its construction began on 2007 (planned to end in 2012). No bureaucracy, no extra regulations, no restrictions. Built by EDF which is to say by the France gobernment, as they own 90% of EDF), budgeted 3.3 billions.
- 2012, costs escalated to 8.5 billion. Delayed to 2016.
- 2014, delayed to 2017 due to Areva failure on delivery. Areva is owned by the french gobernment, who lost a lot of taxpayer money on it.
- 2015, the french gobernment detected structural problems in the vessel. Detected multiple failures in cooling systems. Cost increased to 10.5 billion, finishing delayed to 2018.
- Due to delays, loans required more guarantees in 2017. The french gobernment agreed, and deemed the plant "safe to start" even before tests, to appease investors.
- 2018, leaks detected in tests. Costs rose to 11 billion, opening delayed until 2019.
- 2019, more leaks detected, costs of repairment rose to 12.4 billion.
- 2020, a gobernment audit estimated that the costs would rise to 19 billion, and it will be charged via taxes to the french citizens. Plant still not working.
This is the history of a nuclear power plant heavily favoured by the gobernment, with costs multiplying by 7 in fifteen years (and rising). All of it while having to compete with solar and eolic technologies that are naturally falling in costs year after year.
Same happened in USA Vogtle, and taxpayers end up eating the overcosts.
Nuclear plants are, economically, a suicide for any society. They are cheap to run, but they are extremely complex monsters that costs a lot to build, even in the most favourable scenario.
Our pool of cheap, abundant, reliable and safe electricity seems more real with eolic and PV than with nuclear. I have more faith in "each-house-with-a-PV-roof-and-batteries" than in "100%-nuclear".
Notice that I didn't even menction waste, accidents, costs of fuel, fearmongering, etc. in my posts. Just plain economics.
Renewables also keep facing more and more restrictions, regulations and bureaucracy redtape in Germany. I don't see the difference except that nuclear has greater technical challenges that require even more of what you mentioned.
We just need to produce 3-5 times more nuclear reactors than we already have to satisfy all current power demands of human civilization with a significant reserve.
If we didn't stop building plants 3 decades ago, you wouldn't have to worry. Anyway, USSR was building new plants in 3-5 years, I'm pretty sure we could get by for a decade more it would take to make 100% generated energy without burning fossil fuels.
And if NASA had kept its funding after the moon landings we would have a base on Mars now. But we don't. We have to make do with what we can achieve within the society we live in. Not compare our world to some alternative history.
If tou6 want to get out of a deep pit, first thing to do is to stop digging.
Humanity should stop those unbased fear-mongering against nuclear energy and start increasing the number of nuclear plants, encouraging the development of cheap, safe and reliable power generation technologies.
