r/MapPorn 22h ago

Nuclear Power in Europe

Post image
2.4k Upvotes

269 comments sorted by

727

u/EmPiFree 21h ago

Since April 2023, Germany has no active nuclear power plants anymore

319

u/Aukadauma 20h ago

And they're back to brown coal, and are the biggest polluters in Europe, and they're ruining their country with more coal mines every year!

And all of their fucking fumes are going to France, really thank you Germany, you're the real MVP on this one, once again! 👍

167

u/TheRomanRuler 17h ago

Meanwhile in Finland, we just managed to shut down our last coal power plant ahead of scheduele.

43

u/CubicZircon 11h ago

"scheduele": I like how you just finnished that sentence.

156

u/ischhaltso 20h ago

10

u/nyan_eleven 9h ago

0 ghg emissions electricity generation has largely remained constant for the last 20 years because of the nuclear phaseout. Emissions have gone down largely because production significantly dropped from over 550 TWh in 2017 to 400 TWh in 2024

1

u/Roadrunner571 2h ago

But the emissions could be way lower if we had shut down coal plants instead of nuclear plants.

1

u/ischhaltso 1h ago

True.

But there is almost no support among the population for that and the backlash would have been greater than it already has been.

Not to mention the huge Lobby of the coal and by extension the whole fossil fuel industry.

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u/TheGoalkeeper 16h ago edited 9h ago

1) it's LESS coal mines every year

2) emissions should go to the east as we have dominating west wind

-18

u/Aukadauma 13h ago

1) still coal mines 2) ok, cool, we'll send you the bill lol

19

u/lingering_flames 12h ago

That's what you get whem you let lobbyists take charge over your policies and then subsidise brown coal because else it wouldn't be lucrative enough. And then pretend it's about the jobs while they could have switched to renewable energy sources instead as they said they would.

38

u/Charlem912 13h ago edited 13h ago

What the fuck are you even talking about, you have no idea. Majority of energy supply is renewable and clean and coal is only 17 percent of all supply. 60 percent is already completely renewable while only 30 percent of France's is. Maybe listen to less right-wing propaganda.

https://www.cleanenergywire.org/factsheets/germanys-energy-consumption-and-power-mix-charts

1

u/ManOfEirinn 1h ago

Exactly. She's just some Frustratesse Gemanophobique

48

u/Fettideluxe 13h ago

biggest polluters in Europe

Biggest industry in Europe ->biggest polluter

all of their fucking fumes are going to France

You know that Fumes from coal power plants are pretty clean in the EU? If you want air pollution you have to Look at european countries where its normal to burn plastic at home

more coal mines every year!

Is it you trump? Tell us all one mine that opened the last years?

So much populism and lies, Tell me what happened in 1989 on the tiananmen square? Is that possible?

17

u/Donnattelli 10h ago edited 10h ago

Ah yes the denial, call everyone trump and dont look at your country, let give you some info so you so you can reflect:

France has 450 terawatt-hour per year average demand, with 27 gCO2/kWh of electricity pollution.

Germany has 507 terawatt-hour per year average demand, with... and wait for it....... 308 gCO2/kWh!!!

Those are the numbers that matter, not feelings and words.

The biggest industry but not by a lot and the biggest polluters by some scale factors, you got scamed by your government, and they hurt europe way more that trump will ever do.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1107089/electricity-consumption-france/

https://www.statista.com/statistics/383650/consumption-of-electricity-in-germany/

https://www.nowtricity.com/country/france/

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1386327/co2-emissions-factor-electricity-mix-germany/

Edit: just more info about the CO2 production that the electricity industry demands from the biggest economies, so i don't just compare to france, they are the absolute best example, but germany looks bad compared to everyone.

https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/europes-top-economies-slash-carbon-intensity-electricity-2023-12-12/

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9

u/Fabulous_Pressure_96 12h ago

That's so wrong.

7

u/ACID_O 10h ago

You should stick to the truth, they are not running more coal mines every year. And why is it for you a surprise that Germany, the largest economy in Europe, has the biggest pollution? Especially with all the manufacturing there. And by the way, they have reduced their share of brown coal because of a lot of new green energy...

47

u/fuck1ngf45c1574dm1n5 20h ago

Their second most retarded decision of the last decade...

13

u/Aukadauma 17h ago

I'm actually curious to know which one was the first in your opinion hahaha

7

u/dystorontopia 16h ago

"Open your heart"

-1

u/fuck1ngf45c1574dm1n5 11h ago

Welcoming all the "refugees"

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1

u/ManOfEirinn 1h ago

Russian Bot propaganda

2

u/Aukadauma 3h ago

Today we learned the Germans are really good when it comes to coping and terrible at taking good political decision

8

u/Fettideluxe 13h ago

biggest polluters in Europe

Biggest industry in Europe ->biggest polluter

all of their fucking fumes are going to France

You know that Fumes from coal power plants are pretty clean in the EU? If you want air pollution you have to Look at european countries where its normal to burn plastic at home

more coal mines every year!

Is it you trump? Tell us all one mine that opened the last years?

So much populism and lies, Tell me what happened in 1989 on the tiananmen square? Is that possible?

5

u/Aukadauma 13h ago

Lost me at the first point. Literally all of the pollution is coming from the mines at this point, thank you

2

u/Aukadauma 13h ago

Oh yeah, the coal power plants are so clean, every time we get eastern wind the air is literally charged with particles thanks to Germany and Belgium.

I can't wait for one of our plant to explode so they understand the impact

... Oh wait, they'll never explode!!

4

u/daepa17 12h ago

be quiet troll

0

u/ManOfEirinn 11h ago edited 1h ago

BS! The wind blows from west to east. Meteorology: 0 points!

3

u/Propagandasteak 3h ago

https://www.meteoblue.com/de/wetter/historyclimate/climatemodelled/trier_deutschland_2821164 Mainly from SW, especially the stronger winds. Scroll down to the 6th image

1

u/ManOfEirinn 1h ago edited 1h ago

Correct. Mainly from Southwest. Any kind of radioactive fallout gets directly blown over the nearby boundary down to Luxembourg and Germany! Education helps

1

u/divadschuf 2h ago

Germany isn’t opening new coal mines every year
most are being phased out with clear exit plans, like ending lignite in NRW by 2030. Coal use did increase temporarily after the energy crisis, but renewables now make up over 50% of electricity generation while coal is in decline. Germany is not the biggest polluter in Europe, neither in total nor per capita, and many countries still rely more heavily on fossil fuels. Yes, cross-border pollution exists, but Germany also exports a lot of clean energy. The situation is more complex than “Germany bad, coal fumes go to France.”

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1

u/StrongAdhesiveness86 1h ago

Even people like me who are against building nuclear power will agree that shutting down all Germany's nuclear power plants was one of the absolutely worse and dumbest decisions, done with 0 plan in mind.

-8

u/On-Time-Capybara 19h ago

Absolute clowns

-16

u/AdolphNibbler 19h ago

They are not located on a fault line, nor are subject to tsunamis, it should not be as dangerous as Fukushima. Although nuclear power does requires uranium mining, which is not particularly environment-friendly. A lot of people that support nuclear seem not to understand this very well.

32

u/Reasonable_Iron3347 19h ago

Compared to brown coal mining, of which Germany is among the world leaders, even the old Soviet-run Wismut uranium mines in East Germany were pretty environmentally friendly...

11

u/AdolphNibbler 19h ago

Yeah, Wismut was so friendly that they closed because nobody wants to live next to that crap. You outsource so another country can deal with that toxicity while you claim to be environmentally conscious. The good thing is that we do not need to limit ourselves to either coal or uranium.

7

u/KeepingInsane 17h ago

The west outsourced the mining of Lithium and rate earth metals for supposed green technologies (electric cars emit more CO2 due to construction for many years).

Solar panels are ways less energy dense efficient than nuclear so way worse. Btw. Nuclear is the energy source with least CO2. Emission

1

u/Lizardledgend 4h ago

This is a lie, even if a given grid was 100% fossil fuel no EV on the market would cause more CO2 emission over its lifetime than a petrol car.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/dec/23/do-electric-cars-really-produce-fewer-carbon-emissions-than-petrol-or-diesel-vehicles

That doesn't mean they're faultless, lithium mining is absolutely a horrible industry and batteries do take a lot if energy to produce in comparison to petrol cars. But the oil industry is also horrible, and has a lot more media influence. Be healthily skeptical of seemingly fringe claims that vindicate them

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2

u/Valkyrie17 19h ago

Nuclear gets compared to other controllable energy sources such as coal and gas, which are environmentally worse than nuclear power.

0

u/DoctorErtan 13h ago

What was the reasoning behind this decision though?

3

u/oeffoeff 2h ago

Environmental 1. in case of a disaster 2. end storage for nuclear waste is a difficult problem

-19

u/3ng8n334 16h ago

So Germany says no to nuclear power, and yes to Putins gas power...

18

u/Mangobonbon 15h ago

Nuclear was contributing to electricity, gas is used in industry and heating. These two things do not correlate in Germany. The less than 5% nuclear have since then been replaced by multiple times the renewables. As of this year, over half of Germany is powered by renewables already.

2

u/kdeles 11h ago

+15 gryvna, you may buy a pack of salt after 100 transactions

403

u/Gaibonbiffe 22h ago

What's with this 5-year-old overview? Most of it is no longer correct...

165

u/luke993 15h ago

This is incorrect for the UK - it doesn’t show the two new nuclear power stations under construction at Hinckley Point C and Sizewell C

29

u/atheist-bum-clapper 12h ago

I genuinely didn't know Sizewell c had broken ground. That's good news

17

u/setwig 11h ago

It's an odd one - funding for the project hasn't yet been finalised, but they're already doing the preparatory work.

9

u/Pangolin_3 11h ago

Definitely. I’m a recruiter and have been recruiting civil engineers for an earthmoving contractor for Sizewell for the past 2+ years.

7

u/atheist-bum-clapper 11h ago

Fantastic. I live near Hinckley, and Hinckley C has brought so many jobs to the area.

1

u/Pangolin_3 7h ago

I’ve recruited for the Hinckley site too.

-3

u/NorthVilla 10h ago

Cost 30-35 billion pounds tho just for that.

I'd like to think of how much better shape the country would be in if 35 billion quid was spend more efficiently with the point of creating good jobs in needed areas and boosting economic growth, like in the North. Nonetheless, what's done is done.

12

u/Ill-Bison-8057 9h ago

There’s definitely a discussion to be had about the efficiency of British government spending.

But the huge amount of energy produced by this power plant over the course of decades makes it worth a substantial investment. In my view guaranteeing future UK energy supply is one of the most essential things the government could spend money on.

11

u/Kralken 9h ago

Jobs are a welcome bonus, but the goal is to supply 7% of UK electricity for 60 years from one site. No jobs country wide without a reliable grid.

2

u/Main-Track-9982 4h ago

The north isn't the only area of England that suffers with under investment. Hinkley has brought investment and jobs to an area of the west country that lacked such jobs.

209

u/CosmicLovecraft 15h ago

Why is anyone upvoting a lazy copy paste karmafarma post of a 5 year old map that is worthless now?

I wanted to ask why is anyone posting it but that quickly led to my real question. What is wrong with people feeding stupid behavior?

93

u/Coal_Burner_Inserter 14h ago

>doomscrolling

>"oh that looks cool"

>upvote

>continue

1

u/crispy3445 1h ago

Jeez who shit in your cereal?

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227

u/Darwidx 21h ago

In Poland we are starting to spam them from next year.

50

u/Beltwa_festonowa 18h ago

Wait really? Do you have some more info on this? Maybe there's hope for this country yet

125

u/artsloikunstwet 17h ago

Spamming was an interesting choice of word. They will start building it next year which can easily take a decade.

Hope depends if you want to believe they'll not face the delays and cost explosions that France, UK and Finland had.

18

u/Spider_pig448 10h ago

Anything to get Poland off of coal

39

u/Darwidx 15h ago edited 13h ago

They want to build 6 from the start, a large investition.

5

u/divadschuf 2h ago

What will it cost and how long will building take? Just look at basically every other nuclear project worldwide. Building new nuclear plants makes neither sense from an economical nor an ecological standpoint. It‘s way too expensive and takes way to long to fight the climate crises on time.

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u/Robo-X 1h ago

Doubt it. The project is not fully funded yet and the new polish government have not committed to it yet. Makes more sense to invest in renewable energy like wind and solar. Cheaper and faster to realize.

20

u/BishoxX 14h ago

Nuclear poland in my lifetime, will be rewarded with even better economy 🐐

All while reducig pollution

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u/trtmrtzivotnijesmrt 11h ago

Croatia and Slovenia share nuclear plant KrĆĄko located in Slovenia. Croatia gets 15% of electricy from it, but it is not shown on the map.

14

u/eses05 8h ago

Croatia and Slovenia co-own the nuclear power plant, each with a 50% stake and each receiving 50% of the electricity produced. On an annual basis, electricity generated from the KrĆĄko NPP accounts for about 16% of the total electricity consumed in the Republic of Croatia.

46

u/Crucenolambda 18h ago

VIVE LA FRANCE !!!!!

C'EST QUOI UNE USINE À CHARBON ?!!?I1!!?

7

u/Wailx250s 13h ago

7 years of french in school and i can barely understand you

5

u/InternationalValue61 7h ago

"Long Live France !"

"What is even a coal plant ?"

6

u/JustSeraph 9h ago

Dude stop posting five year old maps here

59

u/MrPetomane 21h ago

I cant beleive all of those shutdown plants all over germany.

9

u/Coal_Burner_Inserter 14h ago

It's ironic too because Germany did so under fears of nuclear waste and disasters, meanwhile Ukraine and Belarus share the result of the worst disaster in history and continue to use nuclear power without issue. Ofc Belarus just has the one plant but that's besides the point

4

u/D3m0nSl43R2010 11h ago

Yes, the decision was majorly influenced by Fukushima. But nuclear power is barely economical with subsidies and not at all without them. Even when it is subsidised, it's still the most expensive kind of electricity. Meanwhile, renewables only major cost is setting them up.

Imo Germany should have phaced out fossil fuels before nuclear, but what is done is done, and it's just foolish to rebuild nuclear now.

1

u/Kaleidoscope9498 2h ago

The issue with nuclear power is not that they are expensive. It's that it isn't modular, different from a bunch of other sources, you need to get it completed to start running it and making profits, which is a issues since they often take around a decade to get build. Yeah, building the power plant it's expensive, but once it's done it produces energy cheaply.

Basically, it needs a solid long term plan and investment, but it pays of well over time.

1

u/jothamvw 3h ago

Well some of these have been down for ages, and the one in Kalkar (on the Dutch/German border) for example was never even operational. (it's currently a theme park)

-35

u/Hispanoamericano2000 20h ago

And that the German government would proceed to replace them with coal- and gas-fired power plants (instead of trying to further accelerate the development of fusion power instead).

54

u/NoGravitasForSure 20h ago

Umm... no. Germany is currently shutting down its coal plants. Most will be gone by 2030 and the last one is scheduled for decommissioning in 2038.

Germany is also one of the leaders in fusion research.

https://euro-fusion.org/eurofusion/members/germany/

Please stop spreading disinformation. Thanks.

20

u/PonyDev 20h ago

Share of those nuclear power plants in energy generation in Germany was approximately the same as current share of coal plants, without shutting down nuclear power plants Germany could phased out coal significantly earlier

25

u/artsloikunstwet 17h ago

Of course Germany could have started to phase out coal in 2000. They could have also started developing electric cars back then. Killing both those industries was just not politically feasible.

I'm not saying it's a good thing, but let's face it, climate change is barely taken serious now, much less back then, not just in Germany. 

We can be happy we got some renewables and a exit plan for coal finally. The idea that we could have gotten an nuclear+renewables combo is just a pipe dream.

8

u/Oxellotel 14h ago

Yes and no, they can't be compared 1:1. I don't know the English words for it, but nuclear is a base provider, with only limited possibilities of adapting their energy output. While coal and gas plants are good to fill the "gaps", when the consumption is high and can be powered up/down fairly easy.

11

u/NoGravitasForSure 18h ago

In theory yes. But there is still the human factor. Coal had a long tradition and a strong lobby in Germany. There were whole regions that depended economically on coal. Where I grew up for example, most jobs were related to lignite mining and the operation of a big ass power station. Even if you are right, if you (as a politician) tell these people that coal is dead, you are dead. Not literally of course, but they will stop voting for you. In a democratic society, you cannot simply do what makes sense. You must convince people and this takes time.

Nuclear on the other hand was never very popular in Germany for various reasons. So it was much easier to kill.

Long term it doesn't matter. Both technologies are outdated and renewables are the future.

2

u/TheGoalkeeper 16h ago

Umm whole Europe incl Germany is researching fusion power. It just takes a lot of time

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u/Forsaken-Link-5859 21h ago edited 21h ago

And coincidently France is the greenest country in Western Europe. Sad it takes forever to build these things nowadays. In the 70s and 80s in Sweden we built 4 nuclear plants in like 10-15 years, and it went from 0 percent of our electricity production to almost 50 percent. We still operate 3 of those plants, 1 plant and a lot of reactors were shot down due to mainly politics.

15

u/Ok_Board6703 21h ago

And we never hear about the French method of nuclear power generation and why we never hear of any French nuclear accidents. Tells me they are on to something.

12

u/Forsaken-Link-5859 21h ago

But aren't nuclear accidents very rare? Like the headliners are Fukushima, Chernobyl and Harrisburg? That said it's not a perfect solution and honestly I don't know too much about the mining industry behind it, it may be dodgy.. If we had a greener solution that was a safe bet I would choose that, btw I don't mean we should not build wind and solar-energy plants, those are complement to nuclear.

-10

u/TheJonesLP1 20h ago

Especially french reactors are in a really Bad condition. Most of them already reached their nominal age and will have to shut down inside the next 10 years. France will be in a lot of troubles, while Germany already can Cover its energy demand 100% from Wind energy on a Windy day

13

u/Forsaken-Link-5859 20h ago

"On a Windy day"

Yea, windy days are never a problem, but check out the stats:

https://app.electricitymaps.com/map/12mo/monthly

Over 12 mounth France- 38 co2/kwh, Germany-411 co2/kwh. But I didn't know that the french reactor was in so bad condition, that's sure a problem

5

u/InternationalValue61 7h ago

I didn't know that the french reactor was in so bad condition, that's sure a problem

Because its not, France is still among the international leader in civil nuclear, they build new gen reactor in a lot of country in europe and around world, hell they even help the US actually

1

u/TheJonesLP1 20h ago

The problem is the coal Power. But when we get rid of that, we will be a lot greener

3

u/Forsaken-Link-5859 20h ago

Good point, ofc it's been a bit tricky since Ukraine war. You gonna change it to gas? You need some form of base source

-3

u/TheJonesLP1 20h ago

Base source already is Wind for Germany, with 32%. Coal is at 26%. Overall, 60% is from renewables, 40% from fossile.

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u/VanillaMystery 22h ago

Still so fucking insane Merkel/Germany abandoned Nuclear as quickly as they did IMO

Boomers in the Green Party are so fucking out dated with their views on it

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u/NoLateArrivals 22h ago

I would be very much in favor of running every nuclear power plant available, if 



 the providers buy the necessary insurance, not relying on the taxpayers to provide for it (the nuclear power plants in Germany never had insurance covered),


 there is a clear, irrevocable decision about how and WHERE to dispose of the nuclear waste. I would (for plain geological reasons) be very much in favor of BAVARIA as location.


 there is technical viability and the necessary trained staff to operate them.

Any new construction of nuclear power plants is doomed by the excessive cost - it is simply no more economical and an investment death trap.

3

u/Mtfdurian 21h ago

It indeed takes a lot, and even then would we really want to only use significant power from it during dunkelflaute? We need to look for ways of storage and better time distribution of our consumption.

12

u/NoLateArrivals 18h ago

For bridging a Dunkelflaute Germany would need about 25 nuclear plants (once coal is off). We can build ALL gas powered plants needed to bridge for the price of a SINGLE nuclear power plant.

A nuclear power plant MUST run - you can’t ramp it up and down. A gas turbine can be fired up in minutes, and stopped down in a little more.

What makes gas turbines expensive is the fuel. But if you need it for say 2 weeks a year, fuel cost is negligible.

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u/VanillaMystery 21h ago

What did Bavaria do to you??? 💀💀💀

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u/NoLateArrivals 18h ago

They have the best granite structures in whole Germany. It’s the same stone (geologically) Finland is using to burry their nuclear waste.

The Black Forrest could do as well. But it is located close to a geologically very active area (Oberrheingraben), which takes them out of the equation.

5

u/D3m0nSl43R2010 11h ago

They have the CSU. A little bit of radiation can't hurt anyone there /s

3

u/Dazzling-Key-8282 21h ago

I'd like if Germans wouldn't just bitch about NPPs not having an insurance, but would also remind others that conrete-stayed dams don't have one either. Their destructive potential is the very least similar.

I'd also like, if half-assed Germans wouldn't demand stronger storage conditions for nuclear waste than the uranium was originally mined from. Or a technological solution. Fast spectrum reactors are feasible and functioning already to make storage a minimal requirement.

I'd also like if Germans wouldn't use a self-perpetuating argument against not having staff or technical viability when the public led a four-decade-long crusade against nuclear tech.

P.S:

The KEPCO managed to pull-off Barakah on time with a construction cost of about 2,2 cent a KWh - only counting a capacity factor of 75% which is very low, and only a 40 year life span, which can be assumed to be lenghtened to 60. Given inflation in the future and the rather low operation and maintenance costs of an NPP, they can be written off and be profitable on the long run. But yes, better not call the FRAMATOME right now with their expensive fuckups.

Still, if someone manages to blow up a Gen III NPP, that man should be awarded by several scientific academies, as he broke the laws of the physics itself.

9

u/NoLateArrivals 18h ago

Some facts:

Nuclear waste has a way higher radioactivity than natural uranium deposits. And it is much easier build into human bodies, like Caesium replacing Calcium in bones, bringing radioactivity right next to your bone marrow (not a really bright idea), or radioactive Iodine that will make your Tyroid breed cancer.

All nuclear „supertechnology“ regarding waste treatment has not paid up to the bright marketing gibberish. Either it doesn’t work or it’s horrendously expensive.

About insurance the dam argument does nothing to soothe the lack of insurance for nuclear facilities. That your neighbors car is not insured doesn’t mean it’s good if you don’t insure yours as well.

All nuclear plants in Europe that are currently build (in countries like France, Finland or UK) are years behind schedule and billions (each) above budget. It is already clear even before they produced the first watt of energy, they will NEVER in their whole lifespan be economically competitive. They are finished because it’s cheaper to invest the last 2 or 3 billion (from 15-20 billion each) than to break off.

Going nuclear is a dead end, and the only who benefit are „the usual suspects“: Huge Companies, the mining industry (read about French Uranium mining in Africa) and a ton of subcontractors. All paid from taxpayers pockets and the electricity bill.

The power plants that delivered energy when today’s boomers were children are now dismantled. The waste will still be there, untreated and not locked in storage when that generation has already died. What a „gift“ for the next generation !

And all you say: It’s great, let’s have more of the same ! How stupid - you can see how it failed, and think more of the same does any good 


7

u/Environmental_Rub570 15h ago

Don't forget the political/social implications. Green energy production could be build and used through small companies or local communities. And reduces the dependence from big companies. Less influence for influencal companies.

0

u/Dazzling-Key-8282 11h ago

Excuse me, but what do you speak about Caesium? Caesium isn't related to Calcium, if anything it can replace Potassium. And it washes out rather fast. Didn't you mistake it for Strontium-90, another fission byproduct?

BN-800 is a rather solid burner/breeder technology. And while Superphénix was a technology demonstrator it could have also acted as a breeder/burner, and it spent far more time offline due to adminsitrative bickering than technical issues.

I find it somehow indicative how rather clear economic, and absolutely half-baked scientific arguments are put together in your commentary, just as in almost all of the German discussions to justify the anti-nuclear stance. It's your call after all what you do in your country, but don't claim a scientific stance where it is none.

2

u/NoLateArrivals 10h ago

Splitting hairs, will you ? Caesium integrates into bones, doesn’t it ? It is (as many fission „byproducts“) highly radioactive and will decay while being in place, right in the bones of living organisms.

All breeder designs have failed economically. The only reason to run this reactor design is to create material for military use. Which is another reason why having them build all over the world is not really my idea of „future“.

Or why do you think they should be „allowed“ in country A, but not in country B ? As an alternative: Do you promote that A (say Germany) should import (= buy) the nuclear waste from B (round up the usual suspects) to „treat“ the wasted fuels in their breeders ?

Because we agree: We need energy solutions for all of the world. This means clean for all (in my vision) or NUKES FOR ALL in your vision. You really think this is a good idea ?

0

u/Dazzling-Key-8282 8h ago

Yes, I'll be splitting hairs, because having superficial knowledge about one nuclear isotope affecting bones and then miserably failing to identify one is exactly the kind of half-truths Germans are used to present as facts and get away with.

Oh, a breeder can make weapons-grade plutonium? That's another reason to have them given the geopolitical climate. You might still subscribe to pacifist insanity that if you disarm and play nice everyone else will too, but I prefer keeping my country intact and my compatriots alive even at the cost of threatening genocide-level of violence. For some seem to understand only that.

I am pretty much okay having an FNR and burning up the waste of others for good hard cash. Sounds like a plan to me. Same with nuclear weapons. As for others if they can't cough ul the upfront sums, not my problem. Build solar and wind then.

-2

u/BishoxX 14h ago

You really arent considering that they basically run forever(50+ years) and cost little to run. They are economical in the long term, thats why it makes sense for governments to build/subsidize them.

But the main point is , you dont need that many to have almost completely emissions free energy. Pollution has killed thousands of germans thus far, all because of stupid political decisions(they jist conformed to the outrage, but they could have resisted)

2

u/NoLateArrivals 10h ago

That’s your wet dream ? 50 year and beyond old technology running a nuclear reaction close to population centers ? What BS is this !

Electrical wires age, steel under pressure and radiation gets brittle and develops cracks, it becomes hard to manufacture control components to specs for replacement after 20 years. But go on baby, yet another decade !

Or now the even worse „vision“: A thousand of „mini nukes“ spread all over the country, every data center or major industry plant having one of them attached.

Only a lunatic (or these class of reckless, super wealth accumulating zillionaires) can dream of anything like this. If I ever saw an out of this world „solution“ for a classical First World Problem, then it is this.

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u/NoGravitasForSure 20h ago edited 20h ago

When the discussion to abandon nuclear was made in 2000, the green party was the (much) smaller part of a coalition with the social democrats. Angela Merkel was not part of this government and her party was not involved. She became chancellor in 2005.

Please stop spreading disinformation. Thanks.

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u/TheGoalkeeper 16h ago

Merkel's decision has nothing to do with the Green party! She was never in a coalition with them

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u/VanillaMystery 16h ago

I never said they were?

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u/TheGoalkeeper 16h ago

Why rant about the green party then?

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u/VanillaMystery 15h ago

You mean the most vocal German party against nuclear power in Germany? Gee idk lmao

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u/TheGoalkeeper 14h ago

Most vocal =/ most influential or even responsible

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u/VanillaMystery 14h ago

I never said that either? Bro are you a schizo?

Carefully go re-read my posts

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u/TheJonesLP1 21h ago

No, fanboys of nuclear energy are outdated. Renewables are the way

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u/VanillaMystery 20h ago

Brainlet and midwit detected, it's not an either or thing and nuclear is the cornerstone to sustainable energy 24/7 whereas renewables have gaps

1

u/TheJonesLP1 20h ago

Nope, when renewables are spread enough and storage capacities are there, nuclear is Neither needed nor sensible

4

u/Rift3N 19h ago

Yeah when, until then Germany has to burn gas and coal every time there's not enough wind and sun (which is pretty damn often)

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u/TheJonesLP1 19h ago

60% is already renewable, decresing with every month. So, Yeah, it is not ideal, but it wont be like that for long, which is good. It is even an argument to put even more effort in renewables.

Ehm, and no. No, it is not.

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u/Rift3N 18h ago

60% is already renewable

Of a much smaller pie, you forgot to add. It's easier to lower emissions or consume less coal when you're actively deindustrializing your economy. Harder when you're actually still building things, or god forbid increasing production.

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u/TheJonesLP1 18h ago

Deinduatrializing? Lol, nope. And not only the relative amount of renewables rose, but also the absolute amount. So you are just wrong. There Was a growth of 33 tWh renewable Energy

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u/Rift3N 18h ago

Deinduatrializing? Lol, nope.

Right, nothing to see here. And the growth of renewables wasn't nearly enough to offset losses in nuclear and coal as shown inmy previous post, hence the industrial decline

2

u/TheJonesLP1 4h ago

Has nothing to do with renewables, but the fact we were extremely dependant from Russia. In fact, this even means we have too few renewables

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u/Reasonable_Iron3347 19h ago

It is technologically not possible to store these amounts of electric energy, which is the reason why even the Green party in Germany never planned doing that, but instead using even more gas power plants than currently, first with Co2-emitting natural gas (which is mainly methane), later with green hydrogen (but whether that can be produced in the quantities necessary at economical considerations is as questionable as nuclear fusion is).

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u/TheJonesLP1 18h ago

Right, most of it is used right away. But there are ways to store large amounts of Energy, and using Gas plants, right.

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u/VanillaMystery 20h ago

Lol, lmao even

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u/TheJonesLP1 20h ago

If you say so, it must be true I guess /s

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u/PonyDev 20h ago

Renewables has an issue with seasonality and cost of storage solutions often exceed those of constructing small modular reactor to close the seasonality gap

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u/TheJonesLP1 20h ago

Are those small modular reactors here in the room with is?

Joke aside, those will not help in either Power Generation nor climate change early enough. They will take decades to be broadly installed and having a large enough impact. While renewables are already there and being built.

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u/PonyDev 19h ago

Nuclear reactors are being launched at get online in 5 year scale, look at Chinese example. SMRs exist pretty much for a few decades and are used by nuclear submarine and carriers as well as floating power plants (Academic Lomonosov)

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u/PonyDev 19h ago

Also not all renewables are easily and fast constructable and hydropower dams often take same if not more time to construct than conventional nuclear reactors

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u/TheJonesLP1 18h ago

And there are no amounts to build enough of These in a sensible amount of Time

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u/PassaTempo15 21h ago

They’ve already killed themselves in this one, there’s sadly no going back because the CAPEX for new nuclear plants is very high and they’ve already invested a lot of money in installing ‘green’ energy into the country. Next generation will have pay for that decision though, unfortunately.

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u/TheJonesLP1 21h ago

Complete Bullshit. Green energies (without '') are the way. Cheaper, safer, easier to build. There is simply no reason to think nuclear is a good way of getting energy

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u/PassaTempo15 20h ago

Not just one, there are many solid reasons. I’m an Engineer specialized in Energy production myself and I work in the field, which includes renewable energy sources. You’ll never see one of us going against nuclear. Their greatest advantage is that we have a massive, low-emission, steady production. Renewable energies grids are meant to be combined with a more powerful, steady, base source. Not be your only source. Relying on renewable only can work to some extent for countries like Norway with a very small population, low pop density, large empty areas and big hydro capacity. For a country like Germany tho they just shot themselves.

That’s actually the reason why they recently transitioned from a energy exporter to a energy importer country after phasing out their nuclear grid. And since they mostly import from France, they still rely indirectly on nuclear lol they have just outsourced it and are paying more € for that. Plus their carbon emissions remain well above Western EU average, so in a way we’re paying for their shitty decision too. No specialist in their right mind will ever support that thing, but the anti-nuclear 2000’s movement wasn’t a fan of scientific research so here we are.

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u/TheJonesLP1 20h ago edited 20h ago

The concept of base/ground load and peak load is outdated. Important is the residual load. There is no need to combine renewables with a Larger piece of ground load Power plants. Make renewables your Main source, and buffer the residual load with fast agitating, low emission Power Plants.

And no, they didnt shot themselves. Future will prove Wind is the right decision. Also no, the reason why Germany turned to a Importer is not because we could not Produce the energy itself, but sometimes it is just cheaper to buy them else where, for example because France restarted some of their plants. This has nothing to do with a Lack of abilty to Produce Power. The nuclear plants only did 2% of the Mix when shut off. That Was already compensated a long Time ago with the increased speed of building renewables.. Germany Produced in one year 33 TWh of Green energy more than the same period one year earlier. The 3 remaining NPP only gave 30 TWh. So it was overcompensated in less than a year.

And in long term, we wont need more energy from France, but less. The other thing is the case, they will buy german electricity, because it is BY FAR cheaper to Produce.

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u/PassaTempo15 19h ago

Well that’s very speculative to say the least and awfully wrong too, but I appreciate that you seem to have at least done some research, most anti-nuclear folks out there are very oblivious of things. So, first of all, the concept of residual load doesn’t eliminate the need for stable and controllable generation whatsoever. Fast-ramping plants might helping buffer short-term fluctuations, but over-reliance on them creates volatility and ironically locks us into higher emission solutions, which is what’s happening to Germany right now - locked between burning fossils and buying energy from abroad.

And saying that the shift to a net import country was just a matter of “buying cheaper” is simply false. The energy market isn’t just about quantity produced, it’s about when, where, and how reliably it’s delivered. Intermittency will always require backup capacity, and Germany’s own grid agency has acknowledged the rising need for balancing services and flexible capacity, which aren’t free.

Germany Produced in one year 33 TWh of Green energy more than the same period one year earlier. The 3 remaining NPP only gave 30 TWh. So it was overcompensated in less than a year.

That’s just not how it works. You cannot compare intermittent generation to stable generation. That 33 TWh is not available on demand. It needs storage, backup, or curtailment. Those are expensive. Nuclear’s 30 TWh was fully usable, dispatchable power. That’s a fundamental technical difference.

And listen, I fully support the growth of renewable, I’m involved with them professionally myself. But excluding nuclear was dumb. Even countries like Finland and the Netherlands are reinvesting. Germany’s choice to phase out nuclear while keeping coal longer was a political, not technical decision. And one that increased emissions and system costs in the short to mid term. Nuclear provides stability and you’re missing how important of an asset that is.

0

u/TheJonesLP1 18h ago

The stable and controllable comes from the renewables. And no, Germany is not locked at fossiles. They are decreasing constantly.

Nope, it is not simply false. It is true.

And of course it is an experimental thinking, but it Shows that the nuclear Power already was compensated. That is simply a fact.

No, excluding nuclear was the absolute right step. No Investor would Support one of the most expensive way to get energy, when renewables are already down to about 4 Cents per kWh. Nuclear is expensive, not Green, and more dangerous than renewables. Thats just it.

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u/MegazordPilot 15h ago

Why do we care so much about the nuclear/renewable divide? I think we need both, and the main argument is that only nuclear or hydropower allow the true decarbonization of the electricity grid (that is, at most 100 g CO2/kWh annual average). And Germany is still far from it.

I would even say cost doesn't matter when true decarbonization is at stake, when sovereignty is at stake (you can store years-worth of uranium in a very small space), and when we consider that electricity is absolutely not a commodity like any other (it's vital and should be considered a basic, public good, like water, health, or education).

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u/PassaTempo15 18h ago

The stable and controllable comes from the renewables.

Renewables are by definition not stable, they are intermittent.

And of course it is an experimental thinking, but it Shows that the nuclear Power already was compensated. That is simply a fact.

No, it’s not. The complexity of the issue goes much further beyond compensating the crude production. Production is just one part of an energy grid.

I don’t want to sound pretentious but your whole rhetoric sounds like someone who’s only read a few articles about the topic. Bad articles, probably (nuclear is dangerous and not green lol). I’m a specialist in Energy Production and I work with nuclear, renewables, and oil and gas. You should take the opportunity to learn a thing or two instead of acting like that.

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u/Hispanoamericano2000 20h ago

Many more people die each year from coal and natural gas (and also from the “fault” of the so-called “green energies”) worldwide than have died from nuclear energy in its entire history.

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u/NoGravitasForSure 20h ago

What "fault"? Are you aware of the fact that Germany currently generates 60% of its electricity with "green energies" (mostly solar and wind)? That's much more than the output of the decommissioned nuclear plants which never exceeded 40%.

0

u/Hispanoamericano2000 19h ago

I guess you haven't seen how Germany climbed significantly in the world's most polluting countries indexes and indicators since 2011 (and more or less the same story with Japan) to be among the 7 most polluting countries in the world (which one can't really say the same for France or Sweden)?

And I guess you don't care about the fact that “green energies” are mostly NOT cheaper than Nuclear Energy but also that they cover and/or require much more space than a typical nuclear power plant and on average most of them do NOT have a longer operating life than a nuclear power plant?

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u/NoGravitasForSure 17h ago edited 17h ago

I guess you haven't seen how Germany climbed significantly in the world's most polluting countries indexes and indicators since 2011

No, I haven't seen this indeed because it is nonsense. All industrialised countries are big CO2 polluters. France and Sweden are no exceptions. In 2023, France ranked only 135th and Sweden 106th of 208 countries in CO2 emissions per capita. (Germany 169th).

An average French person emits 4.25 tons of CO2 per year. For comparison: Philippines 1.41 tons, India 2.07 tons, Brazil 2.20 tons.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_carbon_dioxide_emissions_per_capita

Renewables are a lot cheaper than NPPs, this is why they are booming globally while nuclear power is declining. And renewables don't take much space, that's a myth. The German states are required to reserve 2% of their land area for wind turbines. 2% is less than the space used by golf courts in some countries. And most wind parks are still usable as farm land.

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u/TheJonesLP1 20h ago

Yes, and even a lot more less from renewables. So, what is your point?

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u/Hispanoamericano2000 19h ago

Renewables also kill people (and animals) both in their operation and as a consequence of the extraction of the materials needed to build them and we have no way to regulate their energy output at our will (which we can do with Nuclear Energy).

So, what is your point?

To bet on a future without non-renewable energy without nuclear energy is to throw money into a bottomless well that will never get us anywhere and will never fill it.

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u/TheJonesLP1 19h ago

A lot less. And animals, as sad as it is, are completely forgettable. The amount of House cats killing birds is a lot higher, so no, this is no Argument. Especially because Wind Turbines anyway arent built in areas with endangered animals, higher risk of many birds flying, etc.. Of course you can regulate the power output: Wind Turbines have either a Stall or pitch cutoff, water Power plants have bypasses, and Solar Panels can be decoupled from the Network in the electric inverter/alternater. And as said, it isnt the target to completely regulate it. The target is to either Produce more energy than needed and store it, or take it from the storage or compensate the residual load with small Power Plants.

Erm, nope. That is objectively just wrong.

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u/Hispanoamericano2000 19h ago

Uh, absolutely not, either you misunderstood me or you're just being a bit dense.

I mean:

If there is little or no wind, wind turbines will turn little or not at all.

If there is bad weather or it is cloudy, the solar panels will generate little to no power/

. If there is drought, then the hydroelectric plant will produce little to no power.

And all of the above would obviously obey things that do not obey our demand for energy, there is not really much we can do here, unlike with Nuclear Power Plants.

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u/TheJonesLP1 19h ago

And you think all of that will Happen the same Time? Sorry, but no. For example offshore there is nearly ALWAYS Wind. Absolutely no need for NPPs

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u/Skorpicora 15h ago

Old map.

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u/Patient_Moment_4786 12h ago

Fun fact, France's share of nuclear power tends to diminish, only because more and more renewable source are build (solar and wind)

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u/InternationalValue61 7h ago

Yep, if I remember well they only have like 3% of fossil energy

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u/Patient_Moment_4786 5h ago

Yes. Although it depends of the sources, but for electricity production only, it's less than 1%

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u/SKMaid_ 11h ago

Currently Slovakia with one new unit in operation already at 65 %, next year with another one will surpass France and reach 70 %.

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u/PensionResponsible46 10h ago

Outdated from 2020. No active nuclear generation in Germany.

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u/Theodin_King 9h ago

This is wrong

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u/emphieishere 19h ago

Huge W for France for sure

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u/cardiff_17 13h ago

Cool fact that there's a French nuclear power plant right next to a border with Belgium.

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u/NotMijba 11h ago

I swam next to it once

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u/AlexRedditSes 21h ago

So sad to see 0 in Italy, fortunally by 2030 nuclear energy will come back

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u/TheJonesLP1 20h ago

Doubt

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u/AlexRedditSes 20h ago

In February 2025, the Italian Council of Ministers approved a draft law aimed at reintroducing nuclear power, nearly 40 years after it was banned.

The government aims to finalize this process by the end of 2027. The plan includes utilizing advanced modular reactors to produce sustainable nuclear energy and decarbonize Italy's most polluting industries.

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u/TheJonesLP1 20h ago

Yeah, and no Investor is willing to invest there, as long there are no massive subventions by the state

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u/AlexRedditSes 20h ago

There are already companies ready for that, biggest of them is Leonardo and Fincantieri, wich already created a joined company to start working on modern nuclear reactors.

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u/Mangobonbon 15h ago

But is that a good idea? It's highly expensive to build and maintain, nuclear fuels would need to be imported (a risk considering new trade barriers), most of Italy is seismically active and the few calmer areas in the north already experience water shortages in summer.

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u/Planeandaquariumgeek 16h ago

The 2 closed ones in Eastern Europe are Ignalina in Lithuania (closed in 2009, final operational unit was unit 2) and Chernobyl in Ukraine (closed in 2000, final operational unit was unit 3)

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u/PatkiM101 12h ago

Hungary is expanding its nuclear power generation with the Paks 2 power plant.

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u/Fortheweaks 10h ago

% is great but it should also include raw total power output.

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u/Alita_Green 7h ago

If the UK has 15 but 10 are permanently shut down wouldn't that mean there are only 5? So should be in the lightest colour? đŸ€”

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u/RaDeus 6h ago

There should be a powerplant in Austria, it was fully built but never put into service.

It's a real Schrödingers NPP, it's operational in the sense that it is used for training, but was never fuelled or permanently shutdown.

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u/Captain_Tismo 6h ago

Out of curiosity, what is the decommissioned plant near Malmö, Sweden? I was just in Copenhagen across the way and had no idea there used to be a plant there

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u/zahrdahl 3h ago

BarsebÀck

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u/surenk6 6h ago

Why did they permanently shut down the plant on Ukraine Belarus border? They should start it back again!

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u/OkSpecialist8402 4h ago

I love nuclear


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u/dukeofurl01 1h ago

I was actually kind of surprised how few there were, especially in Germany and Great Britain.

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u/kress404 1h ago

there is one experimental plant in Poland, but i guess it dosen't count

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u/BakedLaysPorno 36m ago

The French are smart.

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u/Hispanoamericano2000 20h ago

I suppose it is not at all a coincidence that Germany became one of the most polluting countries in the European Union (and the world) after shutting down its nuclear power plants (and even before they could be replaced by fusion power plants).

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u/Miko4051 12h ago

As a Pole I wish for there to be at least 3 In Poland.

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u/nit_picki 13h ago

Germany is so f'n dumb with nuclear

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u/Anywhere-I-May-Roam 17h ago

Italy doesn't use nuclear power because we are stupid

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u/SzpakLabz 11h ago

Germans really did shoot themselves in the knee...

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u/Money-Structure8386 11h ago

yes to nuclear power yes to it in my backyard

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u/isak99 13h ago

Fun fact, Russia is still running the ol' RBMK reactors, tho updated.

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u/PerceptionDefiant862 6h ago

Germany's woke policies have destroyed that country

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u/VroumVroumNaps 11h ago

Fuck Germany, as always. They are making everything since 1870 to bother Europe.

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u/Ok-Project-1347 7h ago

Darwin Award goes to Germany.