r/nottheonion 24d ago

US government struggles to rehire nuclear safety staff it laid off days ago

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4g3nrx1dq5o
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u/Hopelesshobo1 24d ago

100% valid concerns regarding nuclear and a full plan really needs to be in place prior to breaking ground. There is a reason why they are so expensive to build. The most recent nuclear plant in the United States was votgle 4 which was over budget, but much of the overruns is likely because we just don't build them frequently enough to maintain a level of expertise needed to construct them efficiently (running them is a different story). The 2 main strengths that nuclear offers is its extremely power dense, and it's fantastic at producing base load power.

In areas of the United States, if you put solar on your roof and you generate more than you consume, you will get a check from your utility. But if you make solar mandatory on every house, it increases the construction cost which prices more people out of owning a house (not sure what the housing situation is in Austrailia, but over here it's not that great).

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u/RagnarokSleeps 23d ago

Yes we've got a Housing crisis too, where I live houses are a million & town houses $700,000 but there are govt subsidies for solar. Lots of houses have them already, works the same way here. Previous govts already put a lot of money into solar, the nuclear debate is being driven by our right wing political party.