mostly with conventional LWRs burning up our fuel rapidly
Well, yes, the obvious counter argument being that, you will never build more advanced reactors on scale (some are already available), or develop new fuel cycle if you stunt the evolution process and block the technology we already have.
Imagine saying to be favourable to installing solar panels but only when they will be 100% recyclable and with efficiency close to the theorical maximum
but by the time that it’s no longer viable the Earth will be long gone as well
But that’s exactly the “problem”, there’s enough fertile material for potential millions of years of consumption, and that’s for fission alone.
I think the debacle is more because the definition of “renewable” is a little arbitrary than the dilemma if nuclear is renewable or not
Nuclear fission is actually by definition the least renewable energy source
But if you go according the strict physical principle every energy source is non-renewable
The sun fuses a finire amount of hydrogen, earth has a finire amount of latent heat, the moon a finire amount of gravitational inertia etc.
And there’s a little paradox if you think about it, how can fusion be non-renewable but solar, that use radiation from the sun fusion, be renewable?
This
One of the doubts I have is how all of this can be sustainable on the long term, because ok they run on donation now, but Lemmy is really small, a proper social network can’t hold itself on 2 developers and the unpaid work of volunteers
Can all of this scale up?
They received a grant from NLbet, but apparently they’re having an hard time reaching the requirements for the next tranche
Well people also complain on expansion of agriculture land so I don’t think consideration on land usage will disappear.
Real problem is that many people want the energy source which is clean, cheap, invisible, safe, doesn’t consume any land or resources and of course has a easy to understand functioning. What could possibly go wrong ?