German Nuclear Power Phaseout

[Rev. Rye]

Looking into nuclear power, I legitimately think it’s extremely underrated as a form of energy. I understand that it’s got a bad rap, especially post-Chernobyl, but even in that case, that was down to a poorly designed reactor, building, and a poorly-thought-out experiment that probably wouldn’t have even yielded useful information. I swear, if HBO didn’t make Chernobyl, and On the off-chance Fox was ever inclined to make a series finale for The Simpsons where Homer fucks up at the nuclear plant and renders Springfield uninhabitable, it could probably be taken verbatim from the actual disaster.

And like it or not, for all its flaws, nuclear power is actually one of the greenest energy sources out there (emitting fewer greenhouse gases than even Solar power); is far less Likely to depend on specific climate factors than, say, wind, solar, or hydroelectric energy; is actually pretty cheap once you actually get the (admittedly considerable) startup costs taken care of; and is otherwise pretty safe... as long as you don’t have an accident. And even then, Fukushima is easily the biggest nuclear accident to happen since I was born. You probably heard a lot about it, but something you probably haven’t heard: the disaster happened when the plant was hit with a 15-meter tsunami and an Earthquake that was a 9.0 on the Richter scale (of which there have been exactly FIVE since the scale was first presented). And yet, the building remains intact, the radiation leak was limited and local, and exactly one person has died as a direct result of the radiation in the disaster. A handful of others died after the accident, but none seem to be due to radiation. And the plant at Fukushima was actuAlly older than the one in Chernobyl. Granted, it still shows you shouldn’t build nuclear plants in a geologically unstable part of the world without making damn sure it can withstand any conditions it may encounter, but still. Looking into the Fukushima disaster and finding out how far removed it really was from Chernobyl was like listening to that infamous Christian Bale rant and realizing that “Holy Shit, he’s railing at that lighting tech WHILE STILL IN CHARACTER.”