I rarely, if ever, read pro-nuclear saying that they aim to replace oil, coal and gas. It's always "wind and solar is unreliable" (not intermitent).
Even in this thread someone is saying that the problem with solar is that "if a megavolcano darkens the atmosphere... thus we should go all in to nuclear", as if it was a guaranteed event in the next 100 years.
>I rarely, if ever, read pro-nuclear saying that they aim to replace oil, coal and gas.
It is almost always implied. It seems so obvious that nuclear should be replacing fossil fuels it doesn't seem worth mentioning. Unless someone says they're aiming for an energy policy of nuclear plus fossil fuels, it's probably safe to say their goal is nuclear and solar/wind/etc.
Even the volcano comment you mention ends with "For energy we obviously need all the options available."
I can't deduce "implied" when the comments are very, very explicit against solar and wind, not a single word about gas. But somehow I have to read between the lines that they actually meant to criticise fossils.
It wasn't an attack. The idea that it's hard to pick up on pronuclear folks being anti-fossil fuels when the entire debate is about how meet our energy needs in the face of climate change is absurd.
> rarely, if ever, read pro-nuclear saying that they aim to replace oil, coal and gas. It's always "wind and solar is unreliable"
People picked tribes and decided it's all or nothing. I agree--that's stupid. There is a historical alignment between renewables backers and anti-nuke activists (see: Germany) that caused nuclear to polarise away from renewables. That doesn't really exist anymore. But you see its artefacts in the debate.
It sounds like they're talking about the difference between baseload power and intermittent power. Replacing fossil fuel baseload power plants can be done now. Replacing them with variable renewable energy sources would require some sort of breakthrough in energy storage technology.
> Replacing them with variable renewable energy sources would require some sort of breakthrough in energy storage technology
No, it wouldn't. Batteries + renewables is proven and it works. The problem isn't a technological barrier. The problem is we need batteries for a lot of things and production can't ramp up fast enough.
Even in this thread someone is saying that the problem with solar is that "if a megavolcano darkens the atmosphere... thus we should go all in to nuclear", as if it was a guaranteed event in the next 100 years.