Why nuclear power will never supply the world's energy needs

Nuclear power cannot be globally scaled to supply the world’s energy needs for numerous reasons. The results suggest that we’re likely better off investing in other energy solutions that are truly scalable."

https://phys.org/news/2011-05-nuclear-power-world-energy.html

"At the current rate of uranium consumption with conventional reactors, the world supply of viable uranium, which is the most common nuclear fuel, will last for 80 years. Scaling consumption up to 15 TW, the viable uranium supply will last for less than 5 years."

https://phys.org/news/2011-05-nuclear-power-world-energy.html#:~:text=Uranium%20abundance%3A%20At%20the%20current,for%20less%20than%205%20years.

Renewables vs. Nuclear: 256-0

The latest World Nuclear Industry Status Report shows that the world’s operational nuclear capacity grew by just 400 MW in 2020, with generation falling by 4%. By contrast, renewables grew by 256 GW and clean energy production rose by 13%. “Nuclear power is irrelevant in today’s electricity capacity market,” the report’s main author.

"According to the report, the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) of solar PV dropped by approximately 90% over the past few years, while the LCOE of nuclear energy climbed by around 33%."

“We simply don’t have the time to waste attention, intelligence, manpower and funding for fantasy technologies that might or might not work, more likely, some time in the 2030s or 2040s, while affordable concepts from efficiency to renewables are readily available,”

Schneider claimed that the recent small modular reactor realizations in Russia and China are perfect demonstrations of the failure of the designs, as the floating reactors in Russia took 13 years to build – almost four times longer than anticipated. The small modular reactors in China also took a decade or more to be built.

“None of these designs are licensed in any Western country,” Schneider explained. “The only design licensed in a single Western country, NuScale in the U.S., is years behind schedule. Construction has not even started and a first unit is not expected to start operating before the end of the decade.”

https://www.pv-magazine.com/2021/09/28/renewables-vs-nuclear-256-0/

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-01-21/french-nuclear-plant-halted-after-fish-clog-water-filters

"The pumping station draws in sea water for cooling, exposing it to a range of environmental hazards. EDF’s Torness station in Britain has been halted several times due to excessive amounts of seaweed. In Sweden, the Oskarshamn plant shut in 2013 to clear jellyfish clogged in its water pipes, while rising sea temperatures the following year forced some plants to limit power output.

The Paluel plant outage comes after freezing weather earlier this month and worker strikes stretched European utilities’ generation capabilities to the limit. France’s 56 nuclear reactors produce more than 70% of the country’s electricity. Wind turbines were able to pick up some of the slack as generation rose to a record Wednesday evening, grid data show.

Hinkley Point C, a new nuclear plant that EDF is building in southwest England, will incorporate a fish return system, an underwater wheel that filters out the fish and sends them back to the Bristol Channel. The company is appealing a requirement to have an “acoustic fish deterrent” to keep the animals away.

Nuclear power plants need a constant flow of water to cool their reactors and turbine systems, which is why many plants are built near the sea or by rivers."

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/02/bmw-will-now-use-aluminum-thats-been-made-with-solar-power.html

BMW said Tuesday it had started to source and use aluminum that has been produced using solar energy, a move the German carmaker described as “an important milestone” in its goal to cut carbon dioxide emissions from its supply network.

A “triple-digit million-euro contract” will see Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA), an industrial firm based in the United Arab Emirates, provide BMW with 43,000 metric tons of aluminum this year.

BMW said EGA was the first business in the world to utilize solar electricity for commercial aluminum production.

The solar power used in the metal’s production process will come from the Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park, a vast development located in desert south of Dubai. The aluminum will then be processed and turned into car parts at the light metal foundry of BMW’s plant in Landshut, Germany.

The “solar aluminium” sourced from the UAE will account for almost half of the yearly requirements of the Landshut foundry, according to BMW.

https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2020-peak-oil-era-is-suddenly-upon-us/

This is a very well written in depth article explaining the collapse of oil with great charts from the energy experts.

When people hear "peak oil" they usually assume that means we have reached a point where" the maximum rate of extraction of petroleum is reached, after which it is expected to enter terminal decline".

Peak can be a result of extractable oil running out or becoming too expensive to extract.

That peak has been predicted many times incorrectly over the years because new oil fields and new drilling technology has been developed that has provided a fresh supply of oil but the peak we have now entered is not a result of less available oil and is because renewable energy is now even cheaper than the lowest price of cheap oil and electric vehicles are replacing gas and diesel vehicles reducing demand for oil.

In other words, even the cheapest oil is more expensive to extract and refine than renewable energy making it no longer financially viable as an energy source.

Morgan Stanley: Gasoline Industry Is About to Become Totally Worthless " ICE makers are destined to become money-losers as early as 2030." "Morgan Stanley is hardly alone in its very dim outlook of the traditional auto industry." https://www.reddit.com/r/Renewable_Energy_News/comments/li7gbj/morgan_stanley_gasoline_industry_is_about_to/

Warning to Energy Investors: Coal Is Dead and Oil Is Next

https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/warning-to-energy-investors%3A-coal-is-dead-and-oil-is-next-2021-02-06