Nuclear - future for Ireland?

It wasn`t Russia that made the Germans turn away from nuclear. Nor was it the Russians that made them shut down their remaining NPP`s during an energy crisis.

It was German greens in government who had also been putting pressure on others who use NPP`s to do the same using Germany`s clout in the E.U.attempting to achieve. Something which the E.U. now sees as a strategic mistake.

The same argument can be made on fusion in regards to the present plan here, in that it will also take 25 years at a cost we simply cannot afford domestically or for our economy, that would still not provide our 2050 needs on demand or emissions.

You would need to find a political party who are for the idea of building our own nuclear power stations, get out and vote for them and make sure a lot of other people do the same. Open to correction but I don't know of any pro-nuclear political party in Ireland

Your other option is to join one of the established political parties and change their policy on Nuclear from the inside, then again make sure enough people go out and vote for said political party

All I can say is, good luck

You can make the same argument for any other power plant, wind farm, solar farm etc etc. It will take us years to build up any extra capacity regardless of what fuel powers the grid. Steering towards one fuel type or another should be a largely irrelevant conversation to have in the context of time spent building

During 2022 you were predicting that French nuclear generation would be in the low 40%. It was 63%.

You have been shown a number of times that even at a 50% capacity factor, your favorite most expensive nuclear plant would still generate electricity cheaper than wind.

Nuclear has a ridiculously long lead time, it would likely be 20 to 25 years from the start of serious intent to actually getting power .. ( and thats assuming that there isnt 10 to 15 years of legal delays in there,) so some time around 2050 ish .. if the start date was now ..

Whats our predicted electrical consumption for 2050.. ?? Its likely that a couple of reactors would fit in to the Irish grid relatively well by then …

The spinning reserve element and peaks +off peaks is likely to be taken care of by grid scale batteries , that are likely to be on the grid any way -

We might need an upgraded grid , but we'll prob need that for renewables too so again likely largey already there , obviously we'd need a degree of reserve power , ( any power station can go offline for extended periods as shown when whitegate and huntstown ( ? ) , both went bang at the same time - and were both down for over a year almost a gw ) , so thats likely to still be gas .. the ones we have now will likely need replacement ,or full refurbs by then , and a whole load of new one will have to be built anyway to last us till some indeterminate point when nuclear comes on stream..

But those gas generators also would be necessary.. so ok ,

So it'd be carry on as we are - putting in billions worth of renewables - gas and energy storage - while also having a 30 to 50 billion( at todays money,so add inflation ,which is true of all systems) euro nuclear power station built ( I'm assuming 2 reactors )

I doubt we'd get a deal like the uk got - a contract for difference—Where EDF front the cash , and take all the risk ,UK consumers dont start paying till the power comes on stream - and only pay the pre agreed rate for what power is delivered,

The polish gov is fronting the initial cash to get started - and going guarentor for the subsequent construction costs - even if the US is providing a lot of the actual finance . Likely a lower cost , as long as everything goes well . But theres lots of cases of nuclear construction where everything hasn't gone well ..

I'm first in the queue to criticise Germany for shutting down their nuclear. A country that size with heavy industry it was a crazy decision. May have been influenced by corruption as well.

Most important take away - nothing to do with Ireland! Or nuclear for Ireland.

He doesn't give a toss about CO2; anything so long as it's not nuclear is the theme.

As of a few years ago, the only power source that had generated more zero CO2 energy than nuclear was hydro.

The EU just signed a free trade agreement with Australia, one of the worlds largest suppliers of LNG. There have been a few shipments from Aus. to Europe. Unfortunately long term supply contracts with Japan and other Asian countries take up most of the available capacity, but the EU should seriously look at taking all the remaining capacity and seeking increased capacity. Due to distance it's probably more expensive than the US option, but Aus. are reliable and aren't utter dicks like the US, whose ambassador has just been threatening to cut supply unless the EU obeys.

For someone who keeps rabbiting on about nuclear capacity factor you seem confused as to what a figure for capacity factor means. It`s the percentage averaged over a full year of the installed capacity, and for 2022 for French nuclear it was 63%. Not the 40% you were predicting at the time.

That was just 6% lower than the percentage of demand that nuclear supplied in 2021, so if half their fleet was off line for 2022 which you are suggesting, then they must have really ramped up generation to a high capacity factor for the other half of their fleet. So what did French renewable do in 2022 to fill that 6% shortage ?

Short answer sfa because they can only be ramped down not up. Other than getting a 20% increase of nuclear at a rock bottom price of €42 per MWh to provide their base-loads, they generated the same 24% in 2022 as they did in 2021 with just 14% from wind and solar.

Renewables are intermittent at all times. They cannot provide base-load or spinning reserves. Nuclear can do both.

Did you not get the memo ? This 50% and higher capacity factor for West coast offshore wind that was going to earn us a fortune via export and pay for this present mess of a plan was an Irish Green Party, myth/lie, choose whichever you wish. Eamon Ryan knew it and eventually had to admit it. Sceirde Rocks just added the final nail to that coffin. Denmark has been held up by some as the example of wind power, yet they have been net importers since 2011 and with their access to Norway`s hydro highly likely being cut due to them draining Norway and increasing electricity prices there have recently said that "something else" other than renewables is required to run their grid and are looking too nuclear as that "something else"

Wind cannot even compete cost wise with nuclear at 50% and solar is sound asleep in the dark here for two of the three peak demands daily during our period of annual peak demand, and wind has fallen to next to nothing for long extended periods then as well.

Far as I recall I have already, as have others, @SeanW recently, told you how so not as deafening as the silence from you as to how much this plan you favor will cost the country, or by what magnitude it will increase the strike price when we are already regulars in the top three European charts for the highest electricity charges.

Absolutely. Legislation banning nuclear in Ireland would have to be overturned so we'd need a majority not just one party.