Good post. Sorry I didn’t read it all, but I get the impression you didn’t cover the unfortunate influence of the environmental movement on the decline of nuclear power, which is presumably a major reason for the overregulation, and for political opposition to & closure of nuclear power stations in recent decades in countries like Germany.
Environmentalists should have been all in favour of nuclear power, but many strongly opposed it until quite recently. (Possibly because of somewhat Luddite attitudes to modern technology, capitalism, etc. - I speculate.)
Germany has no functioning long-term repository for high-level nuclear waste. The search for a permanent site has dragged on for decades. Because Germany is densely populated, there are no remote areas where waste could be stored far from people. Every proposed site triggers fierce local resistance (“Not in my backyard”). Temporary storage in mine shafts proved to be unreliable and very expensive to maintain. When Germany decided on the nuclear phase-out, the government negotiated a one-off payment from the nuclear plant operators (E.ON, RWE, EnBW, Vattenfall). In exchange, the operators were freed from their long-term liability for nuclear waste storage. Future costs are now on taxpayers.
In the German case, I think opposition to nuclear power historically has a lot to do with opposition to nuclear weapons on German soil. The antiwar and enviromental movement where very much overlapping over a long time.
Good post. Sorry I didn’t read it all, but I get the impression you didn’t cover the unfortunate influence of the environmental movement on the decline of nuclear power, which is presumably a major reason for the overregulation, and for political opposition to & closure of nuclear power stations in recent decades in countries like Germany.
Environmentalists should have been all in favour of nuclear power, but many strongly opposed it until quite recently. (Possibly because of somewhat Luddite attitudes to modern technology, capitalism, etc. - I speculate.)
Germany has no functioning long-term repository for high-level nuclear waste. The search for a permanent site has dragged on for decades. Because Germany is densely populated, there are no remote areas where waste could be stored far from people. Every proposed site triggers fierce local resistance (“Not in my backyard”). Temporary storage in mine shafts proved to be unreliable and very expensive to maintain. When Germany decided on the nuclear phase-out, the government negotiated a one-off payment from the nuclear plant operators (E.ON, RWE, EnBW, Vattenfall). In exchange, the operators were freed from their long-term liability for nuclear waste storage. Future costs are now on taxpayers.
In the German case, I think opposition to nuclear power historically has a lot to do with opposition to nuclear weapons on German soil. The antiwar and enviromental movement where very much overlapping over a long time.