> Offshore wind is cheaper than coal in China now. Which also makes it much cheaper than nuclear in China.
Citation needed.
China reportedly builds the CAP-1400, a localized and uprated version of the passively safe Westinghouse AP-1000, in 5 years and for around $3.5 billion.
Serial production of a known-good design with a savvy workforce rocks!
If those reported numbers are correct, which I cannot verify, they can profitably sell that electricy at 2 cents/kWh or below.
And to claim this is the "low end" is a bald-faced lie.
They used a single nuclear power plant that was the most expensive nuclear power plant ever built in the US and one of the 3 most expensive in the world, ever. Of course, they note that this is the case, and that this is unrepresentative. Alas, all the anti-nuclear activists quoting Lazard are not this honest.
Potentially, but it is much, much safer to dispose of it here.
What's even better is to recycle it, because 95% of the original energy is still in the "waste". And when you do use all of it, the remainder remains radioactive for a much shorter period of time.
In Fukushima, there were no radiation deaths, and the long term effects of radiation on the population will be undetectable. The deaths that did occur were due to the unnecessary evacuations.
The forced evacuation of 154,000 people ″was not justified by the relatively moderate radiation levels″, but was ordered because ″the government basically panicked″
Personal note: the Fukushima accident turned me from a nuclear skeptic to a nuclear supporter. This happened quite a bit. At least for people who actually paid attention.
And remember that this was all due to a historically unprecedented earthquake and Tsunami that killed 18000 people and caused half a trillion dollars in damage (in 2025 dollars).
During that earthquake, more people died due to breaking dams than of radiation in that natural disaster. Are we dismantling our dams?
There is no 100% safe technology. Nuclear power is the safest form of electricity generation we have, although solar and wind are so close that the differences don't really matter.
According to this NASA study, nuclear power saved 1,8 million lives up to 2011, with many millions more lives saved in the future.
On the flip-side, the most consequential negative health effects of Chernobyl and Fukushima came from turning off nuclear power plants and not building more.
If the US and the rest of Europe follow Germany's example they could lose the chance to prevent over 200,000 deaths and 14,000 MtCO2 emissions by 2035.
We estimate that the decline in NPP caused by Chernobyl led to the loss of approximately
141 million expected life years in the U.S., 33 in the U.K. and 318 million globally
And we absolutly know how to deal with the waste, and it's not particularly difficult. In fact, we have multiple ways of disposing of the small amounts of waste. NPPs are very secure against terrorism.
I am pointing out that his claims are, in fact, not true.
It is not this complicated to set up a limited liability company in Germany. It is this complicated to set up his choice of a two company setup. Which is, I repeat, his choice and much rarer than a GmbH, at around a 5-10% ratio. Because it is more complicated, not just to set up, but also to run. You have two companies, so two sets of books, two sets of audited returns etc.
Which is why most companies are not GmbH & Co KG. They are plain GmbH. A GmbH & Co KG is a much more complex setup and known to be a much more complex setup. Which he knowingly chose.
And his claim that this is somehow necessary for limited liability, which would be a legitimate "significant tradeoff" is simply not true at all. That's what the GmbH is for.
Now maybe he was badly advised by his lawyer, but then complain about the bad advice. Not about the consequences of choices you made.
http://www.metaobject.com/
http://objective.st/