Nuclear power – very unpopular

[kristopher]

4. Poor Nnads....

Nuclear is dying on the vine. Renewables are ascendent and they are doing something that nuclear never has - they are making coal a losing economic proposition.

Answer a question: as long as there was talk of a nuclear revival the southern utilities involved in planning for nuclear projects were also making plans for expansion of coal. Now that nuclear has once again shown that it is far to expensive to build they are shelving their nuclear plans AND their plans for expansion of coal. Whereas they previously had few-to-no plans for incorporating renewables into their mix, they are now starting to turn their attention to building up their renewable portfolio.

Nuclear and coal are economic twins. When you change the system to kill one, you kill the other.

I am very sure that an expanded analysis of the type you quoted could be done. One that looked at the way the economics of coal were preserved by the presence of old nuclear plants. Without those nuclear plants crowding out renewables it is reasonable to speculate that the tipping point in favor of 100% renewables would have been been reached far earlier than the present trajectory.

So the question: Wouldn't it be acceptable to attribute the damages/deaths due to the delay in the changeover to nuclear?