Nuclear Energy for Ireland?
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Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 91,207 Mod ✭✭✭✭
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Finland has direct interconnectors to Norway, Sweden, Estonia and Russia and indirectly
Their AC interconnectors are grid synced. Our DC interconnectors ramp up slowly. We'd need way more backup than they do.
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Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 91,207 Mod ✭✭✭✭ Join Date:Posts: 89446
High grade waste is compact. But the Irish Sea was the most radioactive part of the global ocean. One is small, the other isn't far away.
BTW In Oz one in three houses now have solar panels.
France exports renewables. France does not export nuclear.
Same image cropped at +/- 20GW.
France is not build a new reactor every three years. They've started construction of ONE reactor in the last 30 years. And as it's four point four times it's original price it'd be more like one reactor every 13 years, that is if France actually exported nuclear power, which it doesn't. Oh and 13 years is how late it's likely to be.
The estimated cost of decommissioning has
nearly doubled since 2004–05 and there remains a significant risk that
the costs will rise further. The estimated cost of
decommissioning the AGR stations, plus the PWR at Sizewell B, has
increased from £12.6 billion in 2004–05 to £23.5 billion in 2020–21 in
real terms.1 -
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What do you mean France doesn't export nuclear?
The numbers change fairly frequently, but there's about 14,000-15,000MW of non nuclear on the grid and export is around 12,000-13,000.
Stating "France don't export nuclear" is pretty unusual based on how the grid works. They export nuclear all the time, and have done so for decades. Their net exports were much higher in the past than they are nowadays, and that's due to their nuclear generators.
There's a slightly dated, but interesting, breakdown here.
Though - as to the cost of decommissioning - I'd have to go digging through all the latest reports and data to comment in more detail. That said, France typically has a multi-billion euro yearly profits due to energy exports. Absorbing a few more billion in cleanup costs sounds easy if it ends up being occurring.
Whatever the theoretical numbers are, it hasn't stopped France beginning construction of 6 more reactors, and an option for 8 more afterwards. The intention (afaict) was to start mid-2024 and have them in production use by the end of the decade. I can't find more exact dates/info than this. https://www.nucnet.org/news/preparatory-construction-work-on-new-generation-of-nuclear-plants-to-begin-mid-2024-11-4-2023
They're also building out one of the new smaller modular reactors as an experiment. If it goes well I could imagine another dozen or two reactors being built over the next few decades.
This is what Ireland needs to do if we're to have any hope of meeting greenhouse gas reduction targets.
Edit: about the cost overrun:
a French report into the project in 2019 noted that several elements of the project’s construction had been launched prior to the completion of the reactor’s design, leading to certain sections of the work having to be demolished and rebuilt.
This is what a prior poster already noted. If you build a one-off (and especially if you begin construction before the design is complete) then overruns are kind of expected. If you build a dozen more of these using the exact same design then it'll be significantly easier to meet the budget. Especially because you won't have to knock it down and rebuild - you actually have the final plans/design from the get-go!
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