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by ncmncm 1419 days ago
Nukes do not produce output of sufficiently high temperature for cement or steel production.

Hydro-power dams are expensive to build, too, but operating cost is extremely low. New ones will not be competitive with wind & solar, but existing dams will remain useful, where not demolished for ecological or fisheries reasons.

There are no technical impediments to electrolysis. It all just needs to be built out. Efficiency is rising very fast.

1 comments

Nuclear power does produce enough heat to drive thermochemical water splitting, which can produce hydrogen at better scale than electrolysis (since it avoids issues around electrodes corroding). That hydrogen can in turn be used for metallurgy.