[Sporktacular]

You said infinitely! I never used sustainability that way. Nuclear is not sustainable because there isn't enough uranium available to extract, certainly not in an environmentally friendly way, in order to meet an expanded demand for more than a few decades https://youtu.be/0kahih8RT1k?t=365

There is, however, more than enough minerals available to make machines that, once built, will continue to produce and store emission free power for their lifetimes. They are being increasingly made out of recyclable materials and there is other research into lowering their footprint further. In other words, actually sustainable - as in for thousands of years. Renewables aren't there yet, but they will be sooner if a fraction of the cost of new nuclear plants is diverted to the very promising R&D that already exists.

Nuclear doesn't have nearly the same interest or rate of advancement into mitigating the serious environmental problems associated with producing and disposing of fuel, something your sources don't consider at all.

You write like you've just discovered the life cycle 'true cost' of renewables while holding the unrevealed wisdom that nuclear isn't that dangerous. These things are obvious to anyone who follows this, people who would never make the mistake of calling nuclear sustainable.

And I used to be a proponent of nuclear until around 6 months ago when I learned that there aren't enough resources available, and that nuclear won't be able to ramp up in time to lower the atmospheric carbon level increased by fossil fuelled power plants. It's the opposite of dogmatism to be able to follow where the data takes you.

[erentz]

No you’re not being consistent. Your argument is no reprocessing, breeder, or seawater farming technology is allowable in calculations about the sustainability of fission. But all kids of similar recycling, or new chemistries, or not yet proven technologies are allowable for calculating the sustainability of wind/solar/batteries.

[Sporktacular]

Technology for reprocessing has existed since the 40s, carries nuclear proliferation concerns but it still hasn't gone commercial 20 years after bans were lifted. And it's stupidly expensive.

Breeders have been around since the 50s. Again expensive and concerns around sodium coolant were never mitigated. After 70 years 3 are in operation, not due to environmentalists but because they didn't live up to their promise.

Seawater extraction has been around since the 60s and has still hasn't significantly expanded uranium supply (and seriously, filtering the sea? I thought we were talking about minimising environmental damage).

I'm saying nuclear has had its chance. It's too expensive, too expensive to allow fast development reitteration, too slow to address climate change, carries too many risks and hidden costs and just isn't competitive with the promise of renewables which, while needing improvement, are developing much quicker.

Again, I used to be in the pro-nuclear camp but its history has shown its problems are just too complex to solve. It doesn't have a bright future.