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by dukeyukey 978 days ago
Specifically what EU policies that the more renewable-and-nuclear friendly countries voted for do you have in mind?
1 comments

The EU green deal was specifically anti-nuclear until very recently. What I'm talking about started in 2008 and finished around 2012 (though we're going to be paying for it for many decades).
Yes, it was made pro-nuclear under pressure from France. But even before then, the only countries with more nuclear power than the EU (that aren't also in the EU) are Ukraine (which is on the European grid), Switzerland (also on the European grid), Armenia and South Korea.

Europe's revealed preferences makes it the most pro-nuclear region in the world, by far.

Wut? Their anti-nuclear policy reveals them as pro-nuclear? What new nuclear was built during the last 2 decades, before they had to change the anti-nuclear policy?

The population is pro-nuclear, sure. But the policy was set by the anti-nuclear supporters of the green deal and we had to wait for many years until reality forced them to accept nuclear.

Again, the energy policy of Europe has resulted in them having more nuclear than anywhere else in the world, besides South Korea. Everything you say about Europe as a whole being anti-nuclear is more applicable to almost every other country globally. Because Europe has more nuclear than basically everywhere else.

> What new nuclear was built during the last 2 decades

More than the US, believe it or not. Between new reactors in Finland, France, and Slovakia, around 3,700 MWe versus the US at around 2,200 MWe from reactors in Tennessee and Georgia.

I'm not saying energy policy has been good in EUrope over the last 2 decades, but it's not been uniquely worse than the rest of the Western world.

I don't care about the rest of the world. The rest of the world can do whatever. My state doesn't have natural gas or oil, nor a lot of sunshine or wind, nor a lot of rivers.

I care about my taxes (and I don't mean EU subsidies here) going to solar baron's pocket instead of nuclear reactors.

The few projects you listed - you seriously think that's enough? I don't. We can see in practice that all the money spent on solar and wind led us to over dependence on fossil fuels, not their abolishment, and now we have to spend another absurd amount of money on storage to solve that.

It's a failed anti-nuclear policy that's thankfully reversed now but that doesn't change history. I really don't care about the US, or frankly, Slovakia and France. I care about my own home.

BTW, it's funny that all the projects you listed were started way before the green deal. IMHO you just confirmed what I said.