Counterfactuals are fun, but they ignore other components of cost. Germany probably couldn't have done this politically. The decision to remove the nuclear power components was a function of lack of stable single-government control and the relative power of minor green members deciding what to do.
Yes, the fundamental qualities here are true. I would not personally have voted to remove the nuclear power, having it installed. But pretending there are not "layer 9" qualities and citing a $sum implies there would not have been strong opposition and probably other cost (albiet in a different scale and place)
Until the time comes to try to clean up the site. The plants are sold that you just turn them back to 'an empty lot', The truth is just one site in the UK is forecast by the government to cost GBP124bn 'over the next 120 years'
To be fair, this doesn't just affect nuclear plants.
Here in Norway we've had a few cases recently about toxic waste and landfills where the gov't is essentially left holding massive cleanup bills for various reasons.
Of course, nuclear plants are orders of magnitude worse than "mere" toxic landfills in this regard.
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[ 3.1 ms ] story [ 28.6 ms ] threadYes, the fundamental qualities here are true. I would not personally have voted to remove the nuclear power, having it installed. But pretending there are not "layer 9" qualities and citing a $sum implies there would not have been strong opposition and probably other cost (albiet in a different scale and place)
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nuclear-provision...
Here in Norway we've had a few cases recently about toxic waste and landfills where the gov't is essentially left holding massive cleanup bills for various reasons.
Of course, nuclear plants are orders of magnitude worse than "mere" toxic landfills in this regard.