Climate activists are usually very against nuclear energy and I don’t think I understand why. Does anyone know?

Arguments I’m somewhat familiar with:

  • sometimes it’s used as a cover for developing nuclear weapons
  • nuclear waste is very bad for living things.

What are the main historical moral arguments?

  • kristina [she/her]@hexbear.net
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    13 hours ago

    There’s also the sourcing of the fuel, which usually comes from extractivist multinationals operating in global south countries like Niger.

    this is just in the case of france, and all energy is prone to it. wind notably uses a lot of oil for the production of the blades. maybe dams are the least susceptible to this but obviously they can affect the environment negatively (though oftentimes this is still best for human development, see chinas tens of thousands of dams saving millions of lives in comparison to before).

    nuclear is only extractivist in the sense of weapons grade nuclear is extractivist. thorium is everywhere and china is beginning to ramp up production on commercial available thorium reactors, also they are planning a roll out of thorium powered ocean freighters. fusion of course will take time for them to complete, its still a theoretical technology, but it will require significant nuclear infrastructure for us to get anywhere on research of it. essentially infinite clean energy that doesnt require significant rare inputs would be a game changer and anyone that thinks long game like china will invest heavily in it.