Nuclear vs. Renewables

The Rational View podcast with Dr. Al Scott

Millions of people are dying every year due to pollution from burning of fossil fuels. Entire ecosystems are at risk due to climate change caused by CO2 buildup. We need to displace half of society's fossil fuel burning by 2030, and reach net zero by 2050. The scientific community, represented by the IPCC report, provides several paths to reach these goals, and all of them require a significant increase in nuclear power. And yet environmental NGOs are lobbying governments to shut down nuclear reactors prematurely. They claim that solar and wind are better solutions, and they have scientific papers that seem to back them up. A close look at the literature shows a large dichotomy in the estimates of energy return on investment (EROI) for both technologies.

Knowing that the energy density of nuclear power is much higher than solar and wind, it would seem that the EROI should reflect a significant advantage. In this episode I dig into the scientific papers underlying the EROI estimates of solar panels and nuclear reactors and try to find out why the estimates are so divergent. The truth might surprise you.

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