Intermittency is not "solved" with nuclear power. When French nuclear plants get shut down for months at a time for maintenance what happens? Lots and lots and lots of peaker gas.
When you combine the extreme cost, the non negligible risks of it going boom and the fact its a horrible peaker (no substitute for gas), and its only slightly lower reliance on peakers it becomes apparent that it's a terrible deal.
The reason why batteries and pumped storage and syngas arent popular is because they cant beat the economics of gas for peaking capacity. However, they can easily beat the economics of nuclear power+gas when combined with solar and wind.
So yeah, exorcising nuclear seems like a pretty fantastic idea, for cost, environmental and pacifist reasons.
Intermittency is not "solved" with nuclear power. When French nuclear plants get shut down for months at a time for maintenance what happens? Lots and lots and lots of peaker gas.
When you combine the extreme cost, the non negligible risks of it going boom and the fact its a horrible peaker (no substitute for gas), and its only slightly lower reliance on peakers it becomes apparent that it's a terrible deal.
The reason why batteries and pumped storage and syngas arent popular is because they cant beat the economics of gas for peaking capacity. However, they can easily beat the economics of nuclear power+gas when combined with solar and wind.
So yeah, exorcising nuclear seems like a pretty fantastic idea, for cost, environmental and pacifist reasons.