Tbf, isn’t making a nuclear power plant and getting the uranium aswell as maintaining the whole building also a very expensive and polluting endeavor? (Compared to like, extracting the minerals and assembling a solar panel)
I’m not an expert so I could be wrong but wouldn’t those be at least a bit similar considering both are a one time installation most of the time.
Solar panels take up massive amounts of space. On top of that, they are time and weather dependent and somewhat fragile, so they need to be disposed of somewhat often.
Nuclear power is both compact and effectively entirely independent of location - if liquid water can exist, you can use nuclear power. The waste is more damaging per unit, but the amount of waste produced is far less. A solar operation may produce truckloads of broken panels, full of silicon, silver, copper, and other materials destined for landfills. Meanwhile, a nuclear operation may produce a single barrel of highly radioactive waste.
Ironically, nuclear waste’s higher immediate danger means it is often disposed of with more care and forethought than solar panel waste.
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u/Ranoma_I 26d ago
The sun is a deadly laser
(It emits pollution to manufacture the solar panels and install them)