• Alk@sh.itjust.works
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    1 day ago

    Does the right like nuclear? I thought they didn’t. It’s pretty clean efficient energy, though it has been overtaken in recent years by wind and solar for cost.

    • AA5B@lemmy.world
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      7 hours ago

      I’m not too big a fan of nuclear due to the cost. I imagine the right salivating at the opportunity to extract billions of dollars per project

    • frezik@midwest.social
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      1 day ago

      Maggie Thatcher was one of the earliest politicians to talk about global warming. She did it to prop up nuclear, which was losing the narrative at the time to Greenpeace and the like.

      They like nuclear in so far as they can use it to beat certain elements of the environmental left over the head. Conservative governments have come in gone in both the US and UK, and they’ve done very little to actually build out nuclear power.

      • ManOMorphos@lemmy.world
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        5 hours ago

        If you mean they both agree to shutter old facilities and not replace them with modern nuclear plants, that’s correct. The anti-nuclear sentiment in the US is very strong.

        The politicians don’t like it due to cost and time building, while constituents are still very afraid of nuclear disasters (especially the latter, the view on its safety is 30 years behind).

    • The Picard Maneuver@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 day ago

      Yeah, they love it and are constantly criticizing the left for chasing renewables as a solution to our energy needs and (for the less extreme ones who accept it’s real) climate change.

      • ManOMorphos@lemmy.world
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        4 hours ago

        It’s interesting to see people are starting to like the idea of it more, but to me it’s useless lip service until they start building new plants. I’d imagine they’d like it a lot less if they started building a nuclear power plant within 20 miles of their house.

        • The Picard Maneuver@lemmy.worldOP
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          1 day ago

          Yeah, attitudes have really cooled about nuclear power over the years. We might be in a different climate position right now if we hadn’t shied away from it decades ago.

          • cygnus@lemmy.ca
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            1 day ago

            Climate, and geopolitical too. Look at France vs Germany in the last few years.

      • Shiggles@sh.itjust.works
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        1 day ago

        In what world does a 51% approval rating count as loving it? 67% feels like a stretch to even call a consensus.

        • The Picard Maneuver@lemmy.worldOP
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          1 day ago

          Well they don’t seem to love it as much as they love coal and oil, that’s for sure, but they have been very loud about their support of nuclear in recent history.

          It’s become much more bipartisan too.