720
submitted 2 days ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/world@lemmy.world

Summary

France’s Flamanville 3 nuclear reactor, its most powerful at 1,600 MW, was connected to the grid on December 21 after 17 years of construction plagued by delays and budget overruns.

The European Pressurized Reactor (EPR), designed to boost nuclear energy post-Chernobyl, is 12 years behind schedule and cost €13.2 billion, quadruple initial estimates.

President Macron hailed the launch as a key step for low-carbon energy and energy security.

Nuclear power, which supplies 60% of France’s electricity, is central to Macron’s plan for a “nuclear renaissance.”

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] FooBarrington@lemmy.world 0 points 1 day ago

Are you willfully missing the point, or is this accidental?

[-] ubergeek@lemmy.today 1 points 1 day ago

No, not at all. You are missing the point, I think. Human failsafes do work. They are even easier to make and more effective if you remove capitalism from the equation, though.

[-] FooBarrington@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

Wow, okay, you're really missing the point.

Something is either 100% failsafe, or it isn't. If there is even a tiny chance that something will fail, it isn't failsafe in the context of GPs point. We're not talking about "realistic chances" or something here - we're talking about actual physical laws.

Humans aren't failsafe, because they've failed plenty of times, and can still fail plenty of times. Sure, no accidental nuclear launches have been done, but that doesn't mean they can't happen. Both of the humans involved can develop a psychosis at the same time, at which point the system has failed. This even being a possibility means that the system isn't failsafe. It doesn't matter whether it already happened or will ever happen.

The reason we're taking this strict distinction is that human failsafes have failed plenty of times. People in Germany got to know this very well through Chernobyl. There were failsafes in place, and they didn't work due to human error. That's why proponents of nuclear energy are focusing on this point - changes in the design of modern nuclear reactors make it literally physically impossible for the same thing to happen. I'm not talking about a 99.999999999% chance that it won't happen, I'm talking about 100%.

Just to be sure, I'll repeat it again: human failsafes have failed in the past, and humans can fail in every situation. You won't believe how many people lost fingers, hands or even arms in spite of a dead man switch that should prevent it. There are plenty of examples of systems that, according to you, should be 100% safe, yet they failed. Because humans can fail.

[-] Resonosity@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 day ago

You're right. Not 100% failsafe is failproof.

Another way to put it is 100% failproof is failsafe, by definition.

[-] ubergeek@lemmy.today 1 points 1 day ago

For example, my nuclear launch failsafe, is an example of a human failsafe, that works 100% of the time, unless both humans agree to the launch.

And yes, human supervision can, and should be, the final fail safe for any critical system.

And yes, human failsafes work, when properly designed, and implemented. That's what "fail safe" means. ie, a PBR reactor is "fail safe" by design, as if anything happens, the pebble pile collapses, and criticality cannot be maintained, without a human intervening. No human, no criticality.

And there were very few, if any human fail safes in the Chernobyl incident, which is a huge reason it failed. And the reactor was not designed to fail safe. Modern reactors are designed to fail safe. Which means they cannot maintain criticality without human intervention.

Something tells me you're not very up on engineering principles, because fail safes, including human ones, are used all the time. Like bridges that raise and lower, for example. The bridge CAN NOT rise unless someone is there, holding the button. And it will start a safe descent if the human releases the button. It fails in a safe manner, without human intervention.

[-] FooBarrington@lemmy.world -1 points 1 day ago

Oh, you're actually just trolling. Almost got me, nice one.

this post was submitted on 23 Dec 2024
720 points (99.0% liked)

World News

39376 readers
1952 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News !news@lemmy.world

Politics !politics@lemmy.world

World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS