this post was submitted on 30 Aug 2023
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[–] [email protected] 62 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

Since you can apply that logic to everything, how can you ever build anything? Because all consequences are dire on a myopic scale, that is, if your partner dies because a single electrician cheaped out with the wiring in your building and got someone to sign off, "It's not as bad as a nuclear disaster" isn't exactly going to console them much.

At some point, you need to accept that making something illegal and trying to prosecute people has to be enough. For most situations. It's not perfect. Sure. But nothing ever is. And no solution to energy is ever going to be perfect, either.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 year ago (1 children)

An electrician installing faulty wiring doesn't render your home uninhabitable for a few thousand years.

So there's one difference.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

That’s why there are lots of regulations for things impacting life safety. With a nuclear power plant, you mitigate the disaster potential by having so many more people involved in the design and inspection processes.

The risk of an electrician installing faulty wiring in your home could be mitigated by having a third party inspector review the work. Now do that 1000x over and your risk of “politicians are paid off” is negligible.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

That’s why there are lots of regulations for things impacting life safety

Regulations that a lot of pro-nuclear people try to get relaxed because they "artificially inflate the price to more than solar so that we'll use solar". I'm not saying all pro-nuclear folks are tin-foilers, but the only argument that puts nuclear cheaper than solar+battery anymore is an argument that uses deregulated facilities.

If solar+wind+battery is cheaper per MWH, faster to build, with less front-loaded costs, then it's a no-brainer. It only stops being a no-brainer when you stop regulating the nuclear plant. Therein lies the paradox of the argument.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You are saying, regulations will fix this? Politicians create the regulations, the fines, and enforcement.

Political parties are running on platforms of deregulation right now.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Regulations are actually generally created by regulatory bodies, which are usually non-political. For instance, the underwriter laboratory is the major appliance, building and electrical approval body in the United States.

In most countries, building codes and safety codes are created by industry specialists, people who have been in the industry as professionals for many decades and have practiced and been licensed in the field that they are riding the regulations for.

There's a big difference between politicians who are passing these laws, and those writing them who are the regulatory bodies. Generally, as a politicians will simply adopt the codes as recommended by the professional licensing and certification bodies.

I suppose it will be the end of modern civilization if politicians decide to politicize electrical or building codes. Then we'll be fucked for sure. We've seen that happen before with the Indiana pi bill.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indiana_Pi_Bill

"The Indiana Pi Bill is the popular name for bill #246 of the 1897 sitting of the Indiana General Assembly, one of the most notorious attempts to establish mathematical truth by legislative fiat."

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Okay, so we've got a safe nuclear power plant that's a decade behind schedule and 100% over budget.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

By your logic I suggest you avoid any building constructed in the US as nothing would ever be safe enough.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

It's plenty safe now, but my electricity rates have doubled because the plant was so over budget and they need to make their money back.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

a wind mill going down and a nuclear plant blowing up have very different ramifications

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Exactly, just like a windmill running and a nuclear power plant running have very different effects on the power grid. Hence why comparing them directly is often such a nonsense act.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

The risks are lower in literally everything else...?