this post was submitted on 09 Nov 2023
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I recall seeing a show on Bill Gates a few years back and his drive to get modem nuclear going. It seems many of the current plants around the world are based on old designs from the 50s and 60s.
Newer and modern designs are much safer but it was going to take a tremendous amount of effort to get past the nuclear is bad mindset.
There's no way to easily educate the masses on a complicated scientific subject and elected officials aren't going to stay around for long pushing that kind of tech, they might as well push solar, wind, and tidal power as they would have better chances at staying in office.
Are there even enough people who knows how to run these?
I know a big issue in Europe is that you don't actually have enough people educated on nuclear power to actually build and manage such a plant
Great question, initially I doubt it. There are the same issues are being seen in the US as they try to move microchip processing back stateside versus Asia. There's a shortage of skilled labour being reported as a stumbling block to making this move happen quickly. Some might argue "cheap" skilled labour but a shortage there still is at present. I don't think the US government is going to stop this move for security reasons.
It's amazing in some ways the Chinese were even able to surpass the US in producing these products as they were pretty far behind the western world production technologies in the late 70s when US manufacturers went in to help setup modern at the time factories. Despite the US being the leader at the time, in some ways they abandoned these skills for economic reasons.
The processing chain of microchips will take years to move over, much like a reinvestment into nuclear.
Places like Alberta are already seeing US oil companies withdrawing from long term projects due to federal government regulations that won't take effect until the middle of the next decade. Think of the shift of those dedicated to these industries and the shortage of those in renewables. Not to worry the latest Alberta government has put the brakes on their current renewables and are tripling down on traditional oil fields even with 1000s of abandoned oil rigs throughout the province the government needs to clean up. They are even threatening to leave Canada yet again. Existing skilled jobs will be saved no matter the cost!
If there ever is an appetite for Nuclear, I'm hoping we are better equipped in the future to assist with training and providing the schooling to those that are needed than we are in the present and in the past. If it is deemed needed for security reasons I'm sure they will figure out the skills issue.
People obviously learn by doing real things, so competitive skilled labor won't be more available than it is now. EDIT: ... if they wait for it to be
They just have to get projects through one by one, then with time there'll be more competent people.
But yes, some effort in schooling won't hurt.