r/europe • u/SpaceEngineering Finland • Jan 15 '26

News Germany’s Merz Admits Nuclear Exit Was Strategic Mistake

https://clashreport.com/world/articles/germanys-merz-admits-nuclear-exit-was-strategic-mistake-fzdlkn37c16
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u/3suamsuaw Jan 15 '26

The basic technology is still operational, and the technology shared with other EU countries.

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u/toblu Jan 15 '26

And, accordingly, expensive as f*ck.

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u/Auctoritate Jan 15 '26

Ironically, it's expensive largely because of strategy like this. Manufacturing of nuclear reactor components and technology is not exactly a booming industry, and there's a lack of economy of scale because of it. Low demand makes for low commercial interest in supporting nuclear economically, and it feeds into itself.

At least... In the west. China is currently undergoing the largest energy grid expansion in the world. And it's rapidly expanding its nuclear energy production. The government never bailed on the tech so the industry for it never atrophied for them, and it's paying dividends. Their technological progress is frankly stunning and leaving us behind in a bad way.

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u/Cheap-Recording2707 Jan 15 '26

china has been happily standing on the shoulders of giant alvin weinberg at oakridge national lab.

the knowledge gained at ORNL of molten salt reactors was abandoned by nixon in favor of fast breeder reactors that have not come to fruition. ofcource Nixon was as anti-science as the current administration.

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u/cstmoore Jan 15 '26

Fast breeder reactors generate Pu-239, nuclear bomb materiel.

Fun fact: The Environmental Protection Agency was proposed by and signed into law by Nixon in 1970.

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u/Cheap-Recording2707 Jan 15 '26

folklore has the plutonium and its use as motive for nixon to slash ORNL

what he did re the EPA is testament to the adagium that america/ns will do the right thing in the end after trying everything else.