• @[email protected]
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    1494 months ago

    That headline is a bait and switch.

    One of the major nuclear research facilities belonging to the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO)’s is installing a major rooftop solar system that will save $2 million.

    • Skua
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      1034 months ago

      To be honest even if it was a power plant… they’re already in the business of generating power. If generating more clean power in the same space is an option, that sounds great

      • Sabata11792
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        504 months ago

        Power plants still need power to operate and even your own supply is not free.

      • @[email protected]
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        304 months ago

        Yeah, and nuclear reactors use a lot of electrical power anyway. When they’re first starting they need to draw a lot from the grid and they all have powerful backup generators and battery banks to keep the systems online in the event they need to suddenly shutdown the reactor.

        The implausible thing would actually be getting approval to put the panels up, since reactors have high standards for checking the consequences of different materials being used on-site.

    • @[email protected]
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      154 months ago

      Although, why the fuck are we not plastering those giant nuclear vent thingies (the technical term) with solar panels? Or really any surface that can support them?

      • @[email protected]
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        114 months ago

        Because solar panel efficiency is already pretty low so it’s best to put them in the areas and in the orientation in which they will receive the most light

      • BadlyDrawnRhino
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        104 months ago

        At least here in Australia, we believe in the right for a select group of billionaires to make money off the land in the form of coal mining, and renewable energy threatens that right.

        Now that the world is turning away from coal as much as possible, we’re now pivoting to allow a select group of billionaires to make money off the land in the form of uranium mining, and renewable energy also threatens that.

  • Bob Robertson IX
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    534 months ago

    It sounds very dangerous to have a solar system that close to a nuclear facility, much less that close to Earth.

    • Zorque
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      164 months ago

      Because you can’t have two different sources of energy! It’s antithetical to existence! Only one thing can ever exist or chaos reigns.

      • @[email protected]
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        4 months ago

        In bavaria they made exactly this. You have a “Vorzugsgebiet” (loosely translated area of favourited power accumulation) for either wind or solar. Some people then had the outrageous idea of setting up a wind turbine in the middle of a solar park. Guess what happened? It wasn’t approved because it was only allowed to build a solar park there. You can’t make this stuff up. That’s German bureaucracy for you.

    • BadlyDrawnRhino
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      64 months ago

      For context, the conservative party here in Aus is pushing hard for a transition to nuclear power, rather than renewables.

    • @[email protected]
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      344 months ago

      They’re in Australia, they’re obviously already connected to the electrical grid, and have the free space. I don’t really see how taking advantage of an obviously free win is in any way a “sick burn” of nuclear.

      • @[email protected]
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        174 months ago

        Especially considering this is going on a research facility… and in fact some of their research can benefit the solar industry!!

      • @[email protected]
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        44 months ago

        Because it’s about nuclear power bad. Saving the planet is secondary to proving one’s moral superiority over other people!

        /s

    • @AdmiralShat
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      54 months ago

      Someone doesn’t know how to read the article