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[Helgoland]

Dutchling: That's no miracle - most of that fallout would end up in Germany. In my hometown, among others. And IIRC that plant is old as fuck, and fuck is at least 1200 million years old.

[WarRoot]

New heights are reached as far as foreign relations of Hungary go.
John McCain called Viktor Orbán a neo-fascist dictator while expressing his concern about the nominated US ambassador to Hungary.
The US ambassador's qualities are:
-producer for the 'The Bold and The Beautiful'
-raising money for Obama's campaign
At least the gender balance is improved with her.

I wonder how widespread McCain's opinion is among the Republicans as Fidesz seemed to think they can count on them and only the evil Democrats are making their life harder.

[Dutchling]

Dutchling: That's no miracle - most of that fallout would end up in Germany. In my hometown, among others. And IIRC that plant is old as fuck, and fuck is at least 1200 million years old.

Really? That's odd.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Screw you Wikipedia for not making this work.

[10ebbor10]

Hows nuclear power doing in Belgium btw? It isnt too popular in most of Europe any more but we are building more at this very moment and the fates of one more large reactor unit will be decided in the parliament tomorrow or on Friday unless I recall wrong.

Well, it's a bit complicated.

In popular opinion, Nuclear power, while not popular, still retains the support of a majority of the country primarily because of the opinion that we have no other affordable low carbon option. Support for new reactors is lowish to medium, support for continued usage is high in Flanders, at about 70%. I found no numbers for Wallonia.

Politically, as always, the situation is a mess. Originally, the nuclear phase-out was decided on 1999. Each reactor would be shut down after it's intended 40 year lifetime. Subsequently, parts of that phase-out are being extended over and over again, and it wouldn't surprise me if another extension occurred before the end of the year.

The politicians are shut in between public opinion and physical reality. Belgium is a really bad place for renewable power, to the point that even if we exploited 100% of our renewable potential, we would only reach 70%. Therefore, nuclear power is inevitable.

[Helgoland]

Shit, apparently I was thinking about the Tihange plant in Belgium. There was a huge thing in the local news a year or so ago.

[Erkki]

Hows nuclear power doing in Belgium btw? It isnt too popular in most of Europe any more but we are building more at this very moment and the fates of one more large reactor unit will be decided in the parliament tomorrow or on Friday unless I recall wrong.

Well, it's a bit complicated.

In popular opinion, Nuclear power, while not popular, still retains the support of a majority of the country primarily because of the opinion that we have no other affordable low carbon option. Support for new reactors is lowish to medium, support for continued usage is high in Flanders, at about 70%. I found no numbers for Wallonia.

Politically, as always, the situation is a mess. Originally, the nuclear phase-out was decided on 1999. Each reactor would be shut down after it's intended 40 year lifetime. Subsequently, parts of that phase-out are being extended over and over again, and it wouldn't surprise me if another extension occurred before the end of the year.

The politicians are shut in between public opinion and physical reality. Belgium is a really bad place for renewable power, to the point that even if we exploited 100% of our renewable potential, we would only reach 70%. Therefore, nuclear power is inevitable.

Hmmm theres also the thing that a lot of renewables are not available a lot of the time, and water happens to be the easiest and quickest to adjust so many countries use it to micromanage the main grid power need minute-to-minute. The bad thing about renewables is that need for huge overcapacity or a parallel capacity using other sources for those days when it doesnt shine or the wind doesnt blow, because theres only so much that can be done with bio waste energy-heat plants...

Are there any new reactors planned? Being only able to produce 70% of the need doesnt sound like a good idea even if theres existing infra to import from France or Germany.

[Helgoland]

Why do countries need energy autarky? It's not like Belgium's defenses would last long enough for a blackout to occur if its neighbors started to invade anyway.

[10ebbor10]

No additional reactors planned. But they're considering to change the law to allow the construction of a new reactor. Very hypothetical though.

The planned "solution" is obviously import, and continued reliance on natural gas. IIRC, they're thinking about 50-70 % nat gas, 20-40% Renewable, and minority of coal for 2030.

The result is obvious : electricty bills doubling*, energy sector emissions rising by 40%, ...

*Not that nuclear is cheap either. But it's not that expensive when compared with the 60 billion we need now.

Why do countries need energy autarky? It's not like Belgium's defenses would last long enough for a blackout to occur if its neighbors started to invade anyway.

We don't. But if we don't go for autarky, we should go for an upgraded European grid, which isn't a very high priority either.

Quite honestly, and this seems to be more prevalent in energy policy than elsewhere, the entire policy is dominated by short term thinking. If it can't get done in your term it isn't. If the problems only crop up next term, it's the other guys problem.

[Yannanth]

Why do countries need energy autarky?

Ukraine.

That is all.

[Sheb]

Ukraine depending on Russia is not the same as Belgium depending on France and Germany.

[Erkki]

Why do countries need energy autarky? It's not like Belgium's defenses would last long enough for a blackout to occur if its neighbors started to invade anyway.

I don't think many do. But that production capacity has to be somewhere else, and whoever owns the grid will make money. Domestic capacity means the sources(and thus dependencies on them) are decided domestically too. I don't think it is / I hope it isnt a problem for Belgium in the heart of Europe, but there are countries that are both energy and electricity dependent on just one neighbor. For some Euro nations its a certain big place with where they love stroganof. 

[scriver]

Sweden? We're really into korv stroganoff.

[Descan]

You guys really need a Euro-President-For-Life, or at least unlimited terms. (Obviously they shouldn't just be in president until they die, but for as long as people are like "Yeah, they coo'" they should remain in power.)

That way, they have an incentive to do long-haul projects, because they could well still be in power 20 years from now when the project finishes, yeah? And reap the political benefits.

[Dutchling]

Long term projects almost by definition make you unpopular so I doubt that would change anything.

[Helgoland]

You guys really need a Euro-President-For-Life, or at least unlimited terms. (Obviously they shouldn't just be in president until they die, but for as long as people are like "Yeah, they coo'" they should remain in power.)

That way, they have an incentive to do long-haul projects, because they could well still be in power 20 years from now when the project finishes, yeah? And reap the political benefits.

So you want to hand over the EU to Merkel? I'm fine with that, but there's a bunch of leftists here to see you, and they look pissed...