But I was told that the singularity was coming, whereupon I could upload my consciousness to the cloud and experience an eternal orgasm of exponentially increasing bliss, thereby nullifying all laws of physical constraints. Did that get cancelled?
On the other hand, if you apply the same standards to everyone, you would have to put many politicians and hospital managers in jail for having closed many remote hospitals.
- wind turbines have a 20 years lifespan, after which the blades are buried and forgotten, and will stay there forever
Nuclear power plants have a lifespan of about 50 years, after which the reactor and other parts will be radioactive. This waste must be buried, will be forgotten and will remain there forever.
Now compare the space taken by the buried reactor facility and produced waste, with equivalent number of buried wind turbine blades for the same amount of energy produced :).
Actually nuclear plant have been designed for a minimal lifespan of 40 years. Most can be run safely 60, 80 or even maybe 100 years.
Renewables don't provide the energy density to power our industrial world. Simple as that.
Fossils emit much more pollution than nuclear in volume, and that will last arguably as long (CO2 we're dumping in the atmosphere will stay up there for millennia; coal ashes will remain toxic forever and we make megatons of them, not mere kilos).
