Elusive fusion reactors to be commercialised by 2025-2030... Or so they say

[Nutty667]

I think that fusion could potentially be relatively cheap in part because it's technically difficult.

That makes no sense.

 

[Rroff]

Kyshtym was caused by a combination of crappy design caused by ignorance (the USSR was using information they'd stolen from the USA, partial information they partially understood) and a downright horrific level of negligence.

Chernobyl was mainly caused by crappy design. Multiple instances of crappy design piled on top of each other. And then the reactor was used for too long and in ways it wasn't designed for and by people not properly trained for the job.

Fukushima Daiichi was mainly caused by crappy design. In particular, two pieces of it. The backup power generation for the cooling system was in the wrong place and the sea wall wasn't high enough. If either or both of those things were done properly, the meltdown wouldn't have happened. That can be shown by what happened at Fukushima Oniichi. Same general location, same design, built at the same time in the same way, hit by the same earthquake and the same tsunami in about the same way. But the sea wall was higher. So the backup cooling system didn't flood despite being in the wrong place and nothing bad happened there.

None of the infamous nuclear disasters could happen with a modern design.

With Chernobyl it wasn't just design issues - what is often skipped over is the materials present which contributed to a sustained thermal reaction and aided the release of contaminated particles significantly increasing the scale of the event and scope of global contamination. Those conditions aren't present in designs since.

A significant factor with Fukushima Daiichi, something they've tried to sweep under a rug, was extending its life beyond when it should have been decommissioned and when it started to fail instead of pulling the plug they tried to be too clever modelling the failure to manage it through decline rather than decommissioning it - systems and containment would have reduced the scale of the disaster even with the design problems during its intended lifespan.