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Anon questions our energy sector (slrpnk.net)

submitted 1 day ago by MataVatnik@lemmy.world to c/science_memes@mander.xyz

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[–] chiliedogg@lemmy.world 3 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

You really don't understand how expensive underground cables are. You know those big, huge steel transmission towers that you see lined up, hundreds in a row?

Those towers costs hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars each. And the reason they're used is because that's way cheaper than underground.

Shit - just the cable is a couple million per mile per cable.

[+] drake@lemmy.sdf.org -8 points 2 hours ago (2 children)

Are you fucking serious? Nuclear power plants cost way fucking more than some cables. You people are fundamentally so unserious. Pull your head out of a reactor for ten seconds and take reality as it exists

[–] chiliedogg@lemmy.world 3 points 1 hour ago

Yes. They cost more than some cables. But we aren't talking about wiring a stereo.

A new nuclear unit (4 billion-ish) costs about as much as 2,000 miles of transmission-grade cable (about 2 million per mile). Considering that there's about 30 cables on a tower run, you're looking at around 65 miles' worth of cable for the cost of a nuclear unit.

And that's just the cost of the wire. No towers, no conduit, no substations, no land acquisition (aerial easement and underground are very different things), no labor.