Hey, if calling small Gen5 and Gen6 nuclear power plants a solution for global boiling, I’ll go with it, as long as they get built
U.S. Bets on Small Nuclear Reactors to Help Fix a Huge Climate Problem
Towering over the Savannah River in Georgia, the first nuclear reactors built from scratch in the United States in more than 30 years illustrate the enormous promise of nuclear power — and its most glaring weakness.
The two new reactors at the Vogtle nuclear power plant will join two older units to create enough electricity to power 2 million homes, 24 hours a day, without emitting any of the carbon dioxide that is dangerously heating the planet.
But those colossal reactors cost $35 billion, more than double the original estimates, and arrived seven years behind schedule. That’s why no one else is planning to build large reactors in the United States.
There were lots of reasons they took so long. The Wuhan Flu pandemic, lots and lots of lawsuits from nutters, too much rework, not enough workers with the necessary skill, since new reactors hadn’t been built in a long time.
We shouldn’t be building large ones: we should be building the latest generation ones, which are much smaller, and have been built in places like France
Instead, the great hope for the future of nuclear power is to go small.
Nearly a dozen companies are developing reactors that are a fraction of the size of those at Vogtle, betting that they will be quicker and cheaper to build. As the United States looks to transition away from fossil fuels that have underpinned its economy for 150 years, nuclear power is getting renewed interest, billions of dollars from the Biden administration and support from Republicans.
One reason is that nuclear plants can run at all hours, in any season. To those looking to replace coal and gas with wind and solar energy, nuclear power can provide a vital backstop when the air is calm or the sky is cloudy.
They would be much more efficient, less nuclear waste, and, from an air quality view, not a “carbon pollution” view, they would be much better than coal fired plants, especially as backups to wind and solar. Or, we could stop desecrating vast tracks of land with solar panels and wind turbines.
“The United States is now committed to trying to accelerate the deployment of nuclear energy,” John Kerry, President Joe Biden’s climate envoy, said in September. “It’s what we believe we absolutely need in order to win this battle.”
But the push to expand nuclear power, which today supplies 18% of electricity, faces enormous hurdles.
One of those hurdles is a very slow, slow, slow bureaucracy. Biden may want them, Kerry might want them, even some leading Warmists like Michael “Robust Debate” Mann might want them, but, there are tons of unhinged bureaucrats who despise them, and will slow walk them. Not mentioned in the very long, and well worth the read, NY Times article is that they will face lawsuit after lawsuit from the extreme-enviros, along with pressure from states and lawmakers.
Read: Small Nuclear Power Plants Can Help Solve The Climate Crisis (scam) »