10 Comments

  1. Rod,

    The SMR race is happening on the international scene.

    The NRC will prove to be a liability for US projects.

    I think Russia is a no brainer for getting it done first.

  2. It is also time to address nuclear powered trains, planes, ships of all nature.

    And the role of the World Bank in helping the poor become energy independent.

    The World Bank sucks at its mission in finding ways to finance and introduce nuclear power in third world countries. I hope they do s better job once SMRs are available.

    1. We already have nuclear powered trains, anywhere the railways are electrified & the electricity comes from nuclear power.

  3. The biggest problem for new reactors, big or small, is finding a place to site them that won’t entangle you in years of political resistance. Plus you still have some states that won’t allow any new reactors to be deployed until the Federal government finally starts to take possession of spent fuel from commercial reactors.

    However, there are 65 nuclear sites in the US that could easily accommodate enough reactors for up to an 8 GWe capacity. So in theory, existing nuclear sites could accommodate enough new small nuclear reactors to supply all of the electricity in the US with no need for greenhouse gas polluting coal and natural gas electric power plants.

    Off-peak production of methanol fuel through water electrolysis and atmospheric CO2 extraction could be used for peak-load power production.

    Marcel F. Williams

  4. I hope that SMR conference grapples with PR and nuke public acceptance from things as this:

    http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/energy/nuclear/former-nrc-chairman-says-us-nuclear-industry-is-going-away

    As Steve Aplin soberly recently mentions in his latest pieces, often poor cousin priority public nuclear education and public opinion matters as much or more than discussions of reactor types. Without public and pol acceptance, the type of nukes being bantered at conferences won’t matter if its shunned by a public FUD-ed to death. PR and dealing with antis and FUD is a MAJOR component in any nuclear conference, not just handing out awards. Like in The Right Stuff, NASA early on learned without attracting public favor, no bucks, no Buck Rogers.

    James Greenidge
    Queens NY

    1. Jaczko is displaying one of the more arrogant of the “Ugly American” tropes — speaking authoritatively as if the USA is the entire world.

      He also knows that nuclear energy is doomed because he hasn’t seen any movies with nuclear energy in them (Pandora’s Promise and The Cloud Atlas and Gravity and a couple of others excepted).

      And I’m sure Jaczko knows how much scientists appreciate and praise the presentation of science and engineering in the entertainment media.

  5. Sigh. Remember when it seemed like any company involved in heavy industry had a WORKING reactor design? Baldwin Locomotive, DuPont, etc.?

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