Small Modular Nuclear Reactors (SMRs) – staggeringly costly gimmicks

Nuclear Reactors Can’t Handle Global Warming, Progressive, By Harvey Wasserman, August 5, 2013

“…….many are pushing an entirely new radioactive gizmo–a “Small Modular Reactor”–with no working prototypes. True to form, the budget and timetable stretch deep into the unknown.

Lead SMR manufacturer Babcock & Wilcox brought us both Three Mile Island and Ohio’s Davis-Besse, whose pressure head was infamously eaten through to the brink by boric acid. The core SMR technology has already been distinguished by a long line of generic failures.

The Tennessee Valley Authority has just postponed the target date to apply for the first SMR construction license until at least 2015. Ultimate development costs are a giant question mark. The huge Savannah River facility meant to convert weapons-grade materials into nuclear fuel for such projects is on the brink of cancellation, with untold billions already down the tubes.

So as its backers claim an unproven ability to help solve an ultra-urgent climate crisis, there won’t be an SMR prototype deployed for an unknowable number of years, at what is certain to be a staggering cost.

With taxpayer money pouring in, even industry supporters already warn of an “atomic Solyndra.”…..

SMR backers still chant the original “too cheap to meter” mantra, claiming a miraculous but unproven ability to somehow burn up old warheads and avoid small annoyances like TMI, Chernobyl, and Fukushima.

But the SMR is already on that familiar atomic go-round of production delays, cost overruns, immediate obsolescence and serious dangers its makers won’t disclose.

Despite a concerted attack from the corporate media, today’s world gets far more usable energy from renewables than SMRs can produce now (none) or for many years to come.

Our sustainable future depends on proven green power, not a supremely expensive failed atomic experiment and its pie-in-the-sky reruns. http://www.progressive.org/nuclear-reactors-global-warming

August 6, 2013 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized