Gloomy prospects for Small Modular Nuclear Reactors
Around the World, Nuclear Can’t Compete With Growing Renewables “What is spectacular is the extent to which the nuclear industry is appearing to ignore reality.” Katherine Tweed Greentech Media, July 16, 2015 “……..For the reactors that are in operation, many are aging rapidly. ………
Given the cost and time necessary to build large reactors, many in the industry have argued for a move to small modular reactors. Yet SMRs have also suffered from higher-than-expected costs and long development timelines, the report states.
The U.S. Department of Energy has been one of the proponents of this technology, yet none of the designs it said in 2001 could be available by the end of the decade were deployed. Of the two companies the DOE chose years later for SMR development funding, one slashed its spending on SMRs in 2014. NuScale, the other SMR manufacturer, is still continuing with development. Even so, “there is no evidence that SMRs will be constructed in the United States anytime soon,” the report states.
The picture is not rosier in other countries that have lent support to SMRs. South Korea, for example, has been developing an SMR since the 1990s, and while it was approved in 2012, no orders have yet been received. Saudi Arabia did say earlier this year it would test the technology in a three-year pilot.
“The static, top-heavy, monstrously expensive world of nuclear power has less and less to deploy against today’s increasingly agile, dynamic, cost-effective alternatives,” wrote Porritt. “The sole remaining issue is that not everyone sees it that way — as yet.”http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/renewables-outpace-nuclear-in-major-economies
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of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 
Posted here:
http://www.energybiz.com/article/15/07/first-us-small-modular-reactor-inches-ahead#comment-14969
Along with this comment:
http://www.energybiz.com/article/15/07/first-us-small-modular-reactor-inches-ahead#comment-14971
Energy Slavery in concentrated in the East
RE: McGough saying, “Until now, the Eastern U.S. has had a much higher concentration of nuclear energy – about 20%, compared to about 7% in the West,” he said.
I maintain that the reason why Nuclear is “concentrated” in the East is that these Eastern States are much more under the thumb of the Nuclear Industry which holds their ratepayers as “Energy Slaves” since they have little to no chance of achieving what I call Energy Freedom, until now!
Now Solar (of all flavors) has changed that, since Solar offers ratepayers a path toward Energy Independence (once their Solar investment is paid off), since they can then reduce their monthly Energy Utility bills as low as they want. Big Utilities are using their considerable Political influence to reduce, limit and/or eliminate all subsidies for residential Solar (Wind and PV) since those will only make it easier for ratepayers to “escape” Energy Slavery.
http://washingtonspectator.org/nuclear-age-began-70-years-ago/#comment-9860
Look for ever more money to be spent trying to secure additional SMR funding by doing what the Nuclear Industry is best at, spreading around BIG Money and the promise of much more in what I call Nuclear Payback*
* http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Nuclear+payback
Those that support nuclear power because nuclear power somehow supports them; no matter what the health implications or other “costs” are for others.
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