4 ms·

I hope China succeeds. For all this talk about climate change dangers, the West is taking the most suboptimal approach.

by DantesKite 5y ago

BurningFrog 5y ago
China is also building a huge number of coal plants, unfortunately.
- jpgvm 5y ago
  You aren't wrong. They have enormous energy problems thus are building everything at breakneck speed. They are however commited to carbon neutrality by 2060 so there is good reason to believe they intend to scale back coal as soon as they are able in favor of their nuclear and renewable generation is that capacity comes online. China lives or dies on the approval of it's populace and they have made it abundantly clear that air quality and public health are what they care about and so it will be so.
  - dragonelite 5y ago
    I think they said their peak would be at around 2030~2040 then it would decrease to being carbon neutral.
  - Fricken 5y ago
    I'm not a big fan of China's huge emissions growths over the last decade, but, on the other hand, they have a pretty good track record of coming up with plans and sticking to them, and they do have a plan.
- fy20 5y ago
  Which is exactly why we should be hoping this works. Given the way the Chinese economy works - being state controlled and all - if it takes off I expect they will start replacing coal plants with this, well before EOL. In the West it would he much harder to do that.
  - makomk 5y ago
    China seems to have a tendency towards big, high-profile projects that they can use to project a narrative of technological superiority but don't fit into any kind of useful overall strategy. I wouldn't be surprised if they build a bunch of these, brag about how advanced it makes them, and then just carry on building and using coal as the workhorse of their power grid. This wouldn't work nearly so well in a country with a free presss.
- tuatoru 5y ago
  If and when they scale up manufacturing of thorium MSRs (and/or alternative designs also being trialled), they can retrofit those reactors in place of the coal furnaces and retain the majority of the investment in each power plant - the turbines, water supply, cooling systems, generator, transformers, substation and transmission connections. In the mean time they have electricity. I think it's what an engineer would do.

I hope China succeeds. For all this talk about climate change dangers, the West is taking the most suboptimal approach.

BurningFrog 5y ago

China is also building a huge number of coal plants, unfortunately.

jpgvm 5y ago
You aren't wrong. They have enormous energy problems thus are building everything at breakneck speed. They are however commited to carbon neutrality by 2060 so there is good reason to believe they intend to scale back coal as soon as they are able in favor of their nuclear and renewable generation is that capacity comes online. China lives or dies on the approval of it's populace and they have made it abundantly clear that air quality and public health are what they care about and so it will be so.
- dragonelite 5y ago
  I think they said their peak would be at around 2030~2040 then it would decrease to being carbon neutral.
- Fricken 5y ago
  I'm not a big fan of China's huge emissions growths over the last decade, but, on the other hand, they have a pretty good track record of coming up with plans and sticking to them, and they do have a plan.
fy20 5y ago
Which is exactly why we should be hoping this works. Given the way the Chinese economy works - being state controlled and all - if it takes off I expect they will start replacing coal plants with this, well before EOL. In the West it would he much harder to do that.
- makomk 5y ago
  China seems to have a tendency towards big, high-profile projects that they can use to project a narrative of technological superiority but don't fit into any kind of useful overall strategy. I wouldn't be surprised if they build a bunch of these, brag about how advanced it makes them, and then just carry on building and using coal as the workhorse of their power grid. This wouldn't work nearly so well in a country with a free presss.
tuatoru 5y ago
If and when they scale up manufacturing of thorium MSRs (and/or alternative designs also being trialled), they can retrofit those reactors in place of the coal furnaces and retain the majority of the investment in each power plant - the turbines, water supply, cooling systems, generator, transformers, substation and transmission connections. In the mean time they have electricity. I think it's what an engineer would do.