3 ms·
About time! > "This hadn’t been done in this country from start to finish in some 30-plus years," Chris Womack, CEO of Atlanta-based Southern Co. said Monday i
by gottorf 3y ago
About time!
> "This hadn’t been done in this country from start to finish in some 30-plus years," Chris Womack, CEO of Atlanta-based Southern Co. said Monday in a telephone interview.
IIRC, scientists are working on Gen 4 reactors, and there are a number of Gen 3 reactors operating in commercial capacities around the world; but the US is still stuck on Gen 2 due to regulation.
- gh02t 3y agoThat's a major oversimplification. The reason the US is mostly (entirely) running Gen 2 reactors is because we simply lost interest in building new reactors for a long time. There were regulatory hurdles that caused this, but there were tons and tons of other factors that were (IMO) more important. Especially economic factors related to the cost and mismanagement of large nuclear projects, public opinions shifting over nuclear power, and alternatives like natural gas being super cheap. The NRC has been approving Gen 3 designs for a while now but nobody wanted to follow through on building them.
- tmn 3y agoAre costs and mismanagement directly related to regulations? Genuine question. This is impression I get from nuclear advocates like Mark Nelson and doomberg.
- gh02t 3y agoYeah that's the complicated part. The regs are responsible for some of the mess, but far from all. It's a complicated subject, probably too much to get into here but you can look at the history of Vogtle as a start. Blaming the NRC is justified at parts, but it really only tells part of the story.