3 ms·
... it squashed all future developments What squashed future development was the cost of trying to make nuclear energy cost effective using reactor designs tha
by jqpabc123 2y ago
... it squashed all future developments
What squashed future development was the cost of trying to make nuclear energy cost effective using reactor designs that were inherently unsafe.
Newer, inherently safe designs are now in the pipeline.
https://newatlas.com/energy/bill-gats-breaks-ground-first-us-gen-4-nuclear-plant/ https://newatlas.com/energy/bill-gats-breaks-ground-first-us...
- Dig1t 2y agoThey’ve been “in the pipeline” for a LONG time. The technology is not very complicated at all, the barrier to actually building reactors has always been purely regulatory.
- jqpabc123 2y agoThe barrier to actually building *unsafe* reactors has always been purely regulatory. The light water designs proposed by industry in the past were inherently not safe. Making these designs reasonably safe was expensive. Fukushima is the proof of what happens if this is not done.
- Dig1t 2y agoFukushima had like one death. The number of deaths due to carbon intensive energy are far far higher. If you believe that global warming is going to make all of humanity extinct soon then it’s something people should support. Generally the way designs get approved in all engineering is by iteration. If you stop letting people build, it becomes basically impossible to improve designs.
- jqpabc123 2y agoIf you stop letting people build, it becomes basically impossible to improve designs. The number of companies now promoting new, innovative, inherently safe nuclear reactor designs shows this is not true. https://www.gatesnotes.com/Wyoming-TerraPower-groundbreaking https://www.gatesnotes.com/Wyoming-TerraPower-groundbreaking https://c3newsmag.com/five-of-the-worlds-leading-small-modular-reactor-companies/ https://c3newsmag.com/five-of-the-worlds-leading-small-modul... https://www.inven.ai/company-lists/top-16-nuclear-energy-companies-in-the-us https://www.inven.ai/company-lists/top-16-nuclear-energy-com...