LLAW’s COMMENTARY:
I’ve not said much to date about Small Nuclear Reactors (Cutely called SMRs), partly because they remain nothing more than pie in the sky, and there are just three operational SMRs – one each in Russia, China, and India. There are perhaps three more in construction and about 60 in the design stage. Heaven help us! llolloll!
But the current book on SMRs is that they are even more dangerous than the full-scale present day operational nuclear power plants that may well be the death of us without even needing the little ones. I have added a well-written media article from a German point of view to support my case, and if this one is not enough to convince you, there are dozens of others, including my own forthcoming “All Things Nuclear” ‘review’ of SMRs being just one more reason to remove all things nuclear from existence by returning them to the deep underground uranium mines (and the deserted copper mines as well) never to be seen nor heard from or even thought of again. Yes, it is that serious of a situation. I worked in nuclear industry management for parts of three decades, so I have a fair idea of that which I speak.
At this point all I can say about SMRs is that they are not small, they are in an experimental development mode, and they are poorly designed to avoid radiation leakage in the event of earthquakes, floods, espionage, and, most dangerously, a nuclear attack in the event of war. And, of course there are other issues as well, not the least of which is SMR spent fuel that is thermally hot and highly radioactive, requiring remote handling and shielding. A recent study led by Stanford University and the University of British Columbia tells us SMRs will generate more radioactive waste than conventional nuclear power plants. And we presently have no idea how to safely dispose of nuclear waste that is already beyond our control to safely store. Japan is even in the process of dumping more than a million tons of so-called ‘treated’, but still radioactive wastewater, from the 2011 tsunami wreckage of the Fukushima nuclear power plant, blessed by, of all organizations, the ‘United Nations’. I’m wondering what happens the the ‘treated’ washes off . . .
And here we are stupidly and ignorantly wanting to create more nuclear danger we call, laughably ‘Small Nuclear Reactors’, including the probability of even higher grade nuclear fuel for some SMR plants that will only add to likely possibility that nuclear radiation from both nuclear war and nuclear power plants, which are already a special new military ‘toy’ for adding to the nuclear war arsenal on a kind of two-fer-one nuclear bomb scenario that will successfully help us humans prematurely destroy all life on planet Earth. The Russia/Ukraine war has already demonstrated how such a scenario could be achieved, and the reality is only one Russian bomb away.
The following is a well done tale about the deficiencies and potential travesties connected to the concepts of constructing and bringing these vastly overrated plants on line, and why renewable energy like wind, solar, hydro, and geothermal is so much better for our future, should we have a future.
Like all other things nuclear SMRs are potentially a weapon of war and also an obvious future contributor to the Doomsday event if we’re fortunate enough to still be around when more of them become operational helping to reassure our demise. ~llaw
The following article is a primer Opinion piece: “The Big Problem With Small Nuclear Reactors” (BY PAUL HOCKENOS 07.20.2023
“The diminutive reactors are likely to be just as prone to delays and cost overruns as their behemoth predecessors.
Image not displayed here: (This is the Caption) Top: Mockup of a the top third of a small module reactor made by NuScale, the only SMR developer with a design approved by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Visual: Courtesy of NuScale/Oregon State University/Flickr
IN RECENT YEARS, the nuclear power lobby and its advocates have begun to sing a new song. They have bailed on the monstrous reactors of the 20th century — not because of safety or toxic waste concerns, but because of the reactors’ exorbitant expense and ponderous rollout schedules. And they have switched their allegiance to a next generation nuclear fission technology: small modular reactors, which they claim will help rescue our warming planet, as well as the nuclear power industry— once they exist.
Respected thinkers such as former U.S. president Barack Obama, French president Emmanuel Macron, and Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates have toasted the idea of small modular reactors, or SMRs, as a potentially reliable, almost-emissions-free backup to intermittent renewable energy sources like wind and solar. Advocates claim that because SMRs will be smaller than the giants that currently dominate horizons, they will be safer, cheaper, and quicker to build. Although SMRs will have only a fraction of the power-generating capacity of traditional nuclear power reactors, proponents envision that they will, one day, be assembled in factories and transported as a unit to sites — like Sears’ mail-order Modern Homes of the early 1900s.
Currently, half of the states in the EU, both major political parties in the U.S, and the five BRICS nations — Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa — have indicated that they want to split atoms for the purpose of generating energy. U.S. President Joe Biden included billions of dollars in tax credits for nuclear energy in the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Gates has gone so far as to invest a chunk of his fortune in a firm he founded, TerraPower, a leading nuclear innovation company. But despite the prodigious chatter, the endeavor to blanket the Earth with SMRs is a Hail Mary pass that’s very unlikely to succeed.
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Granted, it is certainly a step in the right direction that most observers now see the postwar, giga-watt-scale water-cooled reactors as obsolete. When constructed new, these behemoths generate electricity at up to nine times the cost of large-scale solar and onshore wind facilities, and can take well over a decade to get up and running. Perhaps for this reason, there has been one, and only one, new nuclear power project initiated in the U.S. since construction began on the last one 50 years ago: a two-reactor expansion of the Vogtle Electric Generating Plant in Georgia. The first of the reactors came online this year — seven years behind schedule. The staggering $35 billion cost for the pair is more than twice the original projection.
But SMRs are just as likely to face similar delays and cost overruns. Currently, there are just two existing advanced SMR facilities in the world that could be reasonably described as SMRs: a pilot reactor in China and Russia’s diminutive Akademik Lomonosov. More small reactors are under construction in China, Russia, and Argentina, but all of them are proving even more expensive per kilowatt than traditional reactors.
It’s worth noting that in the U.S., and everywhere else in the world, nuclear policy relies heavily on subsidies to be economically competitive. Starting next year, utilities operating nuclear facilities in the U.S. can qualify for a tax credit of $15 per megawatt-hour — a break that could be worth up to $30 billion for the industry as a whole. However, even these giveaways won’t reduce the projected costs of SMR-generated electricity to anywhere near the going prices of wind and solar power.
In the U.S., the only SMR developer with a design approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is NuScale, which plans to deploy six modules at one site in Idaho that will together generate less electricity than a smallish standard nuclear reactor. So far, however, NuScale has yet to lay a single brick. Its biggest win to date is securing $4 billion in federal tax subsidies. In January of this year, NuScale announced plans to sell electricity not at $58 per megawatt-hour, as originally pledged, but at $89 per megawatt-hour, citing higher than anticipated construction costs. The new projection is nearly twice the average global cost of utility-scale solar and onshore wind, according to calculations by BloombergNEF. And without the government subsidies, NuScale’s price tag would be that much higher.
In fact, there’s a fair chance that not a single NuScale SMR will ever be built: The company has said it will not begin construction until 80 percent of its expected generation capacity is subscribed, and currently buyers have signed up for less than a quarter of the plant’s capacity.
Gates’s TerraPower has an even longer way to go, although it too is cashing in on subsidies. The U.S. Department of Energy has pledged up to $2 billion in matching funds to construct a demonstration plant in Wyoming. Yet TerraPower recently announced it’s facing delays of at least two years because of difficulties securing uranium fuel from its lone supplier: Russia.
Even if the unlikely rollout of SMRs eventually happens, it will unfold too late to curb the climate crisis.
Even if the unlikely rollout of SMRs eventually happens, it will unfold too late to curb the climate crisis. And the reactors will face many of the same safety and radioactive waste concerns that plagued their larger counterparts, if only at smaller scales. Meanwhile, the siren song of nuclear energy is diverting critical resources from the urgent task of building out clean technologies. And the idea that nuclear reactors would serve as “backups” for wind and solar is misguided because the reactors can’t be ramped up and down quickly.
One is left to wonder why it is that intelligent people like Gates and Obama are running down this rabbit hole?
I think it’s because they understand the chilling imperative of the climate crisis, and its scope. They’re panicked, and rightly so. In nuclear energy, they see a miracle-like, low-carbon power source that they know, and that can serve a million customers at a time. Despite plenty of evidence to the contrary, they don’t trust renewables and smart energy systems to get the job done.
But that is where they err. The technology of the future is already here. Clean wind and solar energy — coupled with updated smart grids, expanded storage capacity, hydrogen technology, virtual power plants, and demand response strategies — can work. Our energy systems of the future will look like a patchwork quilt, with diverse energy sources kicking in at different times during the day, and with the mix differing from one day to the next.
Bill Gates and like-minded innovators should put their minds and fortunes to work on this futuristic project of the present — and leave the 20th century relic that is nuclear power in the past, where it belongs.” ~Paul Hockenos
Paul Hockenos is a Berlin-based writer who covers energy and climate topics.
(Original Post, expanded here, was “All Things Nuclear” #420 dated October 15, 2023)
ACCESS TO MEDIA:
Whenever there is an underlined link to a Category media news story, if you press or click on the link provided, you no longer have to cut and paste to your web browser, since this Post’s link will take you directly to the article in your browser.
A current Digest of major nuclear media headlines with automated inks is listed below by nuclear Category. There are no bonus Yellowstone Caldera stories available in this Post. The latest Sky News coverage of the Russia/Ukraine war is available at the end of the other categorized Posts.
(Just a reminder: When linked, the access to the media story will be underlined. If there is no link to a media story of interest you can still copy and paste the headline and lead line into your browser to find the article you are seeking. Hopefully this will never happen.)
All Things Nuclear
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YouTube
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Victor Wembanyama is inevitable + Cowboys vs Eagles + Rangers repeat – YouTube
YouTube
Car crashes through gate at South Carolina nuclear plant, suspect on … FIRST THINGS FIRST | Nick Wright makes prediction Cowboys vs Eagles on Sunday.
Podcast PAWcast: Three Alumni on Ukraine, Putin, and the Threat of Nuclear War
Princeton Alumni Weekly | – Princeton University
… nuclear weapons, and Russia’s share of that is approximately half, so, 45% of all nuclear weapons in the world are in Russia. Now, we’ve been …
Nuclear Power
NEWS
Person of interest identified after car crashes through nuclear power plant – YouTube
YouTube
Doyle Wayne Whisenhunt, 66, has been identified as a person of interest in connection with the breach of the nuclear power plant in South Carolina …
South Carolina: Oconee Nuclear Station incident update
WYFF 4
We have learned new information about the situation at the Oconee County Nuclear Plant in South Carolina that happened Thursday night.
SMR power plant proposed in Norway – World Nuclear News
World Nuclear News
Norsk Kjernekraft has submitted a proposal to Norway’s Ministry of Oil and Energy for an assessment into the construction of a power plant based …
Nuclear War
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Ukraine war latest: Russia’s assault in Donbas town ‘flounders’; Moscow makes ‘disturbing …
Sky News
Yesterday, Vladimir Putin signed a law revoking ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CBTB), which the US signed but never …
Nuclear Talks With China Are Essential and Long Overdue – The New York Times
The New York Times
The landmark Cold War-era treaties between the United States and Russia have fallen by the wayside, one by one, with few meaningful restraints …
ICBM Test Failure Puts Nuclear Modernization Effort Into Focus
Air & Space Forces Magazine
… nuclear arsenal. “It has served our country well and we will continue to depend on it to deter nuclear war until the 2030s, but this week’s test …
Nuclear Power Emergencies
NEWS
Exercise of Clinton Nuclear Power Station – Juliana Stratton, Lt. Governor – Illinois.gov
Juliana Stratton, Lt. Governor – Illinois.gov
Emergency Plans Set for November 14th. SPRINGFIELD – An exercise to test emergency response plans for the area surrounding the Clinton Nuclear …
IAEA’s expert team conducts rotation at occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Plant – Yahoo News
Yahoo News
… nuclear safety and security at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant … emergency diesel generators for unit 1, the 750-kilovolt power line’s …
Switzerland has distributed iodine tablets to residents for years, and not because of nuclear war
PolitiFact
If a radiation emergency occurred at the plants, taking the pills would protect the people from thyroid cancer. (The iodine pills, technically …
Nuclear War Threats
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New Kind of Nuclear Threat in Putin’s War on Ukraine Explained – Newsweek
Newsweek
… nuclear threats, but could atomic assets on the ground pose the same danger? … nuclear threat that has persisted since the start of the war. The …
Nuclear Bomb Map Shows Impact if Biden’s New Weapon Dropped on Russia – Newsweek
Newsweek
China gives US demands for preventing nuclear war · Even After the War in … threats from potential adversaries.” In the release, Plumb added: “The …
Oklahoma Won’t Be Spared From WW3 Nuclear Threats
KLAW 101
… nuclear bomber bases. It would honestly be the worst-case scenario of war to consider Oklahoma a legitimate nuclear threat from Russia. We’re …
Sky News coverage of the Russia/Ukraine war . . .
Key points
- Fire ignites after Russian drones hit ‘civilian targets’ View post
- Russia’s large-scale assault in Donbas town ‘flounders’ View post
- Moscow making ‘disturbing’ effort to raise nuclear risks View post
- ‘Infighting in Russian military’ over Wagner View post
- Ukrainian commander gives downbeat assessment of counteroffensive View post
- Philip Ingram analysis:Who is winning the war? View post
- Sean Bell explains:Why Russia is very unlikely to seek end to war before US election View post
- Your questions answered:Why does Russia need North Korean weapons? View post
- Live reporting by Charlotte Chelsom-Pill (now) and Brad Young (earlier)
LLAW’s “ALL THINGS NUCLEAR”
