Nukes now come in all sizes

ARTICLE: "Our Atomic Future: It'me to take another look at nuclear power," by William Tucker, Wall Street Journal, 28 March 2007, p. A16.

Great article that makes point few people get as of yet: nukes don't only come in one size--gigantic.

The ones that got and get built tend to fall in the 1,200-1,500 MW range, just like coal-fired electricity plants, but we've had the capacity on nukes to go as low as 5 MW for decades, and with pebble-beds weighing in roughly at 250 MW (ideally, says MIT researchers), then it's clear we have a wide lower range to explore.

And here's the connectivity kicker: these smaller plants are ideal for more remote and off-grid locations. And with pebble-beds, you have the capacity to crack hydrogen and crank potable water as by-products.

Cool wrap-up para:

The only reasonable scenario for avoiding global warming is to substitute nuclear power for coal as our prime source of base-load electricity, supplementing it with wind and solar electricity for our spinning reserve and peaking-power needs. If Al Gore were to support a nuclear-solar alliance--a joint effort by carbon-free technologies to impose a tax on carbon emissions--we could take giant steps toward solving the problem.

Guess who's pushing pebble-beds?

New Core South Africa.

New Core, new rules.

Comments

[Jimmy J]

Yes! It's about time people started talking about the advances in nuclear power plant designs. And, how about pointing at the Navy's exemplary record of safety in operating nuclear powered ships.Solar, wind, and tidal power at most can make about 20% of the power needed. Conservation and wise use can make another 20% difference. It's still going to take nuclear and small hydro electric plants (the biggies have already been built) to produce enpough "green" power going forward.

When the global warming crowd accepts these facts then I will begin to take their arguments about changing the way we live more seriously.

[Mark in Texas]

The Navy has an exemplary record for safe operation of nuclear reactors and the record of civilian plant operators in the Core is also very good.

On the other hand, just the other day the Palestinians in Gaza demonstrated that they are not competent to operate something as high tech as a sewage treatment pond.

Pebble bed reactors are certainly far less prone to catastrophic failure than other nuclear technologies and I would like to see nuclear power become a lot larger share of the US energy mix. But there are a lot of places on earth that really should not be operating them at this time.