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.