In this week’s Off The Cuff, my good friend Erik Townsend walks us through the logic and data that support the use of small modular nuclear reactors as a means of meeting all of our energy needs. Well, at least for things that need electricity and heat.
We’ll still need some fossil fuels for things like asphalt and jet fuel for the foreseeable future, but those amounts would be much smaller and represent a more intelligent (and carbon offsettable) use of our remaining and dwindling oil resources.
The truth is, we already have the designs and the know-how to build modular nuclear reactors. We could build them in robotic factories and crank them out by the hundreds and thousands. Then we’d have stable power for a very long time.
China is already headed down this path with both 4th generation and thorium designs approved and event operating. The US just recently granted regulatory approval for a 4th generation pebble bed pilot-scale reactor, so it is far behind the game. Europe is…who knows?
But, it doesn’t have to be this way. With the right kind of public support and people finally taking off their energy blinders and seeing the reality, we can actually envision a future of prosperity.
by mongothepawn