A New Era Of Nuclear Power Has Just Begun
And it will revolutionise the world.
Nuclear power is key to our fight against climate change. Despite its potential dangers, it actually has the lowest death rate per gigawatt of power produced by any energy source and is one of the lowest carbon energy sources we have. What’s more, we need its powerful, compact, and on-tap energy nature in our future carbon-neutral energy grids as it fills a critical hole left by solar and wind. But nuclear power has a problem: it is damn expensive and inflexible, causing many to turn their backs on this vital energy source. Fortunately, the US nuclear regulators have just approved a new revolutionary nuclear reactor design that will solve these problems and beckon in a nuclear renaissance. Welcome to the incredible world of NuScale’s groundbreaking Small Modular Reactor (SMR).
SMRs are nothing new. The idea has been floating around for decades. You see, half the reason our current nuclear reactors are so expensive is because each power plant needs a custom design and build. This is to ensure that the reactor meets power demands without being too big (which drives up costs), works well with the local environment, and is safe. But the design and construction can take over a decade, in which time the power demands have changed, and so could the local environment and safety requirements.
