Are Advanced Nuclear and Renewable Energy Competitors?
It’s amazing how parochial some people are in their beliefs about energy. I’m on an email distribution list for the proponents of advanced nuclear, which normally means molten salt reactors based on thorium. I’m a proponent too; who wouldn’t support the idea of a carbon-free source of baseload power with essentially no dangers in terms of operations, waste disposal, or weapons proliferation? If we can do that cost-effectively (and the jury’s out on that) who would be so pigheaded to say it’s a bad idea?
Well, unfortunately, some of these advanced nuclear people don’t see renewable energy in the same light. Many of them talk about the need to squash their competition in the form of solar and wind, to “debunk the myth” of clean energy, exposing the secret that solar and wind are variable resources.
I’ve got news, boys. It’s already pretty clear to most people that the sun doesn’t shine at night, and that the wind doesn’t blow at a constant rate. Take my multi-part advice:
• Don’t waste your resources exposing the obvious; you’ll need them for developing your technology.
• Take a few minutes and learn how renewable energy, in concert with smart grid, energy storage, electric transportation, etc. is already making terrific progress in offsetting the use of fossil fuels–and how this component of the energy sector is growing each year.
• Keep in mind that distributed generation, especially in the form of solar, will be critical to bringing power to the developing nations, and that this power will have terrific benefits in terms of health, personal productivity, and, most important: education. Educated women have stronger and much smaller families; this forms a critical component of controlling the world’s population. Nuclear is not going to be a terrific help here; solar’s already making a big difference.
• Get rid of your childish viewpoint that renewable energy is a form of competition that you need to defeat. This isn’t a football league or an election campaign. It’s an effort to save our civilization from the near-certain devastation that’s headed its way.
Hope this helps, but I somehow doubt it will.
Craig: I agree with your points, but it seems that all the hype is about the fossil guys wanting to keep their business going (and reaping the big bucks), and now, that the truth is out there they find no other way than to fight it out. Climate disruption or public health don’t matter at this stage (until someone of their families are affected by one of the sicknesses, or some other aspect of the oil business mess) It’s a typical human reaction and a typical human characteristic. Now we have reached the top of the hill and are starting to catch up speed as we go down. Renewables are not competitors, they will be sharing the energy business more and more, nuclear energy will find it’s place, but only in the grid scale industrial field, and although I don’t trust humans with radioactive materials (no matter how they try to convince us of security matters)[it’s the safest I have seen up to now] it’s a big business, and big companies are pushing this through. I don’t see oil out of the picture for many years to come.
Most greens who advocate wind, solar, and conservation are anti-nuclear. The pro-nuclear folks see wind, solar, and conservation as a diversion that will guarantee the continuation of a thriving fossil fuel industry. Things are changing as a growing number of environmentalists are taking an unbiased look at nuclear and realize nuclear should be given a second chance. The movie Pandora’s Promise does a nice job of describing this movement. Many environmentalists came to the pro-nuclear position through the advanced nuclear door, mainly through books, articles, and videos about a Generation IV reactor design, especially the thorium powered molten salt reactor. As they studied this exciting technology they became more knowledgeable about current Gen II and Gen III nuclear reactor designs and came to support that as well.
While the molten salt reactor design is exciting and possibly the best design, it should be noted that the Gen IV Integral Fast Reactor (IFR) is further along. This design is cited in the movie Pandora’s Promise. What the movie fails to note is that Russia already has a commercially available Generation IV reactor, the BN-800, an 880 MW Integral Fast Reactor. The BN-800 is based on a design that was under development at Idaho National Labs until it was defunded during the Clinton administration. China is Russia’s first customer for this reactor. China also has a government funded project to develop Oak Ridge National Lab’s design for a thorium powered molten salt reactor. The U.S. DOE is cooperating with China on the design. It has been agreed that China will own all the international patents for the new reactor. In the U.S. two small companies, Flibe Energy and Transatomic, are working on building a molten salt reactor but have no government support or funding. Canada’s Terrestrial Energy is also a contender to win the molten salt reactor design race, but most people give the edge to China because of its massive government support.