TODAY. Against all the evidence – nuclear industry propaganda blunders on – and the media regurgitates its nonsense!

It would be funny, if it were not so serious.

Promoting the nuclear industry is not just serious, but dangerous. The industry’s only real purpose is nuclear weapons.

Everybody knows that big nuclear reactors are a no-no. They’re astronomically expensive to build, and even more obscenely expensive to demolish and dispose of. (that latter cost to be paid by our great-grandchildren).

So what is needed now by this insane industry – is a fairy-tale window-dressing. And hey presto! There are the non existent magical small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) .

Today – I see heaps of enthusiastic articles, especially from the UK. Wow! Westinghouse Electric Company doing a deal with Community Nuclear Power, privately funded, - “The companies will work together to develop plans for the plants, with the aim of getting backing from the Government.” - to set up SMRs - Business Wire, Teesside Gazette, Northern Echo, Proactive Investor, ………..

They don’t mention the spectacular failure of the USA’s one and only SMR business, as NuScale heads towards bankruptcy.

What else the mainstream media does not say about SMRs:

Problems of massive cost blowouts and multi-year delays.
Unproven technology: Even the simplest designs used today in submarines will not be available at scale until late next decade, if at all. Taking into account the learning curve of the nuclear industry, an average of 3,000 SMRs would have to be constructed in order to be financially viable.
Ineffective climate solution: According to the latest IPCC report published in March 2023, nuclear power is one of the two least effective mitigation options (alongside Carbon Capture and Storage).
Waste problem: Current SMR designs would create 2-30 times more radioactive waste in need of management and disposal than conventional nuclear plants.

And there’s that other intriguing little problem. The proudly British company Rolls Royce has been counting on government backing to start off its SMR project. Now shock horror – an American company looks like winning this foolish SMR sack race. Bill Gates’ Terra Power, GE-Hitachi, Mitsubishi – all these companies will be peeved, too. An international political fracas?

February 10, 2024 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina's notes

2 Comments »

If nuclear power is so safe, why in the US, is their liability limited by the Price-Anderson Act? Has everybody forgotten about Fukushima, Chernobyl, and Three Mile Island? We have no permanent solution to the nuclear waste problem. We have no safe storage site or methods that must be permanently kept from the biosphere for 45,000 years. Do you know of any structure or facility that will be perfect for that period of time? And we have seen how “Atoms for Peace” have become “Atoms for War.” Both India and Pakistan both have atomic weapons now, all extracted from their nuclear waste from the reactors they built from the “peaceful uses of atomic energy.” We have the technology, the natural resources and the plans to transition to a renewable energy economy right now. What we lack is the political will to do so.

Comment by paulrodenlearning | February 10, 2024 | Reply
- When they started building new nuke bombs, they came up with a bomb that would kill all life on earth. It was szilard. A bomb that would vaporoize a couple tons of hi level, gamma emitting radionuclide into the atmosphrere and into the atmosphere . It would only take 20 years to deatroy life through dna and chromosome destruction, cancer, malformation sterility. 50 percent of the birds are extinct. 75 percent of the incects are gone.
  Guess what. With all the nuclear detonations, nuclear accidents and hi level nuclear nuke waste above ground leaking, there has been enough high level radionuclides released to wipe things out. U will just say, oh thats too negative but if u pulled yur head out of yur arse ud know its happening
  
  Comment by Omeg | February 11, 2024 | Reply