What many people is this thread don't realize is that nuclear is by far the cleanest form of energy for the environment. It has no intermittancy problems like Wind and Solar. The process of building nuclear is extremely clean compared to building wind turbines and solar panels which devastate the environment due to the rare metals needed and production process.<p>Its also vastly friendlier for humans and animals. The number of deaths due to meltdowns, and accidents in nuclear palls in comparison to all those occuring due to wind turbines and solar.<p>If you're an environmentalist it behooves you to honestly look at the research and data that has accumulated over the past 40 years on this topic.
Too little to late. I hate to get political, but this is more of a political issue than a technical one. The earth is already on track for another massive extinction due to climate change caused by warming global temperatures and human consumption. Instead of worrying about a few radioactive waste sites we have instead created a global and spectacularly hard to fix problem.<p>We put a man on the moon in less than a decade without any prior experience or technical know-how but we can’t figure out how to make safer nuclear reactors and install them? Bowl of shit.
They "launched a process" to "prepare a roadmap" to "explore the potential" of something something.<p>Such vigor. Much audacity. Wow.
"Canada has launched a process to prepare a roadmap to explore the potential of on- and off-grid applications for small modular reactor (SMR) technology."<p>I'm a fan of building more nuclear reactors but this tag-line doesn't give me much hope - in essence it's a "process to plan to explore the potential". There's not even a hint of experimental science much less development in that sentence (I hope these are the writers words and that Canada's plans are (or involve) a bit more concrete.
This is highly interesting, and long overdue.<p>Canada has a lot of "oil sands" that would benefit greatly from atomic process heat, reducing carbon footprint, turning feedstock losses into salable product, and increasing production rates. Canadas mineral resources, engineering capabilities, and regulatory mindset are highly favorable to becoming a technological leader in an important sector.
This seems interesting, but what technology are they planning on using, and how does it compare with other projects around the world? This comes up every now and again it seems, and then dies away again (eg PBMR - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pebble_bed_modular_reactor" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pebble_bed_modular_reactor</a>).
I have a question. Let me start by saying I was opposed to nuclear for a long time, but more recently have become persuaded that we should be pursuing these new nuclear technologies.<p>My question concerns China. I know it is busy building many conventional nuclear plants. But is it also working on new nuclear technologies?
At least with the current technology there are too many downsides to nuclear power. The nuclear waste issue still hasn't been solved, and nuclear accidents do happen, apparently despite all the security measures.<p>Small reactors, maybe even mobile, can only make this worse.