Oil industry funded anti-nuclear efforts and groups for years. The fact that some of them now decry the oil industry doesn't necessarily mean they're enemies; the oil industry enjoys high prices more than they hate bad PR.
I am as pro-nuclear as they come, but I find the tone of this article a bit too inflammatory. I used to think the NRC's licensing process is so complex only because of, you know, stupid bureaucracy. But I looked into the actual documents posted for the safety evaluation of the NuScale SMR, which you can find at [1]. I am not specialist, but there are plenty of topics that do appear to me to require serious consideration.<p>Here's an example from the final report [2] , something about "boron dilution"<p><pre><code> We are concerned especially about boron dilution in the downcomer by steam condensation from the steam generators or the vessel wall because it may provide a source of unborated coolant that can migrate to the core following a perturbation.
This could lead to a rapid return to power event (reactivity insertion accident) with the possibility of core damage.
</code></pre>
Now, it probably depends on pronunciation, but to me "core damage" rhymes a little with Chernobyl. I am glad that the NRC took their time to evaluate this risk, and numerous other like that.<p>[1] <a href="https://www.nrc.gov/reactors/new-reactors/smr/nuscale/ser-open-items.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.nrc.gov/reactors/new-reactors/smr/nuscale/ser-op...</a><p>[2] <a href="https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML2021/ML20212L586.pdf" rel="nofollow">https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML2021/ML20212L586.pdf</a>
See also: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26603464" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26603464</a><p>EU experts to say nuclear power qualifies for green investment label: document (reuters.com)<p>482 points by accountinhn 7 months ago | 552 comments<p>Also: <a href="https://www.ans.org/news/article-1392/robert-anderson-antinuclear-financier/" rel="nofollow">https://www.ans.org/news/article-1392/robert-anderson-antinu...</a>.
It's hard not to ignore the fact that anti-nuclear <i>weapons</i> rhetoric has significantly picked up steam recently.[1]<p>After the pandemic, people seem to have more attention for low-risk high-impact possibilities.<p>[1] See Ken Follet's Never, op-eds about disarmament, and political science research interest.