Nuclear Power Likely to Grow by Getting Smaller

 Test engineer Jacob Wilcox pulls his arm out of a glove box used for processing sodium at TerraPower, a company developing and building small nuclear reactors on Jan. 13, 2022, in Everett, Wash. Test engineer Jacob Wilcox pulls his arm out of a glove box used for processing sodium at TerraPower, a company developing and building small nuclear reactors on Jan. 13, 2022, in Everett, Wash. AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, File In the midst of growing demand for low-carbon base-load electricity, nuclear power is increasingly regarded as a clean, reliable option; but multi-year regulatory approval processes, a dearth of capital, and chronic cost overruns when constructing new plants have made utilities reluctant to build.

For many in the nuclear power industry, one way to address these issues is to become smaller.

‘We’ve got to onshore a lot of the capabilities that we’ve lost,’ said Juliann Edwards, chief development officer of The Nuclear Company.

Regarding regulatory approvals, the nuclear power industry anticipates a faster process due to a new bipartisan consensus, in which the left regards nuclear as a low-carbon energy source and conservatives see it as a means of providing continuous base-load power to meet the escalating demand for electricity.

They are designed to be cheaper and more flexible than larger-scale nuclear power plants, with enhanced safety features such as automatic shut-down technology.

“The United States has the largest nuclear fleet, with 94 reactors, but it took nearly 40 years to add the same nuclear power capacity as China added in 10 years,” the report states.

Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) are nuclear reactors assembled from pre-manufactured components, which are generally 300 megawatts or less in size.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/business/nuclear-power-likely-to-grow-by-getting-smaller-5735622?utm_source=partner&utm_campaign=ZeroHedge&src_src=partner&src_cmp=ZeroHedge