A first for Canada: New type of nuclear plant opening by 2028
The background on Canada&#x27;s plans for small modular reactors (of which this is just one of three projects) can be found here:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.world-nuclear-news.org&#x2F;Articles&#x2F;Canadian-provinces-release-strategic-plan-for-SMRs" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.world-nuclear-news.org&#x2F;Articles&#x2F;Canadian-provinc...</a><p>Supposedly this is promoting clean energy and fighting climate change, but the details don&#x27;t always match this rhetoric.  In particular they&#x27;re thinking they can use nuclear power to replace piped-in natural gas to mine the Alberta tar sands and make (very dirty) syncrude for export to refineries in the USA, maybe China too.  Yes, that does reduce natural gas use... but you&#x27;re still burning dirty tarsand oil.  The better option is to just leave the tar in the ground.<p>Otherwise, SMRs sound kind of interesting, but there&#x27;s been a lot of failed innovation in nuclear reactors in the past.  Some of us might remember when safe and reliable and innovative pebble bed reactors were going to be the thing that made nuclear acceptable everywhere, and that ended up going nowhere:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;thebulletin.org&#x2F;2009&#x2F;06&#x2F;the-demise-of-the-pebble-bed-modular-reactor&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;thebulletin.org&#x2F;2009&#x2F;06&#x2F;the-demise-of-the-pebble-bed...</a><p>&gt; &quot;For some, helium-cooled, graphite-moderated reactors such as the PBMR have always been the ultimate evolution of fission reactor design. The use of helium and graphite allows the reactor to burn the fuel efficiently and to operate at much higher temperatures than conventional light water reactors. It is hoped the temperatures would be high enough to allow for the reactor’s heat to be used directly for industrial processes such as hydrogen production and tar sands processing. High temperature reactors can also be designed to use thorium-based fuel as well as uranium and can be developed as fast neutron reactors that don’t need moderators.&quot;<p>I was enthusiastic about nuclear 20 years ago... now, not so much, since solar&#x2F;wind&#x2F;storage really gives more watts per dollar invested, with less side issues (security, uranium supply, waste storage).  Nuclear has a niche, but it&#x27;s going to remain small.