Cheaper, Smaller Nuclear Reactors Seek Customers in Developing World

I hate humanity.

...I love humanity. But that's beside the point.

Can you put one of these on a container ship to power it? Ive heard of places in Alaska and other rural areas that would love to have one, what dose Antarctica use for power? Perhaps big utility companies are the wrong target market. I wish someone would have the guts to just start making them and do a run, if you build it they will come. Great reward comes with risk.

Rich old men and women don't have time for risks. Let them make money while the younger generation suffers, with the exception of those who benifit directly from those rich old men and women.

It takes on the order of seven years to push a nuke plant's permit through the federal bureaucracy. If President Obama and the Democratic Congress were serious about providing energy to America domestically while reducing fossil fuel consumption, they would be streamlining and modernizing this process. They would have also set aside part of the "stimulus" money to help pay for nuclear plants of all sizes.

Instead, they have provided no realistic alternatives to compete with coal, gas and oil, and are now implementing a cap and trade scheme to suck money from the private sector into the government coffers to fund a new entitlement. The government of the U.S. is not interested in cutting fossil fuels; they're interested in lining their pockets with your money. Call your congressman or senator and tell them to stop the robbery that is Waxman-Markey.

The builder of these reactors say they are a new design called a liquid metal reactor and not a light water reactors as your article states. They also say they have 100 firm orders for there new reactor. I have to wonder why you use the Union of Concerned Scientist as a source for this article instead of the manufacturer. Could it be that both Pop Sci and UCS agendas are the same when it comes to nuclear energy?

OMG I wish I could edit my last post but here is the real Link. This link shulda been included in the article.

http://www.popsci.com/environment/article/2008-06/10-audacious-ideas-save-planet?page=9

www.drwarpenstein.com

"The lining their pockets economic mentality must change, especially in regard to basic necessities. In the coming age when automation and AI and genetic engineering will rule it will be enough to compete for the luxuries - the face lifts and all - otherwise corporate power of 3% will own not only 90% of everything, but everything. This nuclear power plant is just one good starter. They can put one in my back yard. The smaller the better. A day will come when we have free energy, period."

"PORTABLE POWER and the last of the ENERGY CONGLOMERATES". Sooner or later, or within the next fifty years, above ground utility lines, poles, and towers will begin to disappear from the landscape along with an increasing end to a need for oil, gas, and coal, thereby, leading to a utopian redistribution of wealth. This welcome change could help solidify Western and world freedoms and democracies to the tune of tillions of redistributed investment dollars. Of course, portable power makes it vastly more difficult for terrorism to destroy Western economic infrastructures, or for natural disasters to destroy underground pipes and above ground wires.... So lets get on with the development of portable power."~ Beaver.

The french 'new generation' was supposed to be cheaper too. Hasn't worked out that way. (They of course are full size).

One use for these units? One or two collectively owned up in the Alberta oil sands. Massive power needs. A stable 24hr long term non-emission source would 'green' up the process if not the end product.