As China Option Fades, Bill Gates Urges US To Take the Lead in Nuclear Power, For the Good of the Planet (geekwire.com)

In his year-end letter, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates says his to-do list for 2019 includes persuading U.S. leaders to regain America's leading role in nuclear energy research and embrace advanced nuclear technologies such as the concept being advanced by his own TerraPower venture. From a report: "The world needs to be working on lots of solutions to stop climate change," Gates wrote in the wide-ranging letter, released Saturday night. "Advanced nuclear is one, and I hope to persuade U.S. leaders to get into the game." Gates acknowledged that tighter U.S. export restrictions, put in place by the Trump administration, have virtually ruled out TerraPower's grand plan to test its traveling-wave nuclear technology in China. "We had hoped to build a pilot project in China, but recent policy changes here in the U.S. have made that unlikely," Gates wrote. He said "we may be able to build it in the United States" if regulations are updated and the investment climate for nuclear power improves.

Comments

Re: But if you take out the Lead

[AmiMoJo]

The problem is regulation.

No, the problem is insurance.

Given that the consequences of a disaster are potentially in the trillions of Euro/dollar range, and even the relatively contained disasters we have had like Fukushima are in the hundreds of billions range, the insurer is going to make damn sure that accidents don't happen. That means strict requirements when it comes to safety.

In nuclear's case the insurer is the government because no private insurer could cover the potential payout.

So if you want to make nuclear cheaper then find a way to insure it privately with an insurer who has less stringent demands. Good luck with that.

A modern reactor can take up the size of a small shed in your backyard (if you have a cooling pool nearby). But we're not building those because someone may steal a rod of "weapons grade" fuel.

Probably more to do with the cost. According to this the cost of a carrier size reactor is $200 million, plus $40 million for end-of-life disposal, plus operating costs. For about 700MW.

And that's just the reactor of course, you need to build a plant and cooling system around it. You don' have the sea to use as a heatsink. That compares to about $33 million for 700MW of wind, so you can throw a nice big battery on top of that and it's still way cheaper.