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Trump's Tech Battle With China Roils Bill Gates Nuclear Venture (wsj.com)
Add Bill Gates to the list of executives whose businesses have been ensnared by the Trump administration's battle with China over technology and trade. From a report: The tech tycoon and philanthropist said in an essay posted late last week that a nuclear-energy project in China by a company he co-founded called TerraPower LLC is now unlikely to proceed because of recent changes in U.S. policy toward China [Editor's note: the link may be paywalled; alternative source]. That leaves TerraPower, which had been working on the China project for more than three years, scrambling for a new partner and uncertain where it might be able to run a pilot of the nuclear reactor it has been developing, according to company officials.
Mr. Gates, TerraPower's chairman, helped start and fund the Bellevue, Wash., company, which incorporated in 2008, in a long-term bid to make nuclear reactors smaller, less expensive and safer than current nuclear energy sources. The company has been developing something called a traveling-wave reactor, which uses depleted uranium as fuel, something that TerraPower says can improve safety and reduce costs. Regulatory restrictions and limited federal funding made building the facility in the U.S. difficult and led TerraPower to look for partners abroad, Chief Executive Chris Levesque said in an interview.
Mr. Gates, TerraPower's chairman, helped start and fund the Bellevue, Wash., company, which incorporated in 2008, in a long-term bid to make nuclear reactors smaller, less expensive and safer than current nuclear energy sources. The company has been developing something called a traveling-wave reactor, which uses depleted uranium as fuel, something that TerraPower says can improve safety and reduce costs. Regulatory restrictions and limited federal funding made building the facility in the U.S. difficult and led TerraPower to look for partners abroad, Chief Executive Chris Levesque said in an interview.
Given how the chinese treat IP; isn't this a favor?
Basically they'd build the reactor in china, and within 2 weeks the plans and technical details would be 'appropriated' by the Chinese government.
Basically all that R&D wasted. Just because they aren't shooting at us (yet) doesn't make them an ally, or even a remotely-friendly country.
On the other hand... Nuclear power isn't really something that the Chinese can build cheaper there for sale in the US; it will be used locally. Their use won't undermine use in the US. Wouldn't better, safer nuclear power be better where ever it's used than older, less-safe designs? In this case, sharing the IP doesn't really sound like a bad idea. Perhaps R&D can be shared for the benefit of everyone rather than hoarded for extra profit by some.
We all live on this planet together.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
Honestly, I'm worried more about China now that we've already built them up and now we're severing ties. It's incredibly stupid to do...not as stupid as your assumption that anyone has changed any opinion they had before Trump came along, but still very dumb.
Better to do research in China than not do it at all -- the US is too mired in NIMBY'ism for civilian nuclear power research to be practical here. The goal isn't for him (or the US) to get rich, it's to increase the worldwide adoption of carbon-free nuclear power. He's acting as a philanthropist here and this should be respected.
And someone needed a PC excuse to cut and run. Good business acumen. Laughs about it over drinks later. Amazing how many here don't have a clue how the world works for real. Downvoting begins now.
Why guess when you can know? Measure!
Statistics show that trains spill oil 34 times more than pipelines, resulting in 7 times the amount of oil spilled. Pipelines are safer you twit. All it will take is one train in the Thompson or Fraser Rivers and goodbye one big salmon ecosystem. Bitumen in trains is still diluted too, just not quite as much as for pipelines.
https://www.theglobeandmail.co...
There are too many idiots who are know it all environmentalists because they watch a radical Suzuki who only cries about the sky falling (so get rid of people's jobs) with no solutions. And if it's not them, it's paid American 'environmentalists' who come up to protest Canadian pipelines. Sometimes I wonder if the Koch brothers pay them to keep their American interests in front of the Canadian oil interests. The irony is that Canada won't be able to afford to develop green alternatives if it isn't making any money (selling oil).
-- I ignore anonymous replies to my comments and postings.