Matthew L. Wald at The EcoModernist:
Bulldozers are already pushing dirt, welders are connecting steel reinforcing bars, concrete mixers are spinning, electricity customers are signing mega-deals for power from reactors for decades into the future, and billions of dollars of construction is already underway for a nuclear resurgence. It looks a bit like a replay of the 1970s.
But it isn’t. People understand that a nuclear resurgence means new reactors, but that doesn’t describe how radically different this round will be.
In the construction campaign that built the fleet we have now, there were essentially two choices: buy a reactor that boils water, or one that heats it without boiling. Make it as big as you can. And the choices were made by traditional utilities.
Now a new cast of players is poised to be builders and owners, almost any size is possible, and the medium being heated may not be water.
The who, what, where, when, how and even the why of nuclear have changed. Here is a rundown of the key elements of a nuclear resurgence.
More here.
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