ThorCon Advanced Nuclear Reactor -- More Than Worth Its Weight In Salt

By James Conca at Forbes

It’s been 30 years since America built a really new nuclear power plant, but we haven’t been idle over this time. A slew of new designs have emerged and, thanks to advances in computing capabilities and the understanding that smaller is better, many of these are ready to be built economically.

This is important. Over the last several years, there has been a growing consensus among climate scientists that nuclear energy is critical for mitigating the worst effects of global warming. States are shifting from Renewable Energy Mandates to technology neutral Clean Energy Standards that include nuclear energy.

So it is good that the development of new nuclear technologies is speeding along faster than most people think. Many new nuclear start-up companies have emerged in the United States, China and Canada, especially those designing small modular reactors (SMRs).

Importantly, all are walk-away-safe, which means the reactor just won’t melt down or otherwise cause any of the nightmares people think about when imagining the worse for nuclear power. It just shuts down and cools off.

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Nuclear Power Always Ready For Extreme Weather

By James Conca at Forbes

As Polar Vortices, Bomb Cyclones and massive hurricanes pummel America more and more often, nuclear power plants keep on putting out maximum power when all other sources can’t.

For the last month, the Pacific Northwest’s only https://www.energy-northwest.com/ourenergyprojects/Columbia/Pages/default.aspx">nuclear power plant has been under a “No Touch” order to help keep the heat on as record cold and snow covered the region. I was stuck in my house for eight days.

https://www.tri-cityherald.com/news/local/article226954819.html">As reported by Annette Cary of the Tri-City Herald, the https://www.bpa.gov/Pages/home.aspx">Bonneville Power Administration, which markets the electricity produced at the nuclear plant near Richland, asked http://www.energy-northwest.com/">Energy Northwest, the operator of the power plant, not to do anything that would prevent the plant from producing 100% power at all times during an unusually cold February across the state that increased the demand for electricity – no maintenance activities, even on its turbine generator and in the transformer yard. Don’t do anything that would stop the reliable and constant power output of nuclear.

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