Small Modular Reactors (SMR)

Nuclear energy has historically been the most maligned, least understood source of energy in history – although the myths and promises of wind energy may be a close second albeit on the flip side of the truth. It was one of the first victims of the “big lies” used by liberals and progressives in order to scare the holy bejesus out of the American population. Visions of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A hole burned through the core of Earth beginning in the United States and exiting in China as the result of a nuclear plant melt down. Followed almost immediately by the poorly researched and scripted Hollywood production – The China Syndrome.

And yet, even while the liberals were screaming, marching, picketing, and – yes – singing to close every large nuclear facility and succeeding in large part because of the temerity of the power industry and worse yet the politicians. And yet, while the behemoth nuclear plants were facing real and imaginary problems and army of regulators who knew ever less, the nuclear industry continued to progress – mostly out of sight from the fear mongers in the mainstream press. And that progress was being made in smaller plants.

While the hippies who hung out around Reed College while they protested the giant nuclear plants – like Trojan along the Columbia River, they seemed to pay little attention to a nuclear reactor that has been and still is operational at the college in the Portland suburb of Eastmoreland – proving first that liberal protesters seldom have any situational awareness and, second, that it is usually the fact that it is the anti-capitalist fire that burns inside them more than any rational objection to nuclear power, lumber, fishing, hydropower, manufacturing, etc.

Be that as it may, the fact of the matter is nuclear power continued to progress. The Europeans took a massive step towards common design and interchangeable parts – particularly in France while the United States, primarily at the behest of its regulators and the major engineering firms on insisted on a new and singular design for each new facility- thus guaranteeing expensive construction costs and even more expensive maintenance costs. At the same time the real progress was being made in small modular designs for naval use – nuclear submarines, nuclear aircraft carriers, space exploration, and college campuses.

Several yeas ago I read an article about a group of engineers and nuclear scientists as Oregon State University who were successful in build small, compact modular reactors that could be linked together and thus sized for a variety of need uses. I have referred to them several times in these columns as to why the concept of small modular reactors had not yet caught on – particularly in the rural West where density and distance made access to electricity expensive and less reliable – the cost of running electrical lines from the backbone networks remains expensive to build and even more expensive to maintain.

Finally, it apparently has taken the rapid expansion of the internet along with the power of computers, including storage and artificial intelligence (AI) to awaken the current and critical need for power. The romantics of “green power” have failed to demonstrate that wind and solar can meet current let alone future needs. And thus our attention is drawn to this unique concept of “small, modular reactors” – SMR’s. Not only are they small but they are scale-able – you just connect with modular unit to the next albeit there is . The digital leaders now openly talk about acquiring SMR’s not only to secure the uninterruptible power they require while minimizing the impact on the general electrical grid. SMR’s are the answer to a whole lot of power needs and they will proceed if the alarmist on the left stop wild speculation and stick to the facts and the demonstrable history of SMR’s. Better yet, it the industry tells these morons to calm down and shut up.

My first reaction after reading recent articles was what ever happened to those little heralded nuclear scientists and engineers in rural Oregon at Oregon State University who began this conversation. Well, they’re alive and well and leading the race. They incorporated as NuScale under the trading symbol SMR and they are well underway to creating a nuclear facility for Romania using their scale-able SMR’s. While the University of Oregon has a world-class sports program and donors lining up to participate, it is Oregon State University that may remake the world for the coming deluge of digital information, artificial intelligence and rural access to cheap and reliable power.

Watch the progress in Corvallis. It’s impressive.

The post Small Modular Reactors (SMR) first appeared on Oregon Catalyst.