Small nuclear reactors don’t make any more economic sense now than they did back in the summer of 2020 when Alberta Premier Jason Kenney took to the Internet to tout the supposed benefits of the largely undeveloped technology being promoted by Canada’s nuclear industry. Now that Mr. Kenney has taken to Twitter again to claim atomic energy is a “real solution that helps reduce emissions” and that so-called small modular reactors can “strengthen and diversify our energy sector,” it’s worth taking another look at why the economics of small nuclear reactors don’t add up. Even “small modular reactors,” so named to reassure a public skittish about the term nuclear and wary of the costs and risks of atomic reactors, are extremely expensive. The small reactors touted by many companies, often entirely speculative ventures, are nothing more than pretty drawings in fancy brochures. Nuclear energy is neither cheap enough nor safe enough to provide an effective strategy against global climate change, the communique authors argued.

Source: CBC News January 09, 2022 18:35 UTC