Stichting Laka

Publicatie Laka-bibliotheek:
Small modular reactors for nuclear power: hope or mirage? (2018)

Auteur	M.V. Ramana
	6-01-3-60-19.pdf
Datum	februari 2018
Classificatie	6.01.3.60/19 (VEILIGHEID - REACTOREN - REST TYPES, KLEINE REACTOREN (SMR))
Voorkant

Small modular reactors for nuclearpower: hope or mirage?
February 21, 2018 by M.V. Ramana

Supporters of nuclear power hope that small nuclear reactors, unlikelarge plants, 
will be able to compete economically with other sourcesof electricity. But 
according to M.V. Ramana, a Professor at the University of British Columbia, 
this is likely to be a vain hope. In fact,according to Ramana, in the absence of a 
mass market, they may beeven more expensive than large plants.

In October 2017, just after Puerto Rico was battered by HurricaneMaria, US 
Secretary of Energy Rick Perry asked the audience at aconference on clean 
energy in Washington, D.C.: “Wouldn’t it make abundant good sense if we 
had small modular reactors that literally you could put in the back of a C-17, 
transport toan area like Puerto Rico, push it out the back end, crank it up and
plug it in? … It could servehundreds of thousands”.

As exemplified by Secretary Perry’s remarks, small modular reactors (SMRs) 
have beensuggested as a way to supply electricity for communities that inhabit 
islands or in otherremote locations.

In the past decade, wind and solar energy have become significantly 
Cheaper than nuclear power

More generally, many nuclear advocates have suggested that SMRs can deal with 
all theproblems confronting nuclear power, including unfavorable economics, risk 
of severeaccidents, disposing of radioactive waste and the linkage with weapons 
proliferation. Ofthese, the key problem responsible for the present status of 
nuclear energy has been itsinability to compete economically with other sources of 
electricity. As a result, the share ofglobal electricity generated by nuclear power 
has dropped from 17.5% in 1996 to 10.5% in2016 and is expected to continue 
falling.