Turns out Manitoba is getting back is the nuclear game with a new reactor at the Pinawa site. I like it!
In the March 1, 2023 issue of the Winnipeg Free Press there is an article titled No such thing as ‘absolutely safe’ nuclear reactor by Dave Taylor. Dave is clearly not a fan of nuclear.
I’ve had a renewed interest in nuclear reactors since I listened to the Joe Lonsdale: American Optimist podcast Episode The New Age of Nuclear: Oklo’s Amazing Small Reactor That Reuses Nuclear Waste
If you are of a certain age you’ll remember the “Not you fathers Oldsmobile” advertising, well the the nuclear reactor proposed for Pinawa, a Small Modular reactor (SMR), is “Not your father’s nuclear reactor”.
It appears that Manitoba is going with StarCore Nuclear for the Pinawa Demonstration site. I found the StarCore web site very marketing heavy, a bit like a bad sales job. Personally, I think the technology from Oklo is far better and I especially like their plans to reuse existing nuclear waste. Their web site is extremely minimalist and you have to do a bit of digging to find out more about them.
The Oklo Aurora SMR is a very exciting development! I’d put this in my neighbourhood.
Unfortunately, nuclear has a lots of stigma attached to it thanks to Three Mile Island, Fukushima & Chernobyl. Of course, nothing is absolutely safe. Cars are not safe, lots of people die every year in car fatalities and yet we still drive. Fatalities related to nuclear incidents are infinitesimal when compared to car deaths, but we’re in-sensitized to car deaths and just accept the risks. Nuclear accidents are sensationalized to the max. Movies are made about the accidents and fear is pushed (sold?) to the general public.
Oklo is facing that fear and over regulation with the NRC rejecting their application to build and operate a 1.5-megawatt fast reactor in Idaho. Thankfully, they are not deterred and have re-applied. Oklo Relaunches NRC Licensing Process for Nuclear Microreactor
We, the planet, needs to reduce the use and reliance on fossil fuels. The urgency of how fast this needs to happen, if at all, is quite controversial. However, to me it seems that solar and wind, while getting al the attention, won’t do the job soon enough. Bringing solar & wind technologies to the scale to impact the use of fossil fuels is much farther away than the use of nuclear. Countries around the world, like Germany, that were shutting down their nuclear efforts are quietly extending they nuclear programs in country to get their quicker and reduce their dependency on fossil fuels from other countries, like Russia, that are becoming increasingly expensive and unreliable. France on the other hand never backed away from nuclear and gets 70% of it’s energy from nuclear and is building 6 new reactors and considering 8 more.
Until solar, wind and fusion can do the job at scale, nuclear energy is the way to go if we want to meet all these aggressive climate change goals by reducing or eliminating fossil fuel usage