Robert Rosner and Stephen Goldberg have written extensively on the subject of nuclear energy in the United States and around the world. With the extraordinary events unfolding at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plants, events that are being assessed by the technical and regulatory experts both in the U.S. and across the world, it is increasingly clear that the analysis and conclusions in our research may require updates based on the lessons-learned from these events. In late 2009, Professor Lester of MIT and one of us reported that many countries around the world are taking a fresh look at nuclear power, in what has come to be called the global nuclear renaissance. As important causes of the renaissance, we concluded that 1. small modular light-water reactor - SMR - designs offer major opportunities for scale-up and, therefore, could move us faster to clean energy supplies, but 2. because of the high capital intensity of nuclear energy projects, the cost of nuclear electricity is particularly sensitive to the availability of financing at competitive rates. The investment community would need to price nuclear investments in the range of conventional energy investments. In the report, Nuclear Reactors - Generation to Generation, the authors described the evolution of nuclear reactor designs from Generation I technology to Generation IV designs and concluded that the determining factor in establishing the future nuclear marketplace will likely be based on who wants to invest and where. We discussed the extraordinary nuclear activity in China and, given the degree that manufacturing and design work has gone offshore for the current generation of reactors, and the opportunities the U.S. holds to be the leader in the design and deployment of small modular light-water reactors. And we concluded that SMRs are also the logical choice for smaller countries or countries with limited electrical grid capacity as well in the U.S., Canada, Japan, Australia, etc.
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Managed & Built by I2M Consulting, LLC | © 2010-
Managed & Built by I2M Consulting, LLC | © 2010-