While individuals fixate on intermittent and unreliable wind and solar energy, which usually result in the continued reliance on gas and coal, he said, instead “we should be focusing on maximizing clean, low-carbon energy supply and consumption across our economies, including transport and manufacturing.”
Linchpin: O’Hara’s main point is that rational environmentalists have come to realize that the only way to combat climate change is with nuclear as the linchpin in a low-carbon energy mix. “Nuclear is the safest, most reliable, concentrated, efficient, and carbon-free energy source available to us,” he wrote, adding that its benefits go beyond generating clean power. “By deploying nuclear energy as a central part of a strategy to unlock the potential for a new and resilient energy-industrial model, the global economy can transition out of its current fossil fuel dependency and create prosperity in any location.”
Differences: O’Hara contrasted advanced nuclear technologies, such as small modular reactors and microreactors, with traditional large reactors. Microreactors in particular “enable us to move away from a centralized electrical grid model and provide incredible possibilities not simply to decarbonize but to change the shape of industrial production and totally transform currently left behind communities and regions,” he said.
New breed: The article also covered a new breed of microreactor called nuclear batteries as “probably also the best thing you’ve never heard of.”
O’Hara explained that nuclear batteries can have an energy output equivalent to that of a huge solar field or wind farm, but require only a fraction of the land use. The batteries also can incorporate embedded intelligence and advanced remote monitoring systems that enable semi-autonomous, digitally secure operation. Also, they can be deployed for a variety of purposes, such as to efficiently and reliably heat and power a large city area, a development of 7,000–8,000 homes, an airport campus, a shopping mall, or a midsize data center.
Other benefits of nuclear battery microreactors, according to the article, are that they can be shipped to the most remote locations, are fully contained, are independent, and don’t require water for cooling.
O’Hara added that nuclear batteries “could just be the sharpest item in our climate adaptation toolkit.”
What are we waiting for? The article ends with a question: “If we usher in the nuclear renaissance, with advanced microreactor technology at its core, we can create tomorrow’s world, today. So, what are we waiting for?”
