Thursday, January 4, 2018

Nuclear power for Puerto Rico

I've been a fan of nuclear power since childhood and especially since attending the Navy's nuclear power school in 1968. Safe, clean, and for those worried about CO2 emissions, there aren't any. No real Jones Act issue with bringing fuel, be it oil, gas or coal, from the US. Pretty robust when it comes to hurricanes. Most importantly, reliable baseload power. What's not to like?

There seems to be some interesting work being done with small, modular, reactors. Of course, there seems to have been some interesting work being done with small, modular, reactors for as long as I can remember. They always seem just over the horizon.

In the private sector, anyway.

The Navy has more experience than anyone with designing, building and operating nuke plants. Generally in fairly stressful environments. They've been building modular systems since the 50's. They are smaller than utility scale but I do not see why the concept could not be scaled up as an alternative to more or less custom designs for every utility plant.

As far as safety goes, nuclear has a pretty stellar track record.

YIMBY - I live about a mile from the Old Roosevelt Roads Naval Station. That would be my first choice for a location for a 2-400MW plant to supply power to the north and east coasts of PR.

Puerto Rico needs all options in our energy mix, including nuclear.

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