Nuclear power update for USA – a personal communication Richard McPherson August 3, 2020
Forget fusion. It requires advances in material science we are not making because we do not have the funds. We must focus on what we can do. Everything else in nuclear is taking away from our ability to make the advances necessary to compete with the world. The highest return for the invested taxpayer and equity holder dollar right now is to create EMP protected electricity from the Molten Salt Nuclear Battery (MSNB) to critical circuits on our federal facilities that support the national security of the United States. The definition of MSNB will be made known in the next few months. Beyond that first level of defense are government facilities including first responders at the state, county, and city level. That could take 10-years. If I had my way it would be done in 5-years for federal facilities along with those states, counties and cities that want to participate in security for their citizens. Then the much larger non-government mostly critical infrastructure like mining, manufacturing, transportation, communications, computer centers, oil and gas refining, agriculture, water, and sewage, etc. We should continue to push the NuScale SMR design and try and speed up its deployment. 2026 is too late to have an effect on pushing back our adversaries. In the U.K., the new head of the Rolls Royce SMR program just changed its date for having its first SMR from 2029-2030 to 2025. I no longer trust Rolls Royce because of agreements with adversaries. I know without a doubt the American nuclear industry has the best quality available. That equates to safety and long-term operations. Our edge is being eroded by the lack of manufacturing and building new nuclear plants. That was the intention of an adversary right after President Eisenhower gave his “Atoms for Peace” speech at the United Nations in December 1953. Our adversaries have been successful. For America and the Free World to survive we must have a vibrant nuclear industry.
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