Nuclear power status worldwide including SMRs - JS RMcP GR

WORLD NUCLEAR POWER WHERE THE UNITED STATES STANDS WHERE SMALL MODULAR AND MICRO REACTORS FIT IN John Shanahan john.shanahan@ allaboutenergy.net January,10, 2024

Richard McPherson rmcphe8888@aol.com

Glenn Rhoades glennrhoades@gmail.com

TO UNDERSTAND THE POTENTIAL OF SMALL MODULAR REACTORS, IT IS NECESSARY TO: •

Know nuclear power programs worldwide.

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Understand fissile and fertile fuel sources.

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Understand Lightwater and Fast Neutron Nuclear Power Technologies, fossil fuels and their by-products.

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Clear the road blocks against nuclear power put in place since the 1960s.

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NUCLEAR POWER PROGRAMS WORLDWIDE 1/2

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China has the largest program for new conventional nuclear power plants and for developing advanced technologies.

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Russia has good conventional and advanced nuclear reactor programs

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Canada has excellent nuclear power plants with unique CANDU technology.

• Japan and South Korea are major nuclear power players and can do more.

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NUCLEAR POWER PROGRAMS WORLDWIDE 1/2

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South Africa, Jordan, Eastern Europe and certain other countries want nuclear power but are dependent on help from the major players..

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Western Europe, with the exceptions of France, Sweden and Finland, is exiting nuclear power. UNBELIEVABLE. It could be much better.

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The United States had a lot of expertise in commercial nuclear power and advanced nuclear power technologies. America is very restricted by politics, arbitrary radiation guidelines, restrictive environmental and fuel reprocessing policies and a government that has squandered trillions of dollars.

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URANIUM AND THORIUM FERTILE NUCLEAR FUEL SOURCES 1/3 •

Uranium - The ore has about 0.7% fissile U235 and 99.3% fertile U238. Fissile means the impact of a neutron can split it and give off tremendous energy. Fertile means that it can absorb a neutron and become fissile Pu239. Uranium compounds are water soluble. Some have washed from the mountains to the oceans. Enough uranium compounds can be retrieved to meet the world’s electrical energy needs forever.

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URANIUM AND THORIUM FERTILE NUCLEAR FUEL SOURCES 2/3 •

Thorium - The ore has fertile Th232 isotopes. It needs a neutron source to convert to fissile U233. There is a lot more thorium than uranium.

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Together, uranium and thorium are the main fission energy sources for the world forever. There is more than we need for as long as we inhabit the Earth.

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URANIUM AND THORIUM FERTILE NUCLEAR FUEL SOURCES 3/3 •

Fission nuclear energy can be used for generating electricity, heat for manufacturing, producing synthetic liquid fuels,and desalination of ocean water. In general for maintaining the modern world indefinitely.

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Research for fusion for commercial uses began in the 1950s. A lot of money has been invested. Its arrival has always been 30 or so years away, so far!

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FOSSIL FUELS, SYNTHETIC FUELS AND CARBON DIOXIDE 1/3 •

Coal, oil, and natural gas are wonderful sources of energy and provide by-products that created the modern world. Not even nuclear power can do all the things as well as fossil fuels.

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They should be used wisely, like the treasure that they are - BLACK GOLD. They shouldn’t be squandered on things that can be done more efficiently other ways. They shouldn’t be used when nuclear power can do the job.

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FOSSIL FUELS, SYNTHETIC FUELS AND CARBON DIOXIDE 2/3 •

The world will always need hydrocarbons for liquid fuels and thousands of by-products.

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Today they come from coal, oil and natural gas.

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When they are depleted, nuclear power will have to produce synthetic hydrocarbons at a much high price than simply taking them out of the ground.

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The idea of abandoning fossil fuels and synthetic hydrocarbon fuels is a direct challenge to the existence of humanity.

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FOSSIL FUELS, SYNTHETIC FUELS AND CARBON DIOXIDE 3/3 •

Atmospheric carbon dioxide from the use of fossil fuels and synthetic hydrocarbon liquid fuels is plant food, essential for life.

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Additional CO2 should be welcome back in the atmosphere, not demonized like leaders in Australia, Europe, North America, the Vatican, the United Nations and the World Economic Forum do.

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Anti-fossil fuels, anti-nuclear power, and man-made global warming alarmists are problems like Electromagnetic Pulse, EMP, nuclear attacks.

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LIGHTWATER NUCLEAR POWER TECHNOLOGY •

Lightwater is water that contains the most common and lightest isotope of hydrogen. Lightwater nuclear power uses ordinary water to cool the nuclear core and moderate (slow down) neutrons generated by nuclear fission.

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Lightwater nuclear power plants use slightly enriched uranium. The U235 isotope has been enriched from ~ 0.7% to 3% to 5%. This requires costly and limited access enrichment technology.

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Lightwater nuclear power plants use only about 1% of the potential nuclear energy in the uranium ore. The rest is either foolishly put back in the ground and labeled “hazardous” waste or recovered through reprocessing.

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FAST NEUTRON NUCLEAR POWER TECHNOLOGY •

Fast Neutron Nuclear Power Technology uses fast neutrons from fission that are not slowed down by a water moderator. They can split fissile isotopes and breed fissile isotopes from fertile isotopes, thus breeding nuclear fuel.

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Fast Neutron Reactors will be the main nuclear technology for the world for thousands of years. They are the only technologies that can use all the energy in uranium and thorium. This is truly the best thing humanity has for modern civilization for as long as we are on Earth.

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The alternative is to return to life like the last 6,000 years with slavery, manual labor, misery, and practically no health care for most.

Certainly no retirement!

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SMALL MODULAR REACTORS 1/2 •

Small Modular Reactors, SMR, are an important part of nuclear power programs.

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There are many SMR technologies. Some are very advanced in development and licensing. They could be ready for large scale implementation in 3 to 10 years.

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Others need more testing and field experience before large scale implementation. They could be ready in 15 to 30 years.

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SMALL MODULAR REACTORS 2/2 •

This report shows how SMRs fit in with a whole nuclear power program

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It shows what must be changed before any large scale program can get going again in the USA.

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Small modular reactors can be either Lightwater Reactors or Fast Reactors.

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USES OF SMALL MODULAR AND MICRO REACTORS 1/2 •

Electricity and heat for remote mining, oil/gas extraction, and manufacturing operations and related towns.

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Floating, relocatable power plants for coastal areas affected by earthquake and tsunami disasters.

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Fixed or floating, relocatable power plants for desalination.

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Power for cargo, oil and cruise ships. Far better than bunker oil.

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USES OF SMALL MODULAR AND MICRO REACTORS 2/2 •

Power for rural and farm communities.

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Power for towns.

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Power for hospitals, government facilities, data centers, metropolitain transportation systems and military bases.

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Power for overseas military facilities.

Power for airports.

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Power for Navy ships and submarines.

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Power for space exploration.

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THE CHALLENGE - CLEAR THE ROAD BLOCKS 1/2 •

Get elected officials and government departments behind advanced nuclear power, not just display window research programs.

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Get used fuel reprocessing approved and operating.

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Get common sense storage for real nuclear waste. See the French and Japanese programs.

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Get realistic guidelines for radiation safety, not the arbitrary and unrealistic Linear No-Threshold Guideline with Collective Dose Corollary.

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THE CHALLENGE - CLEAR THE ROAD BLOCKS 2/2 •

Get realistic regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency

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Get realistic emergency preparedness guidelines.

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Insist on as fast as possible licensing and limit intervenor delays.

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Electricity from fossil fuels, nuclear power and hydro is the keystone for the modern world. Protect most electric generating plants better than we have in the past.

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Problems created by anti-modern world activists must be fixed before large-scale nuclear power programs will come back in the United States.

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CONCLUSIONS 1/2 •

Human history can be divided into: a) 20,000 plus years pre-fossil fuels, b) two hundred years so far of fossil fuels and by-products and x hundred more years of fossil fuels, and c) nuclear power, synthetic liquid fuels and by-products for hundreds of thousands of years in the future.

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A lot of history involved wars, plagues, Dark Ages, and treachery.

Electricity is the controlling energy source for long term peace and prosperity. It must be protected more than it is now.

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CONCLUSIONS 2/2 •

Anti-modern world, anti-human organizations and individuals have worked for decades to prevent the continued existence of the modern world. This must stop.

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There is going to be a tremendous struggle to determine the future of humanity.

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We have to decide – fossil fuels, their by-products, nuclear power, nuclear medicine and nuclear science OR windmills and solar panels.

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President Teddy Roosevelt and John Muir in Yosemite National Park 21

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