Could tiny nuclear reactors power Alaska villages?

[TexasTowelie]

President Trump’s nominee to be the next secretary of energy says he would continue the quest to develop mini nuclear reactors that could one day power communities in rural Alaska.

“We want to get to a place where we can develop small micro-reactors, one to five megawatts,” Dan Brouillette said Thursday at his confirmation hearing in the U.S. Senate Energy Committee.

The idea of nuclear reactors frightens many, but among their advantages is that they don’t produce greenhouse gas emissions the way coal plants and diesel generators do. Energy Committee Chair Sen. Lisa Murkowski says modular reactors may be a solution for remote Alaska communities that now depend on diesel.

Brouillette is now the deputy secretary. He told Murkowski there’s reason to be optimistic about the development of reactors that are a fraction of the size of those in use today.

Read more: https://www.alaskapublic.org/2019/11/14/energy-secretary-nominee-says-tiny-nuclear-reactors-could-power-alaska-villages/

[Newest Reality]

1. I would be willing

to entertain new ways of using nuclear energy a that scale, (it is an interesting topic) but NOT under any circumstances if a Trump appointment were to oversee it or have anything at all to do with it. No way. That's courting another disaster, no matter what the subject.

In fact, it gives reason to entertain a negative bias from the start and immediately question his optimism. When we have a sane Administration, then, let's talk because the track record so far has been disastrous.

[CloudWatcher]

2. The problem is the waste.

Until there is a long-term solution for disposing of the radioactive waste, you don't even have a way to calculate the real cost of this.

[braddy]

3. Cheap energy means locally grown vegetables and fruits.

[CentralMass]

4. Small nukes in remote areas on a region seperated from Russia by a 50 mile section

of the Bering Strait's. What could go wrong.

[demigoddess]

5. I'd rather try wind or solar.

no nuclear waste to poison everything in sight.