Beyond Nuclear International Weekly Digest

Posted: 22nd January 2024

The US frontrunner small modular reactor project at NuScale collapsed last November. There is a lesson here for Canada and other countries eager to pursue SMRs, argue Susan O’Donnell and M.V. Ramana, but will they listen? There is talk of a new Cold War between US and China. This dangerous rhetoric needs to stop before it becomes a “hot” war instead, warns Tom Engelhardt.

The sinking SMR ship

Investing huge amounts of taxpayer money in uncompetitive technologies like new nuclear plants wastes precious time we can’t afford to squander in the face of a rapidly escalating climate crisis. Canada should take heed of this, especially as its SMR designs that are furthest along are still only on paper. Adverse economics killed the US SMR. The same will happen elsewhere. READ MORE

US-China and a new “hot” war?

Two of the world’s biggest carbon emitters - the US and China - are now facing off against each other. There is talk of a new Cold War, and yet we are already in a hot one—the battle against the climate crisis. The last thing we need is more carbon emissions, but war is one of the worst contributors. And if nuclear weapons were actually used, a “hot” war could deliver nuclear winter. READ MORE

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