Senate re-introduces bill to help advanced nuclear technology

[Eugene]

Source: Ars Technica

Senate re-introduces bill to help advanced nuclear technology

Legislation was praised by Bill Gates, who has funded an advanced nuclear company.

MEGAN GEUSS - 3/31/2019, 10:00 AM

Last week, a bipartisan group of 15 US senators re-introduced a bill to instate the Nuclear Energy Leadership Act (NELA), which would offer incentives and set federal goals for advanced nuclear energy. A smaller group of senators originally introduced the bill in September of last year, but the Congressional session ended before the Senate voted on it.

Specifically, the bill authorizes the federal government to enter into 40-year power purchase agreements (PPAs) with nuclear power companies, as opposed to the 10-year agreements that were previously authorized. Securing a 40-year PPA would essentially guarantee to an advanced nuclear startup that it could sell its power for 40 years, which reduces the uncertainty that might come with building a complex and complicated power source.
Advanced nuclear reactors are next-generation technology that improve upon the large light-water reactors that are in use today. Traditional light-water reactor nuclear power has struggled in the United States, because reactors cost billions of dollars to build and communities are reluctant to accept new nuclear builds due to fears about reactor meltdowns and terrorist attacks. In addition to all this, nuclear waste is an unsolved problem in the US—there is currently no official disposal site for commercial nuclear waste, and while a solution to that problem is technically feasible, it has also been politically intractable.

But there is still political support for nuclear energy, because it's reliable, long-lived, and can produce massive amounts of power with no direct carbon emissions.

Advanced nuclear reactors try to address some of the problems posed by traditional nuclear reactors by making the reactors smaller and modular (thus making them less costly to build and, theoretically, safer in a shutdown scenario) or by constructing reactors that can operate on safer and less dangerous fuel.

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Read more: https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/03/senate-re-introduces-bill-to-help-advanced-nuclear-technology/

[Eko]

1. Sounds good!!

Of course I'm against it though since I support green energy or something like that.

I believe we need everything we can get for humanity to survive and its not going to be just one thing.
Eko.