Comment Subsidies? Yes, for Liquid-Fuel NUCLEAR = MSR (Score 1) 574
Yes, I'd reDirect funding from
Safe Small Liquid-Fuel Nuclear Reactors, eg, IMSR, LFTR, SSR, Thorcon, WAMSR's & the like)
In place of Trump's demand that NATO boost their
Renewables don't work; cf: RoadmapToNowhere.com (which rebuts Stanford Prof Mark Z Jacobson's [100% WWS] plan (a job-creation program?
Look, with Liquid-Fuel Nuclear (ie, Molten Salt Reactors = MSR) due~2025, the "Nu Clear" path becomes: "Build long-lasting MSRs, located near places where power is needed or is now used"
MSRs offer Sealed, Factory-made Cores (that later become "secure caskets" for their modest amounts of shorter-lived waste: eg, ~300 years vs Today's nukes' ~300,000 years); they need No Refueling across 7 years of operation.
How much down-time do Today's Fuel-Rod based dinosaurs lose, due to lengthy ReFueling stoppages (every ~18 months...)?
It won't be so different, even "newer" SMR designs, like (over-funded, IMO) NuScale - each of whose modules includes, eg, a 50 MW power-generator, & who's greater quantity of waste needs much longer-term secure storage.
I say to Greens who love Renewables: Do the Math.
Even with "Fukushima-era" (ie, Fuel-Rod based) NPP's, Renewables don't stand a chance of providing all the Energy we need, in the space, time & $$ we have to offer.
It gets even better when Thorium (which becomes U-233) replaces Uranium as MSR Fuel:
As if from an IQ test, ask: Which of these is preferable, eg, based on expected worker-injuries & -deaths?
3,000,000 tonnes toxic Coal;
= 200 tonnes Raw Uranium [in Fuel-Rod NPP];
= just 1 tonne Thorium (in an MSR),
(Source: "Thorium- Energy for the World" (2016, Springer)
It's in the Abstract of the intro by physicist Carlo Rubbia)
(Note: You don't need to buy that co$tly book to get the article; get Rubbia's eye-opening intro. free, eg, in the Amazon's Sample of its Kindle edition.
Concluding:
I Propose: THAT we Postpone all Fusion R+D, & redirect it's funding to MSR R+D Until MSRs are producing all the Energy needed for Fusion R+D
Easy to Predict: If we embrace & propagate MSRs, they will Preclude the need for Fracking (past, present & future), & enable us keep more of Earth natural for future generations, not to mention: greatly reducing the need for (& cost of) secure storage for Nuclear Waste, as well as the period over which it needs to be stored.
And - with the resulting huge reductions in CO2 + other GHG's - we can expect to see a healed Climate sooner, rather than later.
The rest is Commentary... So, go out there & do what you can to Bring MSRs Sooner.
PS 1: For NuScale's down-sides, hear the ~1 hour-long interview of its (CTO?) in Episode 14: "NuScale's New Scale for Nuclear" by Oregon Dept of Energy here: https://energyinfo.oregon.gov/...