Small modular reactors: Still too expensive, too slow, and too risky [pdf]

Re:Small modular reactors: Still too expensive, too slow, an... by matthewdgreen on Friday May 31, 2024 @08:37PM (#40541759)

There is a certain price for renewables and storage where, yes, gas infrastructure will absolutely be dead. I don’t know what that price is: but it exists. And it won’t be the first time entire generations of capital investment have been torn up and thrown in the trash. Go out and take a look at what remains of the industrial Midwest.

But 20 years, where gas gradually becomes a backup seasonal fuel source and is increasingly displaced by renewables and storage? That is absolutely consistent with a net-zero-by-2050 world. And probably a shorter timeline than the one that gives us ubiquitous SMRs, unfortunately.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Small modular reactors: Still too expensive, too slow, an... by JumpCrisscross on Saturday June 01, 2024 @02:52PM (#40548153)

> is a certain price for renewables and storage where, yes, gas infrastructure will absolutely be dead

My point is the infrastructure is endogenous. Trillions in gas infrastructure investment creates real pushback against the price being allowed to get that low.

For Exhibit A as to how this will progress, see PG&E in California.

[ Parent | on HN ]