Premiers Moe, Ford, Higgs to collaborate on development of nuclear reactors in Canada

[awndray]

Is this not the same or similar tech that Bill Gates has been funding through TerraPower for over a decade? He said the biggest challenge is convincing the masses, especially in light of crazed environmentalists and anti-nuclear fearmongers who spread misinformation based on the old tech in Chernobyl and Fukushima. You can get a glimpse in a Netflix biopic about him.

[Magi]

I think it's about time we take the nuclear option seriously but we must also look into the safe and long term options for the eventual disposal of nuclear waste generated, it adds to the cost of the nuclear option and we must deal with that now and not leave it for future generations of tax payers to deal with, like governments do with the national debt.

I believe one of the Nordic countries did a lot work in this area and actually built an underground disposal facility that is already operational.

[Swingerguy]

I don’t know if this is the same technology, but several years ago I read an article that discussed the use of reactors that use “used” fuel from more traditional reactors. So they use waste as their fuel. Win/win.

[stewbud]

Has anyone run this by Greta?

[lone-wolf]

The bulk of the waste is on the same radioactivity level as medical waste we're already disposing of... and at a fraction of the amount.
The most logical place to store the higher activity waste seems to be in caskets at the nuclear facility itself... hopefully to be used by future reactors.

[labradort]

This is a technology with many variants, so that's why the approach to take one and study the prototype at Chalk River. The Ontario Power Generation video shows something that fits on a flatbed truck, so like kennymo said, it is a modular unit that can be shipped, installed and turned on. The young fellow in the Ted Talk mentioned running for 30 years and being buried underground. Basically a nuclear Duracell. Obviously there has to be a cost saving if it doesn't require a work crew to baby sit it every day like with the big reactors.



I think the TerraPower with Bill Gates has some overlapping concepts, but isn't small and modular. It is a Travelling Wave Reactor (TWR). There is a prototype of the TWR for Terrapower under construction in China, which isn't the way I'd think of doing it, but I guess the regulatory in the US is so tied up they couldn't develop it in the USA.

[lone-wolf]

Video from 2014, currently building their 5th test reactor in 2019.
Still years away from their goal. And that's being nice.
This is the 'seacan sized' fusion reactor. Enough to power 80,000 homes.

[labradort]

Video from 2014, currently building their 5th test reactor in 2019.
Still years away from their goal. And that's being nice.
This is the 'seacan sized' fusion reactor. Enough to power 80,000 homes.

That's fusion. Different claim. This year there was a story the U.S. Navy filed a patent for it. I don't know what to make of that 2014 claim or 2019 patent. My guess is whatever is made for U.S. military purposes, say for aircraft carriers or submarines, will stay secret for many years because they won't want that edge in the hands of anyone else.

In the meantime, the ITER is slowly making a huge fusion prototype in France, taking decades to complete. First prototype making power in 2050's.

[labradort]

The advent of compact fusion power could mean strange new weapons would be possible at sea, coastal defence, or possibly in space, not just a source of locomotion power.

[Zinilin]

The advent of compact fusion power could mean strange new weapons would be possible at sea, coastal defence, or possibly in space, not just a source of locomotion power.

The ability to harness fusion power to generate electricity is only 20 years away, just as it has been for the past 50 years.
I just need more funding....