Can anyone familiar with energy technology explain what happened with nuclear energy? Why has it never taken off like it was predicted to in the 1950s?
The short version is that fears of nuclear disaster post-3 Mile Island caused safety standards to be raised high enough to render U.S. nuclear power uneconomic. R&D, which could have reduced capital intensity, was slashed. Cheap Natgas. I could go on and on.
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Thanks. Are there any next generation nuclear technologies on the horizon? I know that Germany is phasing out its plants as well.
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Yes, but they've all been on the horizons for decades, look up pebble bed reactors, gas-cooled fast-neutron reactors, and other Gen 4 designs. Very revolutionary.
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