h/t Instapundit
AmericaÂ’s nuclear industry isnÂ’t healthy. Thanks to the rise of cheap shale energy, four nuclear plants have closed so far this year. Older reactors canÂ’t compete with todayÂ’s energy market conditions, but a new generation of nuclear technology promises to breathe new life into the industry. NuScale Power has plans to shrink containment vessels down to just two-fifths the height and an eighth of the diameter of industry standards. ItÂ’s a move that reflects a potential sea change in nuclear power: smaller, cheaper, less powerful reactors that would compose a more distributed (and therefore more robust) energy network. And, as the New York Times reports, these new reactors would be safer: |