Contrary to breathless assertions by the ABC, the recent federal election was hardly a ‘referendum on nuclear’. Indeed, what should have been part of a well-sold suite of policy alternatives to Labor’s demented ‘renewables’ agenda was lost in the fog of an astonishingly bad campaign, along with anything else that might have actually won the coalition the election. Worse, it was obscured by a farrago of outright lies from the PM – lies so outrageous that even an ABC debate moderator called him out on it.
Anthony Albanese’s big lies about nuclear are twofold: that it’s too expensive and will take too long to build. The first is a grotesque lie: Albanese quoted figures at least double what a realistic cost would be. As for the timeframe – the longer Australia walks away from what every other industrialised country has realised will be a necessity as wind and solar increasingly destabilise grids, the worse we’ll be off.
Meanwhile, the smart countries are marching ahead with next-generation nuclear, which will be cheaper, safer and more easily built than anything in the last 80 years. Labor Luddites sneer at the prospect of small modular reactors – even as Americans make them look like the clueless fools they are.
A small West Texas town on the east edge of the Permian Basin, Abilene, Texas, has become the epicenter of a groundbreaking development in the United States’ energy landscape by building the nation’s first small modular reactor (SMR). The project, spearheaded by a collaboration between Abilene Christian University and local stakeholder Natura Resources, marks a pivotal moment in the transition to advanced nuclear energy deployment in the US.
With permits issued late last year, construction on the world-leading project is about to begin.
“This is the first research reactor project we’ve approved for construction in decades, and the staff successfully worked with ACU to resolve several technical issues with this novel design,” said Andrea Veil, director of the [Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)]’s Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation. “Going forward, we’ll have inspectors on the ACU campus when construction gets started.”
What exactly is an SMR, and how is it different from conventional nuclear plants?
SMRs represent a transformative shift in nuclear power technology. Unlike traditional large-scale nuclear reactors, SMRs are compact, factory-built systems designed to produce between 50 and 300 megawatts of electricity – enough to power tens of thousands of homes. Their modular design allows for faster construction, lower upfront costs, and enhanced safety features, making them an attractive option for regions or industrial applications seeking reliable, clean power.
The Abilene SMR, based on NuScale Power’s VOYGR™ design, will consist of multiple 77-megawatt modules, with the initial phase aiming to deliver a total capacity of 462 megawatts.
In other words, as much power as the largest solar or wind projects – with crucial advantages. Firstly, it’s much, much smaller. With a total site size of 80 hectares, compared to 2,000 hectares for a solar farm of the same capacity.
Most importantly, though, it will produce electricity all the time. When the sun doesn’t show, solar plants stop. An SMR never sleeps, producing reliable, grid-saving electricity, day, night, rain, hail or shine.
Nuclear energy already has a safer track record than any other means of generating power (yes, even including the two big, scary, accidents, at Chernobyl and Fukushima, which killed far fewer people than you’d believe). SMRs will improve on even that impressive safety record.
Approved by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in 2020, the VOYGR™ system incorporates passive safety features that eliminate the need for active cooling systems and reduce the risk of accidents. In the unlikely event of a malfunction, the reactor can safely shut down and cool itself without external power or human intervention—a significant advancement over traditional reactors.
Both the Fukushima and Chernobyl accidents originated in extraordinary circumstances where the cooling systems failed or were astonishingly shut off. Those simply can’t happen with the new SMR designs.
After years of hype about SMRs reviving nuclear power in the US, it is encouraging to see a project finally being built. NuScale miraculously stayed alive during the ridiculously long process of getting the first SMR projects approved by the NRC. Hopefully, more SMR and other nuclear power projects will be approved under the Trump Administration.
And Australia will look more and more ridiculous as we fall further and further behind. Serves us right, almost.
