Bill Gates-backed nuclear contender Terra Power aims to build dozens of UK reactors::A Bill Gates-backed clean energy player is hoping to build dozens of nuclear reactors in the UK and will compete with global rivals.
On the one hand, I think that’s great. We need more nuclear power to mitigate the climate disaster.
On the other hand, I don’t trust anything Bill Gates does after he totally fucked up the U.S. education system.
What’s he done to the education system in the US of A.
You can hardly blame that just on Gates. Every moron in the government has been pushing standardized tests as some way of grading teachers and schools for decades at this point, and this program coincided with Obama’s equally disastrous and very similar federal program. Which was an improvement over Bush’s even more disastrous program.
Especially when you realize Gate’s program was of limited scope while Dubbya/Obama/Trump’s DOE’s fuckups covered the entire country for a far longer period of time.
Thanks Obummer
This is, honestly, a dogshit “article”.
I’m sorry don’t you think Bush, among many others, had something to do with that as well? There are more oligarchs than just Gates. The leaders of Big Tech are so far up their own ass you don’t even realize you’ve followed them in there.
What BG did with the US education system?
We don’t need more nuclear power to mitigate the climate disaster we need to stop endless consumerism and strip of power these who got us here.
Would you prefer using oil or gas instead? If we are going to transition away from fossil fuels, nuclear will have to be a part of our new generation system.
I would prefer using renewable sources and cutting off the useless shit like private jets
The world would be a bit better if everyone flew coach or stayed home, but it would be a lot better if the developing world had access to lighting, air conditioning, washing machines, transportation, fertilizer, and desalinated water without a corresponding increase in carbon emissions.
Renewables (with storage and long-distance transmission) are part of the solution, but we need to invest in all viable forms of carbon-free energy like there’s no tomorrow, because if we don’t, then for a lot of people there won’t be.
The world can’t be better if the plan is to make things worst (planned obsolescence). Feeding these who got us there is not a solution to the problem
I agree that we should build more durable technology and reduce income inequality, but we need to fight the laws of physics first. Debate is a luxury granted by a stable civilization, which largely depends on a stable climate.
We’ll eventually figure out nuclear fusion even in a post apocalyptic nuclear fallout world.
Nuclear power is also a technology for a stable civilization not one ruled by corrupted politicians that play war with each others
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaporizhzhia_Nuclear_Power_Plant
I definitely agree with you on how planned obsolescence and consumerism is a huge issue. But we still need energy from something and this sounds like a great start.
I’m all about the three R’s. Especially prioritizing the order they are in.
REDUCE and REUSE first, recycle only if needed.
And pirate, ARRR!
Good luck. Any plan on how to?
Renewables don’t work.
Renewables power entire countries at this point. What the fuck are you talking about?
That’s a very out of date talking point
We need to do both of those things. Mindless consumerism aside, the best option to solve our base energy needs which are not frivolous (infrastructure, healthcare, education etc etc) is nuclear.
So travelling wave is out and SMRs are in? Right. What both have in common is that they’re just pipe dreams. Nuclear power never was and never will be economically viable. If we could all just accept that we could get on with real solutions.
The energy density of nuclear fuels is unparalleled.
Modern reactor designs are extremely safe and stable, the only downside is the cost.
The cost is so high because they are basically boutique projects. Having a standardized design with mass produced components would go a long way to making nuclear reactors more affordable.
And just why do you think that never happened? The Soviets tried that. And how did that go? The Japanese tried to use American designs without adapting them to local conditions and that’s how we got Fukushima. A nuclear reactor is simply too complex to be built in an assembly line. And all the promises of “small modular reactors” have been nothing but pipe dreams so far. I’m not saying it’s not doable. I’m saying it won’t happen any time soon. Anyone who touts nuclear power as a solution to climate change is either delusional or not arguing in good faith.
No matter how you think about nuclear power in general, it will not be of any substantial help against climate change.
It’s expensive and takes forever to build. Even the optimistic projections of the vendors are well above what wind and solar deliver right now.
Nuclear power is just a tech bro pipe dream. Nobody needs it. It’s just prestige.
Tell that to France.
Really?
The country that has extremely old reactors, that need to shut down, because the rivers got too hot from the cooling water?
The country that spend billions on building a single new reactor?
Yeah really. 63% of their power is from nuclear.
Sure they cost a lot of money to build but they’re clean and safe.
And expensive in the long run, more expensive than other forms of power. And they take forever to build.
How is that helping again? The reactors going online in 20 years won’t help against climate change.
Lol you better strap on buddy cuz we’re gonna be fighting climate change for a lot longer than 20 years
And the fight has to start for good as soon as possible.
Even ignoring costs, we can’t wait 20, 30 years for all the reactors coming online. Until then it’s too late to mitigate at least the worst effects.
All the renewables are right there. Scalable, cheap, easy to deploy. Why not use them? Why the pipe dreams?
It’s too expensive to fight climat change? Come on.
Solar and wind are way cheaper. Why would any sane person choose the more expensive option?
BTW: you obviously misinterpreted my point. Either intentionally, then you are dishonest, or you are so preoccupied with proving your (moot) point, that you read what you hoped to read.
The goal of several of these new companies is to build small modular plants that are cookie cutter instead of individual boutique designs. That should bring cost down substantially.
The Westinghouse AP1000 was a modular design approved in 2004. The US started building one in 2010 and just finished this year (well, it’s not actually finished yet, but the first reactor is now online).
I think China was the only country to build one in less than a decade - and it’s much easier to perform public works when you’re a authoritarian government who doesn’t have to deal with public or environmental concerns.
Well, then show me any viable concept. Just one. Not an “experimental protoype”. An actual concept, that is even roughly comparable in cost to currently deployed systems.
what timeline are we in that bill gates is not the worst guy
Crazy times indeed. He is for sure not the lesser evil of all the billionaires but he has the best PR team of them all.
i’d argue that musk has even better pr team, if your goal is forming a cult that is
Lets hope they don’t run windows.
Rolls Royce SMRs are more likely to get govt support in the UK
Idk about you but in a world where collapse is a distinct possibility, I’d rather not have a bunch of nuclear facilities just hanging around.
You should inform yourself better. Nuclear power plants are not like on the Simpsons.
I know nuclear power plants need vast amounts of water pumped around them to keep them cool. If the worst of the climate models come true (which is likely as it stands) and we have mass civil unrest, there’s no guarantee water and power will flow to them.
It’s an unnecessary risk, we have other options.
You think the seas are just going to dry up? You’re more dense than the uranium powering these plants.
Lol “water exists so how can a nuclear power plant possibly not get it”. Who’s the dense one here.
Keep being a science illiterate retard lmao
🏆
As much as I dislike Bill Gates, I hope that this project finds success. With that said however, they’re going against Rolls Royce, GE, and Hitachi, which are probably more trustworthy for the government than a relatively new startup
Rolls Royce, GE, and Hitachi are more likely to succeed, but they’re doing little to innovate beyond light water reactors. Even among LWRs, NuScale has a more interesting design because it contains enough water to shut down without human intervention.
It’s good that some startups are trying to improve long-tail safety, because the probability of failure increases with the number of reactors in the world.
I’d cheer if it was Thorium. Uranium is only going to get more expensive. And I worry Bill is only after the tech that goes into UK submarines powered by these small RR reactors.
Thorium is nowhere even close to being a viable technology. Even at the most optimistic estimates (that are somewhat based in reality) it’ll be multiple decades until this stuff can make an impact. We don’t have that kind of time.
I accept that. But if were Thorium I’d be jumping up and down with pompoms.
Is it a clean energy player or do thed build nuclear power plants? Both is not possible at the same time, since nuclear power plants need mines and produce toxic waste.
All sources of power require some amount of mined materials, even if its just in construction. Nuclear waste is much less problematic than CO2 emissions, and nuclear power has the advantage of providing a consistent base load.
Embrace, extend, and extinguish. Don’t trust anything this guy does, nuclear power is a gateway to power and building a monopoly on energy
Lol what
EEE what this guy company motto for a while
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace%2C_extend%2C_and_extinguish
EEE is not applicable here as adding additional source of energy to the market is always a good thing. If he takes a monopoly on it you can still use solar, wind, fosils
It absolutely is exactly how it works, they get the UK to focus all their efforts on nuclear which means money doesn’t get spent on building renewable focused infrastructure so it’s harder to add renewables and it doesn’t matter anyway because the money is already tied up in nuclear projects that haven’t even been finished being built by the time they’re obsolete…
Really it’s more like vendor lockin that gates also was a big pioneer of, manipulating government into reliance on their software and making it increasing hard to switch as prices get ramped up.
Trusting a man who made his obscene amounts of money creating monopolies with highly corrupt and immoral business practices is dumb, that’s who he is and how he thinks - he’s not suddenly turned into a saint that’s going to be your best friend, he’s manipulating you by telling you what you want to hear so he can screw you over again.
