{"id":27916,"date":"2015-01-19T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-01-19T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ashleydev.com\/2015\/01\/19\/technologies-take-a-while-to-turn-the-world-around\/"},"modified":"2020-08-27T11:41:10","modified_gmt":"2020-08-27T15:41:10","slug":"technologies-take-a-while-to-turn-the-world-around","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cna.ca\/fr\/2015\/01\/19\/technologies-take-a-while-to-turn-the-world-around\/","title":{"rendered":"Technologies Take a While to Turn the World Around"},"content":{"rendered":"

By John Stewart<\/b>
\nDirector, Policy and Research<\/em>
\nCanadian Nuclear Association<\/em><\/p>\n

Asked in the 1970s about the influence of the French Revolution on western civilization, Chou En Lai is said to have paused and replied: It\u2019s too soon to tell.<\/p>\n

You might say the same thing about nuclear technology\u2019s impact on the world.\u00a0 Sure, we\u2019ve had it for about 70\u00a0years. But is that long enough for a fair test?<\/p>\n

\"Newcomen\"

The Newcommen steam pump, circa 1710.<\/p><\/div>\n

Practical steam engines were in use for a century before they really changed most people\u2019s worlds.<\/p>\n

Steam engines were first commercialized around the year 1700 to pump water out of mineshafts (which they did better than humans), and shortly thereafter to drive textile mills (which they did better than waterwheels).<\/p>\n

They weren\u2019t successfully applied to transportation (steamboats and locomotives) until just after 1800. Before they could operate on these mobile platforms, steam engines had to get smaller, lighter, safer, more applicable, and far more efficient.<\/p>\n

When they did this, steam engines dramatically reduced transport costs. That made the world a very different place in the nineteenth century \u2013 and in many ways, and for many people, a much better one.<\/p>\n

\"Coalbrookdale\"

The Trevithick locomotive, circa 1803.<\/p><\/div>\n

A recent announcement by Mississauga-based Terrestrial Energy Inc. (TEI) reminds us again that we\u2019ve probably not even glimpsed where revolutionary reactor designs might take society in a carbon-constrained world.<\/p>\n

Remember, we\u2019ve come less than six decades from the opening of the first utility-scale nuclear generating station \u2013 which operated successfully in Pennsylvania from 1957 until 1982.<\/p>\n

Reactor technology has spent those decades generating cleaner and cheaper electricity than nearly any other source, and probably doing it more safely than any other source. But that\u2019s not the end of the story.<\/p>\n

Because reactor technology has also spent those decades getting better and better.<\/p>\n

A number of CNA member companies have designs that reflect this progress, and that could change our children\u2019s and grandchildren\u2019s world in very positive ways. Terrestrial\u2019s is just one example of this.<\/p>\n

\"Shippingport

The Shippingport atomic power station.<\/p><\/div>\n

On January 7, Terrestrial Energy announced a collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy\u2019s Oak Ridge National Laboratory to advance the design of its concept for an integral molten salt reactor<\/a> (IMSR).\u00a0Oak Ridge is where early molten salt reactors were proven, decades ago.<\/p>\n

\"Terrestrial\"

Terrestrial Energy\u2019s IMSR80.<\/p><\/div>\n

More recent Molten Salt Reactor technology could represent a revolution in nuclear safety, waste and proliferation resistance, and in energy cost-competitiveness. Terrestrial\u2019s is a small modular design, with models ranging from as small as 80 MWth \u2013 about one-tenth of the typical utility-scale reactor installed today.<\/p>\n

The company wants to start commercial deployment of IMSRs by early next decade. Edge-of-grid and off-grid locations in Canada, many of them currently using dirty, expensive diesel generators, could benefit dramatically from these or other advanced and smaller reactor designs.<\/p>\n

Think nuclear had its heyday in the 1960s? Sure. And the piston engine was just a better way to get water out of coal mines.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By John Stewart Director, Policy and Research Canadian Nuclear Association Asked in the 1970s about the influence of the French Revolution on western civilization, Chou En Lai is said to have paused and replied: It\u2019s too soon to tell. You might say the same thing about nuclear technology\u2019s impact on the world.\u00a0 Sure, we\u2019ve had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[537],"tags":[],"topic":[],"class_list":["post-27916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-talknuclear"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nTechnologies Take a While to Turn the World Around - Association nucl\u00e9aire canadienne<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cna.ca\/fr\/2015\/01\/19\/technologies-take-a-while-to-turn-the-world-around\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"fr_FR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Technologies Take a While to Turn the World Around - Association nucl\u00e9aire canadienne\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By John Stewart Director, Policy and Research Canadian Nuclear Association Asked in the 1970s about the influence of the French Revolution on western civilization, Chou En Lai is said to have paused and replied: It\u2019s too soon to tell. 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