Bill Gates on nuclear energy, ‘investing billions’, high project costs, associated risks & more
bringing down costs, Gates said they've "gone back to the basics", stating: "We've been willing to go back to the basics and do what people have always said should be done, which is to cool the plant with metal instead of water. And that means that this problem of high pressure and extra heat when you shut down is completely solved. And so the complexity, that's meant that nuclear has gotten more complex and more expensive.
As it's gone from first to third generation, we change that utterly."On fuel for the plant possibly coming from Russia, Gates said they delayed the plant for this reason, as the original plan changed. "We've had to change the original plan, which would have gotten done in 2028, (but) was dependent on fuel fabrication in Russia. That's, of course, unacceptable now.
And so all the fuel for these plants will come either from the United States or friendly countries," he added.On the politics and optics of nuclear power, post-Fukushima and amid Germany decommissioning similar plants, Gates sought to reassure. "The inherent safety features in here are pretty amazing. You know, nuclear (power) actually has a pretty good track record despite the problems.""This isn't a different regime, it doesn't require operators to do the right things.
It just inherently, the heat fully gets absorbed with no release. So, you know, there are a lot of countries like France, the UK, Japan, and South Korea who are very accepting of nuclear; in fact, they know they need nuclear, but Japan's not as lucky as the US in terms of land for solar or wind. And so to go green, you know, it's got to be an even higher percentage nuclear in that case.
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