IAEA Pre-COP26 Event Showcases Young Nuclear Experts Driving Innovation for Climate Change

[NNadir]

I'm on the mailing list for the International Atomic Energy Agency and this came through on the newsfeed:

IAEA Pre-COP26 Event Showcases Young Nuclear Experts Driving Innovation for Climate Change

Showcasing the power of youth in forging nuclear energy innovations to mitigate climate change, the IAEA kicked off a series of events on 1 September held in connection with the Pre-COP26 climate meeting to be hosted by Italy later this month, the final ministerial gathering before the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in November.

Young professionals engaged in cutting-edge nuclear power projects supporting net-zero efforts in China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom (UK), United States and United Arab Emirates (UAE) gathered virtually for Youth Engagement on the Road to Decarbonization – the first of three events the Agency is hosting as part of the All4Climate initiative launched by COP26 co-host Italy.

“Whether it’s melting ice caps or historic flooding, signs of the climate crisis are unfolding before our eyes, underscoring the need to address the climate crisis with proven, effective technologies,” said Mikhail Chudakov, IAEA Deputy Director General and Head of the Department of Nuclear Energy. “Nuclear power, in partnership with other low-carbon energy sources, can accelerate the transition to net zero emissions.”

In China, the Guohe One+ project is aimed at demonstrating how one nuclear reactor can not only produce electricity free of greenhouse gas emissions, but at the same time in partnership with other low-carbon sources, how it can also provide a variety of products to help decarbonize other sectors, including heat for homes and water desalination.

“The hybrid use of nuclear power – a combination of nuclear, wind, solar and other renewable sources – will be a key force in meeting the challenges of climate change,” said Xu Yin, Project Management Engineer for the Guohe One+ demonstration project at the Shanghai Nuclear Engineering Research and Design Institute (SNERDI).

Emerging nuclear power technologies such as small modular reactors (SMRs), whether based on land or sea, can help provide the reliable backbone for future clean energy systems that integrate nuclear power with variable renewables, said Arina Samkova, a specialist for Rusatom Overseas. The world’s first advanced SMRs were recently deployed in Russia, aboard the Akademik Lomonosov floating nuclear power plant that provides electricity and heating to the local community...

Personally I disagree with Xu Xin, with all due respect, with his work on hybrid nuclear energy, something I enthusiastically support.

The problem that many people have with nuclear energy is that it makes wind, solar, and other "renewable" energy unnecessary and redundant. The quotation marks are mine. I am a dissident when it comes to the highly popular claim that so called "renewable energy" is sustainable. The material costs, primarily in metals, means that the program means mining the effort to make this junk work will involve tearing the earth to pieces as we, and more dolorous, future generations, work ores of continuously decreasing grades.

So called "renewable energy" didn't work, isn't working, and won't work to address climate change. People however have a hard time giving up their unsupportable faith.

To steal lines from Macbeth, so called renewable energy advocates are all full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. With them it's always, "tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow, and all their yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death."

Every year seven million people die from combustion waste, aka "air pollution," while we all wait for the grand renewable energy nirvana that never comes.

I am very pleased that young nuclear professionals are raising their voices. I have enormous respect for the rising generation, which I expect to be a much greater than generation than mine. They couldn't be worse.