THE U.S. AND 80 OTHER COUNTRIES agreed in November at the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland, to convert most of the world to green energy in a few decades. It’s a necessary step to curb greenhouse gases that cause climate change, but it comes with a daunting challenge: how to simultaneously meet a worldwide demand for energy that is expected to rise as fast as the temperatures.
A new generation of nuclear reactors is emerging as a potential solution. These are not the troubled giant reactors of old, with their big cooling towers and mazes of cooling pipes that guard against the possibility of a China-syndrome meltdown. The new reactors are designed to be simpler, safer, cheaper and much, much smaller.
A kid near the site of the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant shortly after the accident in 1979.
One tiny reactor the size of a school bus could supply power to a nearby town or factory. Or many of them could be strung together to equal the output of a giant nuclear plant. Not only are they expected to be safer and to produce electricity more cheaply than conventional nuclear plants, they also do so without releasing so much as a puff of greenhouse gas.
This story is from the January 21, 2022 edition of Newsweek.
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This story is from the January 21, 2022 edition of Newsweek.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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