Tuesday, November 15, 2022. 5:00 PM (BUTO 1112)
M.V Ramana
Simons Chair in Disarmament, Global and Human Security at the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs, UBC
Small Modular Nuclear Reactors: Fantasies for the Interregnum
This talk will begin by describing the global status of nuclear energy, in particular its declining share of global electricity generation, to explain the motivations for what are called Small Modular Reactors (SMRs), a class of nuclear reactor designs. Proponents of these theoretical designs make a number of claims, and the talk will go over some of these, followed by a discussion of the motivation for these claims. This will be followed by an assessment of these claims, as a way of answering the question that is of widespread interest: can small modular reactors, or nuclear energy in general, help mitigate climate change
