Even though compared to most others I use AI based apps and programs... a lot, for various mostly amusing purposes... I am the first to point out that the $Trillions being spent on AI server farms is almost a complete waste and a giant scam that will have its bubble burst within the next few years. It is ridiculous and stupid. They will collapse and have less impact on the electric grid than other factors.
As far as when viable commercial nuclear power plants... they are going to be sprouting like weeds all over the world in the next decade. We can either get on board or see a bunch of 3rd world sh@t holes become more successful than us in the future while we flounder away. Their success or failure here is almost completely about politics.
Absolutely true. We need to stop shutting our plants coal, nuke, gas, hydro down, and start recovering any we can. Start building new ones ASAP. I don’t give a damn how we generate steam, thorium sounds good. I qualified on a nautilus prototype. I’ve operated S5W,S5G,and BWR plants. Once the steam leaves the boilers, I don’t care. Saturated or superheat, spin the effing turbine. It takes a hell of a lot of water. There’s a reason gators hang out in the Florida nuke plants circ water discharge and why people fish for catfish in the discharge at Arkansas 1. We need to get going and quit backing up. IMO
I will yield on the technical issues to the freepers with serious chops in the field. But you are right about the politics.
As a political matter, I will be confident that thorium reactors are getting close to commercial viability when the left starts making them the subject of two minute hates at three minute intervals.
The left's goal is control. Managed scarcity and relentless downward levelling are tools to that end. Anything that opens a door to an abundance and opportunity society will be opposed in principle.