China taking the lead on nuclear power
When discussions turn to decarbonizing energy, the topics typically concern solar, wind, geothermal and tidal energy. But nuclear energy doesn’t generate CO2 during normal operation, either.
“Since Yikpotey had been born, few new reactors had been built on either side of the Atlantic. Competition was fierce for the few opportunities left.
“So Yikpotey looked east. He applied to Tsinghua University, which boasts Beijing’s premiere nuclear research program. It had begun admitting foreigners and offering classes largely taught in English.
“Before going to Tsinghua, Yikpotey had a bad impression of China.
“When I got there, I learned it was not what I was thinking. They are peaceful and clean, and their technology is so advanced,” he told me by phone from Beijing one recent morning.
“In Ghana, we have an energy crisis,” he said. “In China, I never had to go without electricity.”
“China’s nuclear industry is on the leading edge, and the country has been building more reactors than any other.
“The leading reactor the legendary U.S. developer Westinghouse designed in the mid-2000s to be the workhorse of a new American nuclear renaissance? China built four before the U.S. could complete its first two, and went on to reverse-engineer its own, more powerful version.
“The smaller, mass-produced reactors the U.S. was banking on to bring down the cost and time it takes to construct new atomic power stations? China’s first so-called serialized small modular reactor was under development before U.S. regulators approved their first design.
“The cutting-edge reactor technology meant to revolutionize nuclear power by using coolants instead of water, so promising to tech companies like Amazon and Google? China hooked its first such reactor onto the grid last December, vaulting Beijing so far ahead of the West that analysts predicted it would take at least a decade to catch up.
“China is on a clear course to become the world’s first “electrostate.”
China is beating the pants off America in production of electric cars, solar panels and wind turbines. The Trump Administration answer? Culture wars, massive research cuts, cuts to renewables and “drill baby drill” while rescinding America’s global climate promises and hacking away at international agreements.
Meanwhile, China is eating our lunch, and the rest of the world sees it.
China vaulting to first place in nuclear power
“Since Yikpotey had been born, few new reactors had been built on either side of the Atlantic. Competition was fierce for the few opportunities left.
“So Yikpotey looked east. He applied to Tsinghua University, which boasts Beijing’s premiere nuclear research program. It had begun admitting foreigners and offering classes largely taught in English.
“Before going to Tsinghua, Yikpotey had a bad impression of China.
“When I got there, I learned it was not what I was thinking. They are peaceful and clean, and their technology is so advanced,” he told me by phone from Beijing one recent morning.
“In Ghana, we have an energy crisis,” he said. “In China, I never had to go without electricity.”
“China’s nuclear industry is on the leading edge, and the country has been building more reactors than any other.
“The leading reactor the legendary U.S. developer Westinghouse designed in the mid-2000s to be the workhorse of a new American nuclear renaissance? China built four before the U.S. could complete its first two, and went on to reverse-engineer its own, more powerful version.
“The smaller, mass-produced reactors the U.S. was banking on to bring down the cost and time it takes to construct new atomic power stations? China’s first so-called serialized small modular reactor was under development before U.S. regulators approved their first design.
“The cutting-edge reactor technology meant to revolutionize nuclear power by using coolants instead of water, so promising to tech companies like Amazon and Google? China hooked its first such reactor onto the grid last December, vaulting Beijing so far ahead of the West that analysts predicted it would take at least a decade to catch up.
“China is on a clear course to become the world’s first “electrostate.”
China is beating the pants off America in production of electric cars, solar panels and wind turbines. The Trump Administration answer? Culture wars, massive research cuts, cuts to renewables and “drill baby drill” while rescinding America’s global climate promises and hacking away at international agreements.
Meanwhile, China is eating our lunch, and the rest of the world sees it.
China vaulting to first place in nuclear power
Kudos to China for their amazing progress. Their focus on nuclear, wind, and solar is driven as much, if not mostly, by America’s insistence on dominance and hegemony. Control of oil sources and shipping lanes has a critical factor in realizing and enforcing that dominance. By becoming an “electrostate,” China is strengthening its own sovereignty and independence and well as limiting the damage to the climate.
Those wailing about China’s progress should also be decrying the vast US resources, which for decades have been prioritized to “defense” and control and “protection” of fossil fuels. Imagine if those resources had been directed toward climate friendly energy research, development, and investment.
Unfortunately, omerta seems to have silenced public discussion of the downsides of excessive, wasteful military spending and the related opportunity costs.
China took the lead on solar power as well. The CCP still believes in state capacity unlike the West where, ever since the 1980s, belief mystically turned to the demonstrably ineffective private sector. Reagan’s election in 1980 was seminal. The US was going to support its fossil fuel industry rather than developing new technologies like solar and wind. One of the first things Reagan did was take the solar energy system off the roof of the White House.
Just about every modern technology was originally developed by the government. The steam engine was an outgrowth of England’s military need for cannons. Computers were an outgrowth of the US need to tabulate its census. You can go down a long list, but in the 1980s, the West stopped believing in government and we’ve stagnated since. Qian Xuesen must be laughing.