Bill Gates thinks he has a key part of the answer for combating climate change: a return to nuclear power. The Microsoft co-founder is making the rounds on Capitol Hill to persuade Congress to spend billions of dollars over the next decade for pilot projects to test new designs for nuclear power reactors.
Gates, who founded TerraPower in 2006, is telling lawmakers that he personally would invest $1 billion and raise $1 billion more in private capital to go along with federal funds for a pilot of his company’s never-before-used technology, according to congressional staffers.
“Nuclear is ideal for dealing with climate change, because it is the only carbon-free, scalable energy source that’s available 24 hours a day,” Gates said in his year-end public letter. “The problems with today’s reactors, such as the risk of accidents, can be solved through innovation.”
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Phoenix666 on Monday January 28 2019, @04:01PM
My problem with nuclear is it's still centralization. You gotta cut a check to someone else to get your electrons. Distributed power generation from wind, solar, and micro-hydro are more appealing. I think I've even read lately that there are fuel cells that can run on methane, which is great because then all those kitchen scraps, lawn cuttings, and fallen leaves can help power the homestead, too, after they're poured into a methane digester.
Generate your own power, distill your own water, grow your own food. That's the green future I'd like to see.
Washington DC delenda est.