China Leading Global Race to Make Clean Energy

New York Times ^ | January 31, 2010 | Keith Bradsher

[WilliamofCarmichael]

It's déjà vu for this old hillbilly.

Nytimese headlines from the past.(as best I can remember).

Josef Stalin leads world to a happy, comfortable future
USSR Leading Global Race to Make Better Future
U.S. falls behind; women, children, and minorities face bleak future here.

[The Great RJ]

The Chinese haven’t made even simple efforts to clean up their own environment, but for a buck will sell worthless windmills and solar panels to the gullible in the west.

[Mike Darancette]

These efforts to dominate renewable energy technologies raise the prospect that the West may someday trade its dependence on oil from the Mideast for a reliance on solar panels, wind turbines and other gear manufactured in China.

And the USA is so stupid we'll forego getting free of ME oil by not developing our own resources and the depend on the ChiComs. Get a grip America.

[ponder life]

Muzzle the environmental activists and lawyers. Get the best nuclear plant design together and use single plan. Plan for breeder reactors to reprocess fuel. Then get the hell out of the way as American companies build 80 to 100 new plants. Stimulus money could have been used a a loan guarantee.

Well, actually, you are right. What has halted American nuclear projects in the past, was a never ending stream of protests that delayed the cost of projects while the utilities continued to pay dividends on the bonds they issued.

Ironically, the scenario you are describing to ensure a hundred reactors are built is playing out in China. China has spent the last 20 years building only 11 reactors. Mainly because they were learning the ropes of building reactors. And they have worked with Westinghouse and France's Framatone for technology transfers. Both Westinghouse and Framatone have agree to license their reactor design (AP1000 from Westinghouse and the EPR from Framatone). China is expected to build anywhere from 160 to 240 reactors over the next 20 years. And I have read that over the next 10 years, China will build more nuclear reactors than the rest of the world combined. There is currently 20 reactors under construction, right now, in China. Most if not all, using either the Westinghouse or Framatone design.