A convert to the success of small nuclear reactors

From Prof Ferdinand E. Banks.

Sir, The article by Sylvia Pfeifer on the cost advantages of reducing the size of nuclear reactors is more than good – it is brilliant (“Flexible fission”, Analysis, February 15). More important, it will be at the top of my reading list the next time I teach energy economics, and will be mentioned in the first chapter of my new energy economics book.

The idea of – as she says – pursuing economies of scale does not seem to be working any longer, except of course in China. And it works in China because they are in a position to construct large numbers of large reactors in large factories.

That arrangement was also suitable for Sweden three decades ago, when 12 reactors were constructed in 13-plus years, and together with “hydro” gave this country some of the lowest-cost electricity in the world.

Amazing, isn’t it, how the naval success with small nuclear reactors was ignored by those of us whose thinking was corrupted by the hundreds of lectures we presented to both first-year and advanced students that focused on economies of scale?

Ferdinand E. Banks, Uppsala, Sweden