In the first half of this CleanTech Talk interview, Michael Barnard sits down with Paul Werbos, Ph.D. Co-Director of the Center for Intelligent Optimization and Networks, to talk about all things climate change

People saying SMRs are a primary answer to energy generation don't know what they are talking about, actively dissembling or intentionally delaying.

We should think about what the base load is and why it matters.

Shah asserts that large investment in proven transmission and storage is a risky strategy, but unproven SMRs aren't risky. He might be right in the USA.

Shah's perspective is that we don't have the ability to go into Sim City and design whatever we want. We have to work with pre-existing facilities.

Will the small modular nuclear reactor community be able to find an optimized point on the physics vs modularity curve? I don't think so.

Already 2.4 times as expensive as Hinkley. First of a kind, so very likely to double or more in price. Unlikely to be built before 2040.

Wrights Law isn't going to save the deep inefficiencies of SMRs. The world tried tiny nuclear reactors in the 1960s and 1970s, they were too expensive.

The plan includes a big push in Britain for carbon capture usage and storage, floating offshore wind industry, green hydrogen, small modular reactors, insulation of homes, EV charging infrastructure, and heat pumps.

Australia's premier science institution is forced to defend itself against right wing politicians and media distortion.

New SMR technology or not, researchers have thrown cold water on the idea of launching the nuclear energy industry into Australia.

Nuclear has been a bit of a dirty word in the clean technology community, and for good reason. Fears of nuclear meltdown, support for clandestine or latent nuclear weapons programs, and many other valid concerns have been discussed, sometimes to death and…