Todd Axford’s Post

https://lnkd.in/geZuEggG Replanet Australia Which nuclear fission or fusion? Get in fast, only 250 years of fuel left for fission according to the UN. Yes, they should put them and fission into a museum and bury them when disposable without polluting. Plus, as the UN reports, there is only enough for 250 years at present use and the fission industry wants to triple itself so that leaves 87 years of fuel left. For some 37 countries:- https://lnkd.in/g2VBdUhY. with 438 fission plants. and about to treble the industry says.:- https://lnkd.in/gVaJJJiT Seems unrealistic and uneconomical:- https://lnkd.in/gqBqh2HX Which nuclear fission or fusion? Nuclear power reactors in operation by country 2022 | Statista statista.com Which nuclear fission or Fusion?

Surely modernising the grid to balance inertia and address renewable fluctuations is a more viable solution in Australia than adding nuclear's constant output to the mix. - https://lnkd.in/gvqMu9Fe

A short op-ed piece I did about the energy transition we are all experiencing and the role of nuclear. https://lnkd.in/g7_aZkWK

Surely modernising the grid to balance inertia and address renewable fluctuations is a more viable solution in Australia than adding nuclear's constant output to the mix. - https://lnkd.in/gazWNCKz

St. John, NB is buying #wind power at less than half the price of NB Power's #nuclearpower. Why pay twice the price for nuclear when renewables are a fraction of the cost? Let's #triplewindandsolar and save $billions. #nbpoli #cdnpoli #onpoli #nonewnuclear https://lnkd.in/ghjw6vse

Nuclear power: a "stranded asset". #NuclearPower #WindPower #NewBrunswick #BradCoady #NBPower #JessicaDeLong #RyanMitchell #SaintJohnEnergy #NeqotkukMaliseetNationAtTobique #NaturalForces #BurchillWind "Electricity generated at the Burchill wind farm in Saint John and sold to Saint John Energy in 2023 undercut prices being charged to the municipal utility by N.B. Power by more than half, new figures suggest. It's a discount so deep it has N.B. Power concerned about others making a similar choice to bypass its system, and pricing, in a similar way. "There is an electricity system that needs to be paid paid for," Brad Coady, the N.B. Power vice-president, said last month during an Energy and Utilities Board hearing into the utility's proposed new rates. "To the extent that customers have the wherewithal to escape N.B. Power being their supplier of choice, that causes cost-shifting onto other customers. That's the concern." Saint John Energy will not directly say what it paid last year for electricity coming from the wind farm, claiming the amount to be confidential. Saint John Energy has escaped complete dependence on N.B. Power by purchasing some of its electricity from a wind farm instead. The company's president says the financial benefits have been significant. "The power purchase agreement with Burchill Wind is commercially and competitively sensitive so we will be unable to confirm the price," company spokesperson Jessica DeLong wrote in an email However, the utility has disclosed enough information in bits and pieces over the last several weeks to suggest the price in 2023 was $41 per megawatt hour. Burchill, which is jointly owned by the Neqotkuk Maliseet Nation at Tobique and the Nova Scotia-based wind energy company Natural Forces, officially opened in June 2023. According to DeLong, it sold 76,900 megawatt hours of electricity to Saint John Energy by the end of December 2023. In annual financial statements issued last month Saint John Energy reported that it paid the Burchill Wind partnership $3.15 million during 2023 for its output. Combining those two pieces of information appears to put the price of electricity from Burchill at $41 per megawatt hour. That's less than half the $106 per megawatt hour that N.B. Power charged Saint John Energy for supplying the bulk of electricity used in the city during 2023. ... Those financial benefits come despite Saint John Energy having to spend millions of dollars on new transmission and distribution infrastructure to handle the new Burchill wind supply after N.B. Power declined to allow the electricity onto its own wires, even for a fee. At Saint John Energy's annual general meeting in June, company president Ryan Mitchell said the financial benefits of escaping complete dependence on N.B. Power and its prices have been significant. "The long-term agreement we have in place to buy all of the electricity from the wind farm at a fixed price helps ensure price stability," ..."

“Though windmills and solar panels get the headlines, the big energy topic in Washington is electric transmission. Whether it is Congress’s newfound interest in permitting reform, the U.S. Department of Energy’s new Grid Deployment Office, or the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) upcoming final rule on transmission planning and cost allocation, how to build and pay for long-range transmission to connect generators to customers is considered the final piece in the quest to meet net-zero goals.” Australia like America we have billions of hidden costs not being included by the CSIRO renewables versus nuclear report. Lift the bans Albanese and enable small land footprint nuclear that can use existing coal and diesel sites and interconnectors with reactors that last more than 60 years and don’t blight our land scape and kill our wildlife.

Small nuclear power plants can be built at existing power plant sites, thus eliminating the need for extra transmission. Solar and wind are spread out, making them very hard to connect to the existing grid.

Recent FERC commissioner writes "With public concerns about costs, transmission advocates now argue that more transmission is needed for grid reliability. Yet, the threat of blackouts is the result of the very net-zero policies that now require more transmission. ... New technology, such as small modular nuclear reactors that can be built at existing power plants that already have transmission access, may negate the need for new transmission lines to serve renewable generators." https://lnkd.in/d64J8Du6

Right now, the demand for electricity in Data Centers exceeds what any country can viably produce today or even tomorrow. This article emphasizes that there is no 'Silver Bullet' solution. Even for SNRs (Small Nuclear Reactors), scaling up remains challenging due to various factors, including Technical, Political, and "not in my backyard" issues. #DataCenters #ElectricityDemand #SNRs #EnergySolutions