Dennis Minott | Why these 14 SMR falsehoods?

Citizens, here are 14 misconceptions often promoted about small modular reactors (SMRs) and their feasibility for small island developing states (SIDS) like Jamaica:

1. SMRs are quick to deploy

Falsehood: SMRs can be set up quickly and provide immediate solutions to energy needs.

Reality: SMR projects often face prolonged development and deployment times, with timelines stretching beyond 10-15 years even in nuclear-ready nations. SIDS like Jamaica, which lack nuclear infrastructure, face significantly longer timelines, contrasting sharply with the rapid deployment of solar, farmed biomass, or wind systems.

2. SMRs have competitive levelised costs with renewables

Falsehood: Proponents argue that SMRs will soon be as affordable as renewables.

Reality: Current levelised cost estimates (LCOE) for SMRs range from $380 to $640 per MWh, while renewables like solar, farmed biomass, and wind range between $90 and $134 per MWh. Even optimistic projections show SMR costs significantly higher than renewables for the foreseeable future.

3. SMRs are as proven as those in nuclear submarines and aircraft carriers

Falsehood: SMRs resemble the compact proven as those in nuclear submarines and aircraft carriers reactors used in submarines and aircraft carriers.

Reality: Military nuclear reactors are purpose-designed for enclosed environments and have robust, unique maintenance protocols. These naval reactors operate under controlled environments, funded by defence budgets, and their designs are impractical for civilian land-based applications due to security, cost, and significant scale differences.

4. SMRs will be economically viable for SIDS

Falsehood: SMRs are marketed as a cost-effective solution for small economies.

Reality: High upfront and maintenance costs are a severe burden for small economies like Jamaica. Renewables, by comparison, have lower capital requirements and cost-effective modular setups, which fit more realistically within the constraints of SIDS budgets.

5. SMRs are sustainable and produce little nuclear waste

Falsehood: SMRs produce negligible waste.

Reality: Although smaller than traditional reactors, SMRs must unavoidably still generate hazardous radioactive waste, demanding complex and secure long-term storage, an ongoing unsolved global issue. Waste management challenges would be heightened for an island nation like Jamaica, which lacks suitable disposal infrastructure.

6. SMRs will help Jamaica achieve energy independence

Falsehood: SMRs provide a pathway to energy self-sufficiency.

Reality: SMRs rely on enriched uranium or other nuclear fuels, necessitating importation, creating energy dependence on international suppliers, and exposing Jamaica to global market volatility.

7. SMRs are environmentally friendly

Falsehood: SMRs emit no greenhouse gases and have minimal environmental impact.

Reality: The nuclear lifecycle includes significant carbon emissions from Uranium and other related mining, Uranium fuel processing, transportation, construction, and decommissioning processes on the same globally-warming planet, Earth, that we all inhabit. Renewable options provide cleaner alternatives with fewer environmental risks, particularly important for an ecologically sensitive island environment.

8. SMRs are completely safe and low-risk

Falsehood: SMRs minimise accident risks and are secure.

Reality: Smaller size does not eliminate risks, especially for SIDS facing tropical weather extremes and fault zone seismic events. Hurricanes, severe earthquakes, rising sea levels, and limited emergency resources make the risks of radioactive leaks or environmental contamination unacceptable in island contexts.

9. SMRs support a stable grid and integrate easily with renewables

Falsehood: SMRs work seamlessly with renewables, providing a flexible energy mix.

Reality: SMRs, built for (old and un-smart technology term) so-called “baseload power”, lack the flexibility required by grids incorporating intermittent renewables like solar and wind. They are designed for steady operation and are poorly suited for the fluctuating energy demands typical in an island-based smartly managed renewable grid.

10. SMRs are readily deployable and technologically mature

Falsehood: SMR technology is advanced and available for immediate implementation.

Reality: Most SMRs remain on the drawing board, in prototype, or at pilot phases, with only 3 operational plants which are all three in remote, militarised locations in Russia’s far Northeast and China’s East. Their long-term reliability, safety, and performance data are limited, making them unproven in the practical sense. Little gullible and vulnerable Jamaica would be recklessly among the earliest adopters, with all associated risks faced by our population....not Canada’s immigrant population and first nations...or other forms of life on their vast, 909 times larger, sparsely populated, land territory, let alone, teeming inland waters.

11. SMRs are politically neutral and uninfluenced by geopolitical issues

Falsehood: SMR projects are straightforward investments, unaffected by geopolitics.

Reality: Nuclear development is highly sensitive to international political dynamics, complicating technology transfers, financing, and nuclear fuel supplies. For SIDS with constrained foreign policy leverage, this can pose significant energy security concerns.

12. SMRs are suitable for energy security needs in small islands

Falsehood: SMRs will provide a stable, secure energy source for island nations.

Reality: The centralised nature of SMRs creates a single-point vulnerability, while diversified renewables spread across locations offer a more resilient setup against natural disasters, grid disruptions, and fuel shortages.

13. SMRs will create local jobs and skill development

Falsehood: SMR projects will contribute significantly to local employment.

Reality: Nuclear power jobs require specialised skills unavailable in Jamaica. While construction phases may temporarily employ local labour, long-term jobs would necessitate an influx of foreign nuclear specialists. Renewables, in contrast, create diverse and sustained job opportunities in installation, maintenance, and operations that better match local workforce skills.

14. SMRs align with Jamaica’s net-zero goals

Falsehood: SMRs will help Jamaica achieve a low-carbon future.

Reality: When considering the full lifecycle, including emissions from nuclear waste handling and facility decommissioning, SMRs fall short of net-zero objectives. Solar, wind, biomass, and ocean energy offer more reliable paths toward net-zero with significantly lower environmental impacts over their lifetimes.

For thoroughness, readers also ought to read independent sources about Juraguá, a nearby Cuban village

Many claims about SMRs overlook practical, economic, and environmental realities for Jamaica. The high costs, waste, safety risks, and lack of regulatory preparedness raise questions about SMRs’ appropriateness in Jamaica’s energy mix. Renewables like solar, wind, farmed biomass, and ocean power remain more viable, cost-effective, and sustainable solutions for the island’s future energy independence and resilience.

By the way, Jamaica was the last island of the Caribbean’s Greater Antilles to commission and operate any kind of nuclear reactor, we are not the first at all.

Closely note the chronology, please: Puerto Rico 1965 BONUS, then firmly jettisoned by Puerto Rico’s Parliament, one vote short of unanimously.

Hispaniola: 1968 IRR-1

Cuba: 1983 TRIGA Mark II, then the abandoned and jettisoned Juraguá, despite Rosatom’s SMR offers.

Jamaica: 1984 SLOWPOKE-2

Please see the 1000 plus such research reactors as SLOWPOKE 2 and TRIGA II AT: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nuclear_research_reactors

Thanks Your Grace and other praying people.

Dennis Minott, PhD, is the CEO of A-QuEST-FAIR. He is a multilingual green resources specialist, a research physicist, and a modest mathematician who worked in the oil and energy sector. Send feedback to a_quest57@yahoo.com or columns@gleanerjm.com.