Reply To: Spaceflight?

[Pete Keech]

I think many people miss the big picture on this issue. If the power is as cheap as promised, the cost to consumers will be cheap, regardless of existing institutions. If the NRC or anyone else over-regulates this sort of thing, then Mexico or Canada will build reactors & sell the power cheap… or someone else connected to the US grid. It really doesn’t matter, power is integrated, and the market can only be so crooked… Someone will go for the easy bucks & the people holding it up (utilities or regulators) will be powerless to stop it. An existing example is Hydro Quebec, who generates more than 36 GW of power (mostly hydro), most of it for the US market. Ontario generates a net power annually as well, mostly through nuclear & hydro, and transmits to Michigan and New York, etc. During peak summer demand, Ontario imports (coal) power generated in the US. We have no choice – the market will decide. Canadian provinces (i.e. Quebec) might consider separating to make it happen if the Canadian government is against it or slow, and their provincial government rallies (they’re always a little pissed off at the rest of Canada anyway). In Ontario, anyone can generate power now & the power authority has to give market value for it. Someone will make this happen once it’s possible. If the US or Canada or any European country vetoes the process through inaction, overregulation, etc, their economy will drop off the map through direct competition with those that buy in. You think China will not do this? It will take them 6 months under target to build the first reactor, and the second will be faster yet… How about India? This cat out of the bag will run wild.