03-28-2012, 09:12 AM
One of the biggest problems to overcome here is that most people & the NRC really frown on building reactors in earthquake prone areas, & most of this county is in the highly probable area for earthquakes....
another issue is the fact that the economics of a reactor build (esp. evolving tech like thorium) are a tad off for this island...most current technology reactors are built for an economic population base & industrial base that are big city scaled. Until the SSTAR reactor prototypes are functional on a production scale, the reactors are not on the power scale of our island (around 100MW) - most would also question bringing the SSTAR tech here, when we do have much more established technology potentials that are under-utilized here (geo-therm, solar/wind integrated & high-head-run-of -stream hydro)
another issue is the fact that the economics of a reactor build (esp. evolving tech like thorium) are a tad off for this island...most current technology reactors are built for an economic population base & industrial base that are big city scaled. Until the SSTAR reactor prototypes are functional on a production scale, the reactors are not on the power scale of our island (around 100MW) - most would also question bringing the SSTAR tech here, when we do have much more established technology potentials that are under-utilized here (geo-therm, solar/wind integrated & high-head-run-of -stream hydro)