Make things people want (was Why aproofs of concept considered important)

--- In spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com, "hitssquad" wrote:
>
> --- In spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com, b wrote:
> > Electricity production needs to come from multiple sources,
>
> No.
>
> > There are [...] advantages to not having all your eggs in one basket.
>
> ...Then build more than one nuclear power plant, and build reactors of more than one kind. China is doing both of those things:
> http://world-nuclear.org/info/Country-Profiles/Countries-A-F/China--Nuclear-Power/#.UdQgfr7n-M8

Nuclear power is the most expensive power to build on Earth, it is so risky and expensive that Wall Street will not invest in it. The federal government has to take on all the risk in order to get them built and even then we haven't built a new reactor since the 70's. I don't favor closing the current reactors, they should have increased safety regulations though, but new ones should not come online until they are more economical. There are interesting developments in small nuclear reactors and I support continued research as I think there is huge potential but at the moment it is not a good investment.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_small_nuclear_reactor_designs

A carbon tax though would make all fossil fuels more expensive and all alternatives including nuclear, SSP, etc. cheaper in comparison.
Brooks