One thing I'd like to mention: I don't think the the model about German renewables + storage is accurate. The German energy plan was always to mostly buffer through the European energy market. Such a German grid would rely on polish coal and french nuclear power for a while, but the argument would be that Poland then imports due to German overproduction and shuts down some plants, thus making Germany's grid carbon neutral on paper. Of course this doesn't work if everybody does it . While i do believe that underwriter certified nuclear would still be cheaper, the fair calculation would be just like your model but using European demand and wind curves.
Today our friends in El Salvador have signed further agreements and policy changes with the iaea in Brussels.
The second message is directly from our man naive bukele
who had the vision to start this process of advanced nuclear powered by thorium energy,
and they chose thorium energy Alliance to help them develop their strategy for deployment last year 2023.
Jack recently wrote about a magical country that chooses to go and do nuclear on their own without being encumbered to the United States of America and the NRC.
and I told him that there was such a country and it's called El Salvador
In a few years El Salvador will reap the rewards for taking this Brave New Direction,
They are going to make all their own electricity, all their own ammonia, and they will make a significant amount of their own transportation fuel all from over 3,000 megawatts of advanced high temp molten salt nuclear.
and they will be the Dubai of Central America.
I'm glad we have had a small part in making that happen.
You'll be happy to know the color thing is dying out - real folks are now trying to just do a straight number grade - 1 to 100, 100% is "All Green", 1% would be something like hydrogen from Coal mined by child slaves . . . .
The biggest cost (by far) for pyrolysis is that over 1/3 of the energy content of the methane is left unused in the carbon.
If we have cheap enough natural gas that we can afford to toss away that much of the energy, it’s also going to be cheap enough that we can afford to get the energy for the pyrolysis from the natural gas in the first place.
What I don't understand is, ok so the licensing in USA is crazy which is basically keeping the cost at the high watermark of other energy sources etc. But why are other nuclear nations acting the same way? There's at least France, Germany, UK, Korea, Japan, China, Russia, India, Canada, Pakistan, Sweden etc that have their own designs, right? Why don't any of them go another way of licensing?
One thing I'd like to mention: I don't think the the model about German renewables + storage is accurate. The German energy plan was always to mostly buffer through the European energy market. Such a German grid would rely on polish coal and french nuclear power for a while, but the argument would be that Poland then imports due to German overproduction and shuts down some plants, thus making Germany's grid carbon neutral on paper. Of course this doesn't work if everybody does it . While i do believe that underwriter certified nuclear would still be cheaper, the fair calculation would be just like your model but using European demand and wind curves.
Great piece thanks Jack. I think you’re correct in saying Methane Pyrolysis will replace SMR production of Hydrogen.
For anyone interested in Methane Pyrolysis there’s a company down under called Hazer Group which uses iron ore as the catalyst with some nice results.
https://youtu.be/550rLiZkEj8
GREAT ARTICLE JACK - Always on point
ALSO:
my folks down in El Salvador just had another ceremony confirming their progress towards becoming a nuclear country,
second tweet is directly from president naib bukele
https://twitter.com/rafaelmgrossi/status/1771211319246508053?s=19
https://twitter.com/nayibbukele/status/1771289908230959445?s=19
Dear Jack Devanney,
And all you great folk interested in new nuclear,
Today our friends in El Salvador have signed further agreements and policy changes with the iaea in Brussels.
The second message is directly from our man naive bukele
who had the vision to start this process of advanced nuclear powered by thorium energy,
and they chose thorium energy Alliance to help them develop their strategy for deployment last year 2023.
Jack recently wrote about a magical country that chooses to go and do nuclear on their own without being encumbered to the United States of America and the NRC.
and I told him that there was such a country and it's called El Salvador
In a few years El Salvador will reap the rewards for taking this Brave New Direction,
They are going to make all their own electricity, all their own ammonia, and they will make a significant amount of their own transportation fuel all from over 3,000 megawatts of advanced high temp molten salt nuclear.
and they will be the Dubai of Central America.
I'm glad we have had a small part in making that happen.
John Kutsch
Thoriumenergyalliance@gmail.com
You'll be happy to know the color thing is dying out - real folks are now trying to just do a straight number grade - 1 to 100, 100% is "All Green", 1% would be something like hydrogen from Coal mined by child slaves . . . .
Are the energies in kWh, not MJ?
The biggest cost (by far) for pyrolysis is that over 1/3 of the energy content of the methane is left unused in the carbon.
If we have cheap enough natural gas that we can afford to toss away that much of the energy, it’s also going to be cheap enough that we can afford to get the energy for the pyrolysis from the natural gas in the first place.
What I don't understand is, ok so the licensing in USA is crazy which is basically keeping the cost at the high watermark of other energy sources etc. But why are other nuclear nations acting the same way? There's at least France, Germany, UK, Korea, Japan, China, Russia, India, Canada, Pakistan, Sweden etc that have their own designs, right? Why don't any of them go another way of licensing?