Sir, – Every few weeks, you give space to people who promote small modular reactors (SMRs) as a nuclear power option for Ireland. Yesterday, Denis Duff confidently stated SMRs “supply the most reliable and affordable clean energy of all power generation technologies” (Letters, February 14th).
As there are exactly zero SMRs in commercial use worldwide, this is an interesting claim. There are only two prototypes under test, one in Russia and one in China.
Leaving the unproven design and unknown costs aside for a moment, can I ask where we will store the waste produced during the life of the imaginary machine, and the dangerously radioactive elements of the reactor itself when it is decommissioned at the end of its life?
This material is lethal far beyond our lifetimes. If the Romans had the technology to build a SMR instead of the Colosseum, or the Egyptians had constructed one at Giza 4,500 years ago, somewhere we would still have their dangerous radioactive waste to manage. This is not what we should leave to future generations. – Yours, etc,
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FRANK NEENAN,
Carlow.