I haven't commented on nuclear energy for awhile, because the industry has been somewhat moribund, particularly in the United States. But I have previously noted that the wealthy Persian Gulf countries who are wealthy mainly because of oil had used some of their wealth to finance the construction of new nuclear power plants.
A milestone was reached this past week as the first of the reactors at the Barakah Nuclear Energy Plant reached criticality and began generating energy. The other three are expected to come online shortly, according to this article.
Now, I have maintained for a long time that this makes a lot of sense, to finance the future with money of the present, especially for the Gulf oil states. They will have a long-range energy future, and have plenty of energy to make freshwater via desalination. And they're going to need both energy and water in the future as their population grows.
So this is a step toward the right direction. I still think the key is a modular "plug-and-play" plant that is as well known to nuclear engineers as the Model T Ford was known to early auto mechanics. Something such as that could be deployed quickly and reproducibly.
And of course, parking lot solar panel fields would help a great deal, too. But I have to find new places to make that argument.
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