Vaclav Smil on Nuclear Power Micro Reactors

I can't recall whether it was Doomberg or Robert Bryce who first drew my attention to Vaclav Smil.

Vaclav Smil educates the reader by explaining how interwoven the use of fossil fuels is with the functioning of modern society. He adeptly discusses the challenges with replacing fossil energy with the current generation of renewables (such as PV, wind, the out-of-favor nuclear, and nearly tapped out hydro) due to the scope of the existing infrastructure. This infrastructure cannot be replaced in a decade or two.
--C. Haynam

This author gives in his book what are the four pillars of our civilisation: concrete, steel, ammonia and plastic. It explains in concrete terms the reasons for that. Also, it demonstrate these four pillars depend heavily on fossil fuel. 
--MathEnthusiast

Václav Smil is a prominent Canadian scientist and policy analyst who has written extensively on various topics, including energy, environment, and technological change. His views on nuclear energy are nuanced and reflect a balanced perspective on its potential and challenges. Here are some of the key points he makes on this important topic.

Potential for Clean Energy

Smil acknowledges that nuclear energy has the potential to provide a significant amount of low-carbon energy, which is crucial for mitigating climate change. He notes that nuclear power generates electricity with minimal direct emissions of greenhouse gases compared to fossil fuels.

Technological and Economic Challenges

Smil points out the substantial challenges associated with nuclear energy, including the high costs of building and maintaining nuclear power plants. He emphasizes the economic difficulties, such as cost overruns and long construction times, which have plagued the industry.

Role in the Energy Transition

Smil sees nuclear energy as part of a broader mix of solutions needed for a sustainable energy future. He argues that while nuclear power alone cannot solve the global energy challenge, it can complement other renewable energy sources like wind and solar to provide a more stable and reliable energy supply.

Here is Professor Smil's website. vaclavsmil.com

He's someone with something to say, and he's saying it. 51 books, 500 papers and more. 

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The Fossil Fuel Reality Check: Here's Why “Eliminate Oil Companies” Is Easier Said Than Done

We hear it constantly: oil companies are the enemy, and the fastest path to a green future is to shut them down yesterday. Yet most of the loudest voices seem unaware of how deeply fossil fuels are woven into everyday materials and processes that even “green” technologies depend on. The uncomfortable truth, laid out clearly by energy scholar Vaclav Smil in Numbers Don’t Lie, is that while solar and wind have matured and can now be added quickly to decarbonize electricity, several massive economic sectors have no realistic non-carbon alternatives that can replace fossil fuels rapidly and at the required global scale.

Consider long-distance transportation. Jetliners run on aviation kerosene; container ships, bulk carriers, and tankers burn diesel, bunker fuel, or liquefied natural gas. There are no batteries or hydrogen systems ready to power these vessels across oceans at the scale of today’s fleet. The same fossil fuels fire the massive rotating kilns that produce more than four billion tons of cement every year and provide the coke needed to smelt more than a billion tons of primary iron in blast furnaces—the very steel used to build wind-turbine towers and monopiles.

Then there’s agriculture and manufacturing. Nearly 200 million tons of ammonia (the backbone of synthetic fertilizer that feeds roughly half the world) and about 300 million tons of plastics start with compounds derived from natural gas and crude oil. Even space heating in much of the world still runs on natural gas. These are not niche uses. They are foundational.

Smil puts the scale in perspective: displacing roughly 10 billion tons of fossil carbon annually is fundamentally different from scaling up smartphones or electric cars. The latter happened in years; the former is a multi-decade challenge. Wishful thinking can't change chemistry or physics. Pretending we can simply “ban” oil companies ignores that the steel in wind turbines, the fuel in cargo ships, the fertilizer in our fields, and the plastics in our hospitals. They all trace back to the same hydrocarbons activists want to eliminate overnight.

Energy transitions are inevitable, but they must be guided by numbers, not slogans. Understanding the full scope of fossil fuels’ roles isn’t climate denial—it’s honesty. Until we acknowledge these dependencies, we’re not solving the problem; we’re just shouting at it.

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