America Needs Nuclear Energy to Compete with China on e189, david friedberg did a deep dive on the current and future state of energy in the us and china: total capacity: -- today, china has ~3x electricity production capacity (~3 terawatts 🇨🇳 vs ~1 tw 🇺🇸) -- by 2050,... 🇨🇳 anticipates to nearly triple capacity to 8.7 tws vs ~2 in 🇺🇸 cost: -- today, 🇨🇳 is ~3x more efficient vs 🇺🇸 -- 7-9 cents/kwh in 🇨🇳 vs 17-25 cents/kwh in 🇺🇸 -- by 2050, 🇨🇳 expects to decrease cost to ~6 cents/kwh innovation: -- 🇨🇳 just demonstrated its new pebble-bed reactor can pass a “meltdown” test -- 🇨🇳 has 26 reactors in construction with plans to add ~300 david friedberg's take: "China has more electricity production, it's cheaper to make electricity, and it's cheaper to build new capacity." "And they're building at an accelerated rate." "This is why investing in and deregulating nuclear reactor technology in the United States, to enable a competitive playing field with the US and China in the decades ahead, is so critical..." if things stay the same, 🇨🇳 china will be driven by low cost, highly abundant power. 🇺🇸 america will not.show more

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@friedberg This was such an important and timely discussion. We're not going to do it with fossil fuels and solar/wind won' get us there. It's time for the US to go all-in on clean nuclear power.

@friedberg This was the best part of the pod last week. Great stuff.

@friedberg Nuclear energy needs more adoption. It’s the future.

@friedberg I’m just here for The Science Corner! @friedberg was awesome this week.

@friedberg China may have a lead in fusion as well:

it's funny what this guy wants to use government spending for. he's the first one that always wants to cut safety net programs. he gets on his soapbox and whines about how we have to be tough on the poor for the sake of the country. but look how passionate he is about a safety net program for business. I'm sure he is invested in nuclear in some way. I'm with the other host on energy. decentralized energy, rooftop solar, home batteries, virtual power stations. we will innovate our way out of this power issue. let everyday Americans in on the energy business.

Site proposal to initial use will be over 15 years (maybe over 30). Technology like fusion will give us much better options in that time. Add some natural gas peaker plants to get by for now. Use large batteries as a time/energy buffer (shifting supply across the hours of the day). We have the capacity now to product 3x the electricity that we use annually. Battery buffers can bridge a lot of new demand while we work on new tech.

@friedberg reforms needed @NRCgov @ENERGY

@friedberg SCIENCE CORNER WAS FIRE THIS WEEK 🔥🔥🔥